FUNNY SPORTS QUOTES \ Source: usoc.org

TRACK AND FIELD

Al Oerter The Short List Won gold medals in the discus 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games, setting Olympic record in each First track and field athlete to win four gold medals in the same event Only athlete to set four consecutive Olympic records Did You Know? Became the first thrower to break the 200-foot barrier in 1962 Attended the University of Kansas Began throwing when he was 15 when a discuss landed at his feet and he threw it back past the group of throwers Competed among the world's best throwers until he was 49 Won a gold medal in the 1964 Olympic Games despite torn cartilage around his ribs Is now a painter Worked 26 years as a computer specialist for Grumman Aircraft Corporation In the 1960 Olympics, Oerter had a series of bad throws. His leading American teammate gave him advice, and Oerter won the gold with his fifth throw. "He had a gold medal in his pocket but he was a friend and a great teammate," Oerter told BBC News. Tried out for the 1980 and 1984 Olympic teams and was an alternate in the boycotted 1980 Olympics It's Every Day Oerter maintains a tie to the Olympic movement through Art of the Olympians, a program he founded to give him and other former Olympians who've taken up art to showcase their work. Growing up in New York City, Oerter always had an interest in abstract art but never did anything with it until 1980 -- when he was commissioned to create something in support of the U.S. Olympic team. There was one catch: He had to use a discus. "They said: 'All right, here's a bunch of paint and some canvas, now do something,'" he said. Quote Of his first four Olympic titles, he told ESPN.com: "The first would be the most surprising, the second the most difficult, the third most painful, the fourth most satisfying." ----------------------------------------------------------------

(Qerter died a few years after the original post)

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