ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607290032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: NOTES
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
It took only one event for the Atlanta Games track and field competition to be memorable in at least one nation.
The 20-kilometer walk is the slowest event in Olympic track, but Friday's early race couldn't end fast enough for Jefferson Perez.
The fastest walkman won Ecuador's first medal - in any sport. The South American nation's previous best finish was a fourth place by swimmer Jorge Delgado Panchama in the 200-meter butterfly at the Munich Games in 1972.
Perez, 22, also is the youngest walk winner in Olympic history. He left school to train, and he's been working five hours daily, followed by physiotherapy.
"I am not known by people at home,'' he said, "but I feel the support and love of all of the people in my hometown [Quinca].''
Perez is one of those stories that fits the Olympic ideal. He was the world junior 10-kilometer walk champ in 1992 and Pan American Games titlist in 1995, but placed only 33rd at last year's World Championships.
His winning Olympic time of 1 hour, 20 minutes, 7 seconds was 14 seconds faster than his own national record.
"I was orphaned by my father,'' Perez said with the gold medal hanging around his neck. "My mother cannot work. I have two older brothers at home, but I am the only athlete.''
Ecuador has only 19 athletes at the Atlanta Games.
The only U.S. entry in the 20-kilometer walk, Curt Clausen of Durham, N.C., placed 50th among 53 finishers.
DRAWING POWER: The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games says ticket sales have already exceeded projections, and more than 250,000 seats have been sold at box offices since the Games began.
ACOG's financial projections included $422 million in ticket sales. The $460 million mark has been eclipsed, and track and field, a popular ticket, only began Friday.
ACOG's chief operating officer, A.D. Frazier, also said the local organizing committee has spent $1.2 million replacing broken-down buses, many of which were sent to Atlanta by other localities for use during the Games.
In the first seven days of the Games, Atlanta venues have been filled to about 95 percent capacity.
GAMES FIRST: The power struggle and attempted coup in Burundi has the African nation's Olympic delegation wondering who will be in charge of the nation when they return home.
Burundi has six athletes, all track men, here for the Games. It is the nation's first Olympics. Dieudonne Kwizera, a distance runner, told reporters on Thursday that the Burundi delegation of 12 will stay in Atlanta.
It isn't the first time this situation has happened to Kwizera.
"I remember running in a race in Belgium in 1988,'' he said. "More than 700 people were killed in northern Burundi. After the race, reporters came running to me, and I thought it was because of how I ran, but it was to ask what was happening [in Burundi].''
Burundi team leader Leonard Nduwayo said the team wants to stay and compete "because the war has nothing to do with us ... We are supposed to stay until Aug.6, but if things get worse politically, we may leave early.''
The ethnic battle is between the Hutus and Tutsis.
GRIDLOCK: After a week of relative calm on Atlanta highways leading into downtown, Friday produced not only downtown gridlock, but also long backups on interstates leading into the Olympic Ring.
Olympic officials said that after several days of heeding suggestions to take MARTA trains or buses and not to drive their cars into downtown , more Olympic visitors used their cars.
Weekend traffic exacerbated a situation that also included the start of track and field competition at 83,000-seat Olympic Stadium.
HATS OFF: The Olympic volunteers for the Atlanta Games sport Panama straw hats and security staffers wear straw pith helmets. Both have become valuable for collectors.
On the Games' Info '96 computer system Friday, it was revealed one security person had been offered $1,000 for his headgear. A volunteer at the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center said she has gotten a $500 offer for her straw hat.
Don't be surprised if, on the final days of the Games, some of these personnel are walking around without something on their heads.
HISTORY: The first event in Olympic history will be reprised tonight in the Centennial Games when the men's 100-meter dash takes off at Olympic Stadium.
The first event in the 1896 Games in Athens was the 100 meters, won by Francis Lane of the United States in 12.2 seconds. The world record now belongs to American Leroy Burrell, who ran a 9.85 in 1994 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Carl Lewis has the Olympic mark, a 9.92 at the 1988 Seoul Games.
In the women's 100 meters, Gail Devers of the U.S. is trying to become the first sprinter to win the event in back-to-back Olympics since Wyomia Tyus of the U.S. did so in 1964 and '68.
SALESMAN: Hakeem Olajuwon has led the Houston Rockets to a pair of NBA titles, but his recent signing of a five-year, $60 million contract paled to that of some lesser NBA stars.
Well, the Dream Team member and naturalized U.S. citizen could make up the difference at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta during the Games.
"The Hakeem Store'' has a $5,000 "Hakeem Supreme'' package. It includes two Olympic men's basketball tickets, a pair of Olajuwon's shoes, two autographed T-shirts, two autographed USA caps, two autographed Dream Team jerseys and other collectibles.
There are cheaper deals, too.
THE PREZ: At the International Broadcast Center on Thursday night, few NBCers knew President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, would be interviewed live on the prime-time telecast by Bob Costas.
The Secret Service in the NBC compound gave it away. After the Clintons arrived, NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol's makeshift office in the maze of the IBC served as a waiting room.
"He was sniffing around in my office,'' Ebersol said of the President, "and I think he liked the drawer with the cigars.''
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Ecuador's Jefferson Perez takes his final lap inby CNBthe 20k walk Friday in Atlanta. Perez won the first gold medal for
Ecuador in the history of the Olympics.|