ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608060049
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: NOTES
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
Soon, you'll be able to own a piece of the Atlanta Games - literally.
With the XXVIth Olympiad closing Sunday night, some of the Games will be sold piece by piece. It turns out NBC isn't the only network of the Olympics after all.
QVC will sell some memorabilia to viewers in coming weeks, an ACOG spokesman said. The ``quilt of leaves'' banners that lined venues and streets will be sold through ACOG stores, primarily the ``Super Store'' at Centennial Olympic Park.
ACOG is going to sell the velodrome track used at Stone Mountain Park to a city interested in a permanent cycling facility.
What else is for sale? The Olympic Stadium track on which Michael Johnson and others won gold will be sliced into 100,000 pieces after the Paralympics end Aug.25. That's when the 85,000-seat oval will be partially dismantled to create a new 49,100-seat ballpark for the Atlanta Braves baseball club.
A portion of the Olympic track will be moved to Clark Atlanta University as a gift from ACOG. The rest of it and 36,000 seats removed from the stadium will be sold.
The cheapest piece of track will go for an appropriate price - $19.96 for a framed piece. There's also a $39.96 offer, among others, that will have a piece of track inset with a plexiglass desk organizer.
The track souvenir sale even has a toll free number: 1-888-804-8722.
NAME GAME: The huge stadium has been called the Centennial Olympic Stadium during the Games, but that's just been a temporary designation.
When the Braves take occupancy next April, the ballpark will be the baseball club's to operate, and likely rename. There's plenty of lobbying on the name, too.
Some people want the word ``Olympic'' preserved in the name, others like ``Centennial.'' There's a chance the Olympics won't even be mentioned in the name.
There is huge public sentiment to name the brick-faced converted stadium ``Hank Aaron Park,'' in honor of baseball's home run king, longtime Braves star and executive and Atlanta resident. His boss, Ted Turner, is expected to have the final say on the name.
He wouldn't choose ``Jane Fonda Field,'' would he?
FOUR TIMES: The Atlanta Games obviously are the end of a great era for U.S. athletes.
Until these games, discus man Al Oerter was the only U.S. Olympian to win medals in four different summer games (1956-68). In Atlanta, four athletes joined him: track stars Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, wrestler Bruce Baumgartner and basketball's Teresa Edwards. Each won medals in the games from 1984 in Los Angeles to these 1996 games in Atlanta.
BIGGER: The Olympic Stadium here will be reduced for the Braves, but even during the Atlanta Games it couldn't compare to what Sydney is building for the 2000 Games.
The Australian city will open a 110,000-seat Olympic stadium in 1999. It will be the largest stadium in Games history.
COUNTING: During Saturday night's track and field competition, the U.S. passed the 2,000-mark in medals in the 100-year history of the Summer Games.
The Americans got their 100th medal of the Atlanta Games on Sunday afternoon when David Reid got the gold in boxing.
The U.S. couldn't reach the 108 medals of four years ago in Barcelona. The U.S. had 92 in Seoul in 1988, after the Soviet-boycott skewed 174 in Los Angeles 12 years ago.
The U.S. did top the 37 American golds in Barcelona, but couldn't quite reach the U.S. record of 45 for a full-field Olympics, set in 1924 in Paris and duplicated in 1968 in Mexico City. The U.S. had 83 golds in Los Angeles and 80 at the 1904 St. Louis Games, which were attended by only 12 foreign countries.
MEMORY: The closing day of the Atlanta Games was the 60th anniversary of one of the more poignant moments in Olympic history.
At the Berlin Games, Jesse Owens of the U.S. was going for what would be the first of four gold medals in the long jump. He fouled on his first two attempts.
Prior to his third and final attempt, with Adolf Hitler watching, blond German Luz Long defied the Nazi ideology of racism and recommended Owens back up his mark several inches to play it safe and reach the final.
Owens did that, then beat silver-medalist Long by 71/2 inches. Long then congratulated Owens. ``You can melt down all the medals and cups I have,'' Owens later wrote, ``and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz at that moment.''
Sadly, Long died in 1943 during the Battle of St.Pietro in World War II, but Owens, until his death, continued to correspond with his German competitor's family.
OUT OF HERE: Wrestler Melvin Douglas, beaten 1-0 in overtime Friday by Eldari Kurtanidze of Georgia - the other one - on a controversial decision, didn't sound like most U.S. athletes who have been thrilled to compete in their homeland.
``These are not really Games,'' said the 198-pounder from Mesa, Ariz. ``There's too much politics. The U.S. does not have much power. There are decisions that destroy the dreams of wrestlers.
``It happened to me last year [in the worlds] and it happened to me this year. I was robbed. I go away bitter. This tournament was a lifelong dream of mine. When the Soviet Union broke up, it just made more people out there who are against the United States.''
GOING PRO: Baseball fans in Japan might soon see some of the Cuban players they watched win the gold medal. To help finance the island nation's sports program, Cuba may sell some of its players from the Atlanta Games team to the Japanese major leagues.
The Cuban government would keep about 75 percent of players' paychecks if it happens. The name mentioned most often as heading for the Land of the Rising Sun is talented shortstop Eduardo Paret, and possibly pitcher Omar Luis.
SAME SONG: There's one thing about the Olympics that's no different from other sports events.
At every venue, the song ``YMCA'' brought the loudest and most physical crowd reaction.
A MESSAGE: The best T-shirt seen at the Games by one pair of eyes didn't have an Olympics logo. It had two words on the front:
Terrorism Sucks.
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by AP.by CNB