So There Was That Time The Olympics Were In Los Angeles...

The Games Of The 23rd Olympiad.

1984. The Olympic games came to Los Angeles. The Russians stayed home as a pay back for the United States skipping the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.....yes, people....that was how the cold war was fought....we skipped each others Olympics out of silly spite (ok, there were political reasons, but still...)

I was lucky enough to be living in Los Angeles and I went to a few of the events. We saw the torch marathon which seemed to pass through every major city in America and every city in the Los Angeles area. I mean, literally, every city seemed to have a day that the torch was being carried through it on its way to the games....which were very close to the center of the city. We attended the marathon, which was basically my family standing on the same corner we watched the torch pass by....watching marathoners pass by. I also went to an afternoon of field hockey (sort of exciting) and the soccer final in the Rose Bowl (France beat Brazil) which was really exciting...unless you were cheering for Brazil and more than half the crowd was!!! The french fans sure loved the final score.

These were the only Olympics in modern memory that was profitable and, by most accounts, were very well organized and very easy to attend. Considering how many different venues there were, in so many different areas of the city, it was universally praised as a successful games. Unless you were McDonalds. They put on a scratcher contest where every time an American athlete won a gold medal and you had that sport listed on one of the scratch off tickets, you won a Big Mac or a coke or french fries........McDonalds was nearly financially ruined but they made fans of most of America by providing free food for most of the country for those two weeks.

But you can't deny that having the Olympics in the hometown of Television and Movies wasn't going to make for a great match. The story lines were compelling and everything looked epic. From the Torch lighting in the Coliseum, to Carl Lewis winning four track and field gold medals, to Marylou Retton winning the women's all-around gold in gymnastics....a first for a non-european gymnast.

Maylou was the darling that year. She seemed to be a permanent smile with legs and a non-stop bundle of energy. She needed a perfect 10 on the vault to win the gold and she got it.....and then she used her second vault (which she didn't need to do) and also scored a perfect 10. Its a fun moment and I recommend you watch it below.......Go Team USA!!!