What's the earliest Olympic Games you can remember watching?
By umart13
@umart13 (841)
Ireland
July 15, 2008 9:43am CST
Hi! My first Olympic games on TV was The Montreal Olympics from 1976. Back then we were in the middle of the Cold War and it was the competitions bewteen the USSR, GDR, The USA and the new surprise package The Romanians, which added a certain spice to the whole thing. What do you remember? Which year do you remember and what athletes, gymnasts and other sports people took part?
Thanks in advance.
UMart
2 people like this
7 responses
@DCMerkle (1281)
• United States
18 Jul 08
I think the earliest games were Mexico in 1968. I even had a commemorative set of coins and stamps. What year was it that we lost the weight lifting team to the terrorists? I remember that, but not sure if that was the same year for the Mexican games.
DCMerkle
1 person likes this
@umart13 (841)
• Ireland
18 Jul 08
Hello DCMerkle. The Mexico Olympics were indeed in 1968. The year that the members of the Israeli Weightlifting team were killed by the terrorists was 1972 in Munich. You probably remember the both of them. 1968 was the long-jump record from Bob Beamon. 1972 was an incredible year as it was the year of the smiling Russian gymnast Olga Korbut; the year Mark Spitz won 7 Gold medals; Lasse Viren did the 5000m and 10000m double; and the USA lost the Basketball Final in the most controversial final ever played. The silver medals remain to this day in a safe in Switzerland.
All the best from Germany.
Umart
@snowy22315 (171170)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I remeber the mexico city olympics in 1968, I;m old huh? Anyway it was very exciting and I would often pretned I was an OLympic athlete after watching that.
My atheletic gifts are fairly modest, I dont think the Olympics were ever in my future. A kid can dream though.
1 person likes this
@umart13 (841)
• Ireland
16 Jul 08
Hello snowy 22315, Well I have to say that you are now running in Gold Medal position :-) Mexico is certainly the oldest Olympics we have heard mentioned so far. Lucky You! You were a witness to the most astounding moment in Olympic history when Bob Beamon broke the world long-jump record jumping 29 feet 2 and a half inches. Nobody had even been over 28 feet before that. It took 23 years for Mike Powell to break the record. All the best from UMart.
@Angelwriter (1954)
• United States
15 Jul 08
I'd have to say the 1992 Summer games in Barcelona. I might have seen an earlier Winter Olympics, but I don't remember. I started getting into gymnastics (just as a viewer) right after the 88 games. The only thing I really watched was the gymnastics, and I remember that a lot, because I was a huge fan of the American gymnast Kim Zmeskal, and I was heartbroken when she didn't even come close to medaling individually (although in the team competition, she had the highest score of every single gymnast on the second night). I think 92 was the last time a gymnast was able to score a perfect 10. Lavinia Milosovic, a Romanian, and another favorite gymnast of mine, was the one who got the last 10.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (85974)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I was born in 1981, and the first Olympics I remember watching were the 1992 winter Olympics in Oslo. I think the events I most remember watching were the skiing events. I thought they were so interesting, everyone going so fast, barely missing the time to beat by like a tenth of a second. It was amazing to realize how good these athletes were, and how close they all were in time. And just a small margin of less than a second could separate someone from first to fifth place.
@umart13 (841)
• Ireland
16 Jul 08
Hello AmbiePam. Thanks for dropping in. I am amazed you were only born in 1982. If you have a score of 9912 then you joined MyLot.com very young :-) The Winter Olympics were in Albertville in 1992. The highlights were the Jamaican Bobsled team, later featured in the Cool Runnings film with John Candy. That was a crazy idea they had! The other not-so-nice thing was that the British amateur skiier Eddie the Eagle was not allowed to compete, although he'd competed in 1988, because the Olympic committee introduced the rule that you had to be in the top 50 in your event... That is a stupid rule, e.g. if that was the rule in tennis then the Williams sisters would not have been able to make a comeback in tennis.
All the best from Germany
UMart
@poohgal (6845)
• Singapore
21 Jul 08
For me, it's the 1992 Olympics. It was held in Barcelona. It was the first time the Dream Team from NBA was allowed to represent USA. Legendary players like Larry Bird,
Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, and Scottie Pippen were playing. It's one of the greatest moment in Olympics. 
@zeroflashx2 (2491)
• Philippines
15 Jul 08
I can hardly remember but the first time I've watched was 1988 seoul olympics. It was about a year before that when I was into basketball and I've watched local basketball leagues as well as the NBA. I was curious about the Dream Team, and at that time, they really live up to its name. Very few came close. It was more of an eye opener for me since it was the first time I've seen some events such as gymnastics, swimming and some of the track and field events.
Since then, I always watch the olympics and I watch out for the events I like especially those where our country's athletes are participating in. And I really like it when someone breaks the records for that event. Most noticeable are track and field and swimming.
@umart13 (841)
• Ireland
15 Jul 08
Hi zeroflashx2. Thanks for your response. I remember the Seoul olympics. It was meant to be the Games that removed the politics again, after the boycotts of the Olympics in Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984. However, the biggest thing about that Olymics was Ben Johnson winning the 100m and smashing the world record. He was found to have taken a banned substance and sent home in disgrace. Carl Lewis was awarded the medal. Many people think still that it was very political that Johnson was stripped of the medal. For years to come people would say that Lewis too and many others also took banned substances.
I remember two things clearly about the Dream team. One was that Jack Nicholson used to go to all their games and there was a moment that he saw the camera looking at him and he looked up and gave one of his classic grins at the camera.
Second was the final against Croatia, who had a brilliant team, but all the croatians started laughing when the Dream Team substituted their entire team during the game, took off legends like Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Pat Ewing, and Magic Johnson and Karl Malone. Then they replaced them with Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, John Stockton and Michael Jordan. It was brillant!All the best from Germany
UMart
@fmuldowney (139)
• Ireland
16 Jul 08
I have an excuse Mart, after 1985 I dont remember much ;-) However there is a new moment we must look ahead at the Olympics. One of the Peelo family members will be holding the Irish flag at the opening ceremony at the 2008 Olympics. Clare emailed me and it is her cousin , the sailor, has be picked to hold the flag. Neat isn't it.
Anyway longest thing I remember was the races in Russia, where the Moscow Olympics was boycotted. Not much else I remember.
Frank
@umart13 (841)
• Ireland
16 Jul 08
Hi Frank. We will have to give you videos of all the old Olympic Games, so you can relive them all. Lucky you! Well that is a surprise about the Peelos. It's really cool! I remember the 1980 Olympics in Moscow well. The mascot was Micha The Bear. The US boycotted the games. It was Nadia Comaneci's last Olympics and she was no longer a little girl but a young woman and added 2 golds and 2 silvers to her tally. My star of these games was the Russian Yelena Davydova who won the allround gymnastics medal. I missed World Champion Jelena Moukina, who was not there after suffering a paralysing injury beforehand. Daley Thompson won the Decatlon and Steve Ovett and Seb Coe took the 800m and 1500m respectively.
See ya. Mart
