THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608050120
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: OLYMPICS
From Atlanta
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 68 lines
On Day 2 of the Centennial Olympics, I was watching men's gymnastics - you've got to be somewhere, right? - when I struck up a conversation with a British newspaper writer from The Independent of London.
``So,'' the Brit asked after awhile, ``what do you suppose will be your country's SNE?''
Our what? I said.
``SNE,'' he said. ``Shared national experience. Isn't that the appeal of the Olympics? That they provide shared national experiences?''
I suppose it is. Without a few SNEs sprinkled in along the way, the Summer Games are just a lot of splashing and jumping and running and heavy breathing (with NBC doing the heaviest).
I thanked the Brit for alerting me to the importance of SNEs and realized I had already overlooked America's first: Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame.
You can't define an SNE, but you know it when you see it. Or when you're reminded to look for it. Ali's presence in Olympic Stadium qualifies. It stirred America.
Chronologically, Ali was Shared National Experience No. 1. Sadly, the pipe bombing at Centennial Park was the SNE that left the biggest impression on America and the world.
The terrifying explosion in downtown Atlanta was felt in homes throughout America, where only a few nights before families had marveled at an Olympic bombshell of a different sort.
Kerri Strug is the waif who would not waffle, not even on a wrenched ankle.
Now she is Kerri Strug, ``The Money Store,'' soon coming to a town near you in the U.S. gymnastics team's Get Rich Over America Tour.
Strug is the quintessential Olympic celebrity: the pixie gymnast. But if these were the Women's Olympics, the Gender-Equity Games, it was because of the impact of less-traditional female Olympians - the gold-medal winning American teams from soccer, softball and basketball.
Great job. But winning gold is not enough to rate SNE status. It helps if your magic moment is captured in one frame or in a few feet of video that TV can run with the frequency of a beer commercial.
If Strug's vault is frozen in America's memory, so is Michael Johnson's stunning victory in the 200. Johnson, the premier American runner, cut through the baloney of track and field when he blew away the world's best competition. His record-breaking performance of 19.32 seconds created another Shared National Experience.
The bomb. Ali. Strug and Johnson. The list of SNE's ends there, though this is open to interpretation.
Anticipating SNEs is an inexact science. Swimmer Amy Van Dyken became the first U.S. woman to win four gold medals in one Olympiad - Winter Games included. Why then does her celebrity already begin to fade? Check back in two weeks and America won't know Amy Van Dyken from Dick Van Dyke.
It's harder for an American Olympian to make a lasting impression on the country; the U.S. is jaded by an abundance of great athletes.
But imagine, if you can, the intensity of the SNEs felt by small nations unaccustomed to winning medals.
Consider the reception awaiting Jefferson Perez, who claimed gold for Ecuador in the 20-kilometer racewalk. In the entire history of his country, no man or woman had ever returned from the Games with a medal. ``Miracle of the century,'' the Ecuadorans called it.
America is introduced to a Kerri Strug or Michael Johnson every four years. For a country like Ecuador, and many others, this SNE business is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.
National experiences are wonderful things. But the Olympics can be an even better show for those open to the idea of a Shared Global Experience. by CNB