Print | Send to friend | Email update

Jun 25, 2008
By Keith Quinn

The third in the series here about the seven summer Olympics Keith has broadcast from from 1972-2004. In August 2008 Keith will be reporting for TVNZ at his eighth games.

1984 in Los Angles was Keith Quinn's third Olympic Games and in Part Three of a Three part series Keith recalls a games that saw much success for New Zealand and saw them out Gold the Australians.

Quinn: Memories of LA - part one

Quinn: Memories of LA - part two

Of course LA is remembered as the Games of another political boycott. This time it was in retaliation for the protests started by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 against USSR invading Afghanistan. Many countries and TV networks had boycotted Moscow.

By then we were sick of political interference with the Olympic ideals but what could we do? Just hope for the future I guess.

These were the Games of track stars like Carl Lewis, Daley Thompson, Sebastian Coe and Joan Benoit who had a magnificent win in the first-ever women's marathon.

For New Zealand there was the great sight of John Walker carrying the flag in on opening day. He was not able to retain his 1500 metres title from eight years earlier.

He chose instead to contest the 5000 metres. He ran three times, in heats, semis and the final, going quicker each time but only managed 8th in the final. It was his last appearance at the Olympics, though he did carry on and race at the Commonwealth Games, until 1990 in Auckland.

The LA games for New Zealand, racked up a handsome total of gold medals.

In all eight golds were won in rowing, canoeing, equestrian and yachting. Some wag said afterwards, "we only win in events where we either sit down or go backwards." That has stuck as a summary of New Zealand's performances.

It also pleased New Zealanders very much that our athletes won twice as many gold's as Australia did (our eight to their four).

We liked that. We never spoke loudly that even though the country loved the victories of Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald in the canoeing, overlooked was the fact that many of the world's best canoeists, from Eastern Europe were absent because of the boycott. Still, our guys were there so they do deserve the glory of history.
 
The one other significant thing I remember about those games was the spread, for the first time, because of the excellence of our coverage, of selection of events to other networks.

TVNZ on-sold its signal and when it was appropriate, its English commentary to other member countries of the Asian Broadcast Union (the ABU). So we had liaison in our studios with producers and technical staff from China, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and others.

They took our coverage. Little TVNZ proudly proclaimed, "we were broadcasting for two-thirds of the world's population." And that was essentially true. China eventually won 15 gold medals, eight silver and nine bronzes. We enjoyed seeing their excitement first hand.

From the close presence of the Chinese production staff came one of my favourite Olympic stories. One day we asked Brendan Telfer, the excellent broadcaster of long standing who you hear on Radio Sport these days, to make a news item about the People's Republic of China taking our selection of events.

It was to air on to a massive TV audience on the Games Opening ceremony day.

The ever-resourceful Telfer took a camera into our studio and had some shots taken of Chinese production staff, as they bustled about. Then he stood in front of a large poster on the wall, on which were rows and rows of perpendicular Chinese letters. Said Telfer to the camera, "yes, behind me on the wall we are proud to show you the Olympic Games production schedule which the Chinese producers will be working from every day."

When that story played on the air, the English-speakers among the Chinese staff cracked up with laughter. "No its not," they chuckled, "that poster is the menu from the excellent Chinese restaurant we have found down the street!"

So the LA Games are not all bad memories just of a shabby hotel. We did have fun times in that city too, all part of the great experiences of life each Olympics have offered. Afterward the closing ceremony Kevin Cameron collapsed for nearly 24 hours of solid sleep, He deserved it for his gold medal performance. I wonder if he has ever eaten cashew nuts since!

Me, I checked into a decent downtown hotel for a week and roomed with the newscaster Bill McCarthy. We had a shower and a bath. So we sensibly stacked the bath full of beer and settled in for some decent R and R.

Yes I recall the Los Angeles Olympics well; we worked hard it's true, though the last week on holiday there does tend to be a bit hazy to recall!

And trust me, though our hotel's friendly deaf-mute prostitute winked at every man in our TVNZ team every day, I am sure no one ever availed themselves of her services!