Less Than Goodwill Games

By Tom Callahan

In defiance of the American television networks, against the wishes of much of the amateur athletic world and without the blessing of the Reagan Administration, Atlanta Yachtsman and Cable TV Impresario Ted Turner has thrown himself a Moscow Olympics complete with flags, anthems and accusations of cheating. To the strains of dueling boycotts, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. had been avoiding each other on the playground for ten years until last week. Opening the Goodwill Games, Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev referred to "the lurking catastrophe" and "the dangerous race toward the abyss" in his cheerful welcome to some 70 nations, not including Israel or 1988 Olympics host-designate South Korea. "They dodged the bullet on Israel," said Robert Wussler, executive vice president of Turner Broadcasting, "using this excuse, that excuse. They were much more direct on South Korea. They just said no." With so much goodwill in force, it certainly seemed like the Olympics.

The most serene athlete on hand was Soviet Pole Vaulter Sergei Bubka, 22, who twanged himself 19 ft. 8 3/4 in. into the brief Russian night, the highest anyone has ever flown on a swizzle stick. Immediately, Americans started questioning chemistry. "He's souped-up," said Earl Bell, who finished third. Fourth-Place Vaulter Mike Tully allowed, "He's the best athlete in the world, but he has edges. It all comes down to the doctors: it may be they've figured a way to get around the drug testing. He's not a normal athlete; he's not a normal person. Maybe the kid just isn't normal." (Soviet officials denied that Bubka had taken drugs before competing.)

This became the tenor of the track meet. Sprinter Carl Lewis, the quadruple gold medal man of 1984, said, "The Russians just cheat." Reminded that it was a Jamaican from Canada (Ben Johnson) who dusted him in the 100 -- for the second time this year, incidentally -- Lewis reasoned, "They'll try to help anyone beat us." When a confusion of 1,500-meter heats turned Steve Scott's silver to bronze, he grumped, "It's an asinine way to do things, but that's the Soviet Union." For welcome counterbalance, Regal Hurdler Edwin Moses extended his nine-year winning streak to 111 races; Cheryl Miller led the U.S. women's basketball team to an 83-60 victory over the Soviets; Dasher Evelyn Ashford, 29, held off East Germany's Heike Drechsler, 21, for another day; Jackie Joyner became the first U.S. woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias to hold the world record in a multiple-discipline event.

Turner has been saying "The whole idea was to get East and West into the same swimming pool," and that turned out to be one of the sweetest venues. When New Jersey Freestyler Sean Killion, 18, beat the great Vladimir Salnikov in a 400-meter race, Killion blinked and said, "I have a picture of him on my wall at home." Eight years between losses in the 800 or 1,500, Salnikov announced he would break his 800 record and did. "He's the greatest swimmer in history," said TV Commentator Rowdy Gaines, who enjoyed a golden Olympics two years ago in Los Angeles but still considered 1980 his lost prime.

For a number of retired athletes, brought along as "goodwill ambassadors," being in Moscow produced a bittersweet sensation. "The hardest part for me," Gaines admitted, "was walking into the swim stadium for the first time. Immediately, I looked at Lane 4, the lane for the fastest qualifier, and slowly my eye went back and forth, back and forth." Like dreamy children, the swimmers Gaines and Steve Lundquist, the basketball player Ann Meyers, the triple jumper Willie Banks, among others, spoke in favor of peace at an extraordinary press conference whose subjects ranged from a reunion of the Apollo-Soyuz spacemen to a statement delivered on behalf of the Athletes-Against-the-Bomb Rugby Tour. Sighed Banks: "All my life I've wanted to do something important."

So has Turner, 47, victorious skipper of the 1977 America's Cup, long- suffering proprietor of the Atlanta Braves baseball and Hawks basketball teams and minor-league historian. "When I was a kid, I read a lot," he recalls. "History was my main subject." An adventurer "working outside official circles," he puts himself in mind of Alexander the Great, though he can also go on about Lord Nelson and Jiminy Cricket. "Who is this Jiminy Cricket?" inquired a Soviet journalist last week, and the man's eyes grew at the rate of Pinocchio's nose when he heard Turner explain, "Jiminy Cricket was a conscience of a little wooden boy . . ."

On an earlier trip, at ease among his Iron Curtain allies, Turner visited Soviet Georgia and went climbing and hunting in the distant Caucasus. He shot a mountain goat; its stuffed head is decorating his hotel suite. So far, this is Turner Broadcasting's only tangible trophy. In a unified show of indifference, except for the gala opening ceremony, Muscovites have matched American television audiences, empty seat for measly rating point. Once Turner hoped to make $20 million or $30 million on his inaugural games, but now he expects to lose $10 million or $15 million. "Moscow's just not a great sports town," Turner has decided. "Kind of like Atlanta."

His kindest phrase for the ratings is "quite a bit off projections." But there is another week, and, in gold medals at least, the U.S.S.R. (43) and the U.S. (31) are in moderate range of each other. "I've always been an optimist," the American Georgian said, and proved it again while coming away from a visit to the Lenin Mausoleum. "A little pale," he exulted, "but looks great." Furthermore, Seattle has been selected to host the second quadrennial festival in 1990. In the meantime, Turner will busy himself with documentaries on both the Soviet Union and disarmament. "In the U.S., we're saying things like, 'They're an evil empire and a bunch of bums,' " he chided, "and we don't even know them. To keep from blowing ourselves up, isn't this worth a shot? Can't hurt." After deep thought, he added, "Not just ourselves, what about the elephants?" What about the mountain goats?