Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 6, 1993 TAG: 9301060115
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. LENGTH: Medium
USOC HONORS BLAIR, MORALES
They were supposed to be too old to be Olympians, let alone Olympic winners. Yet, speedskater Bonnie Blair and swimmer Pablo Morales each won two gold medals in 1992, and those feats earned them further honors Tuesday.Blair and Morales, both 28, were voted the U.S. Olympic Committee's Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year.
Blair became the first American woman to win the same event at two consecutive Winter Games when she took the 500 meters at Albertville, then added the gold in the 1,000. She won gold in the 500 and bronze in the 1,000 four years earlier, at Calgary.
Morales came out of retirement to win the 100-meter butterfly and swim on the winning men's 400-meter medley relay team at the Summer Games in Barcelona.
Both find themselves fending off ever-younger opponents as they ponder their competitive mortality, and both admit feeling the years.
"I can tell I'm getting a little older," Blair said. "I find little nagging things affecting me. I have to be more careful in my training, and physical therapy takes a little bit longer."
However, Blair isn't ready to surrender to the aches and pains, however. She will compete in one more Olympics - the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway.
Had the Olympic movement not switched to two-year intervals between the Winter and Summer Games, Blair might be finished, but with the next Winter Olympics only two years after Albertville, Blair decided last June to take another shot.
Morales says he is less likely to compete in another Olympics.
"My goal last year was to get to Barcelona and give the gold medal a shot," Morales said. "I have put law school on hold for a couple of years now. I'm eager to get back to that."
In balloting by journalists and USOC officials, Morales, of Santa Clara, Calif., received 1,191 points to 1,060 for runner-up Kevin Young, who won the men's 400-meter hurdles in Barcelona.
Among women, Blair, from Champaign, Ill., edged figure-skating gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi in the closest voting since the award began in 1974. Yamaguchi had more first-place votes, 48-45, but Blair had more points, 1,257-1,254.