Friday, August 20, 2004

Human Drama

I have some Eli 3.0 stories coming later today, but in the meantime I'm going to share this Sports Illustrated letter to the Editor with you. SI has a 'Catching Up With' feature where they let you know what ex-superstar athletes have done with their lives. A few weeks ago, Vasili Alexeyev was the featured athlete.

For many of you, that name brings back a flood of memories. Alexeyev was a super heavyweight weightlifter from the Soviet Union who symbolized Soviet power during the Cold War. He was larger than life, won two Olympic gold medals, and was probably the only weightlifter in history who approached rock star status. His strength was unbeatable, even unfathomable, and he is surely one of the most memorable characters in Olympic history.

Here's the letter:
Vasili Alexeyev was the source of one of my family's favorite stories. One day as we were watching a weightlifting competition on TV, Alexeyev stepped onto the floor to attempt a prodigious lift, and my son, then about four, said "Look, Mom, there's Human Drama!" It took a minute, but we finally realized that every week when Jim McKay introduced ABC's Wide World of Sports, he spoke of "the human drama of athletic competition" just as Alexeyev's image appeared on the screen. We still laugh at the memory and often wondered what happened to Human Drama.
Carla Stewart

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