It took the 1984 U.S. Olympic swimming team less than a minute to win its first two gold medals.
In the first swimming event of the Los Angeles Games, the 100-meter freestyle, American teammates Carrie Steinseifer (now Steinseifer Bates) and Nancy Hogshead each touched the wall in 55.92 seconds, setting the first time in Olympic swimming history that anyone had done so in that time.
“It made the gold medal seem even more valuable,” Hogshead said. “It was like double gold.”
“It was really special to be able to share this with other Americans,” Steinseifer Bates said.
The 2-1 gold medal victory marked one of the most dominant swimming competitions in Olympic history. Always a powerhouse in the pool, the USA swept the medal podium at the first Summer Olympics held in the country in 52 years, winning 20 of the 29 events. Seven Americans, including Steinseifer-Bates and Hogshead, won three gold medals each, making it truly a team effort.
Ironically, this 1984 American surge was partly driven by the country’s decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics.
“I don’t know if I would have competed in the 1980 Olympics or the 1984 Olympics,” Hogshead said. “I really thought 1980 would be the end of my swimming career.”
But after President Jimmy Carter announced the U.S. would not participate in the Moscow Games, Hogshead decided to continue training at Duke University, something that might not have been possible without the introduction of Title IX just a few years earlier.
“Thank you, Title IX,” said Hogshead, who has spent much of her post-swimming career defending the law as a civil rights attorney.
Can’t see the graphic? Click here to view it.
Tracey Caulkins Stockwell also won three gold medals in 1984, including two in the individual medley, but a boycott denied her the opportunity to do the same in 1980, which in hindsight may have been a blessing: she met her husband, Australian swimmer Mark Stockwell, at the Los Angeles Games.
“If I had gone in 1980, would I have had the drive to go in 1984?” Stockwell says. “And would I have met my husband? It’s funny how things work out the way they do.”
Steinseifer-Bates was only 16 at the time of the Los Angeles Games, so she didn’t experience the pain of the boycott, but she saw the determination of her older teammates, whose dreams had been postponed for four years, form the backbone of the 1984 U.S. onslaught.
“There hasn’t been an Olympic team like this since,” Steinseifer-Beitz said, “and unless we get into a boycott situation again, there may never be one like this again.”
Zoe Grossman contributed to this story.
