After 60 years, Olympians are fast friends again
source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/22/whitfield.remembering48/index.html
-
-
- ivxx
- added this
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Thousands of miles from his life in California, Mal Whitfield is feeling at home again.
n a garden setting on a beautiful Beijing evening, Whitfield is being reunited with Olympic teammates from the days when he flew around the cinder track, winning five medals for the United States in 1948 and 1952.
Whitfield has trouble walking these days, and he spends most of his time in a wheelchair. It doesn't make him slow, just slower. He's still got plenty of energy in his 83-year-old body.
On the drive over to the Olympians Reunion Center, all he wants to talk about is how much Beijing has changed for the better since his State Department assignment here in the early 1980s.
Just inside the gate to the Prince Jun Palace, he pauses to take in the scenery, wanting to get some photos.
"It's so beautiful," he keeps saying. "Beijing is so beautiful now."
He's soon surrounded by friends from the 1948 Olympics of London and some from more recent times.
Whitfield has been worried that no one would recognize him. He wears his blue jacket with the red "USA" on the back from his track days to help the others remember. It turns out to be unneeded.
Video at link...
n a garden setting on a beautiful Beijing evening, Whitfield is being reunited with Olympic teammates from the days when he flew around the cinder track, winning five medals for the United States in 1948 and 1952.
Whitfield has trouble walking these days, and he spends most of his time in a wheelchair. It doesn't make him slow, just slower. He's still got plenty of energy in his 83-year-old body.
On the drive over to the Olympians Reunion Center, all he wants to talk about is how much Beijing has changed for the better since his State Department assignment here in the early 1980s.
Just inside the gate to the Prince Jun Palace, he pauses to take in the scenery, wanting to get some photos.
"It's so beautiful," he keeps saying. "Beijing is so beautiful now."
He's soon surrounded by friends from the 1948 Olympics of London and some from more recent times.
Whitfield has been worried that no one would recognize him. He wears his blue jacket with the red "USA" on the back from his track days to help the others remember. It turns out to be unneeded.
Video at link...
-
- tags:
- Olympics, Beijing, Beijing Olymics, Olympians
