News16 Sep 2006


NYAC honours Olympic legend Al Oerter

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Among Olympic gold medalists who gathered at the New York Athletic Club on October 11th, 2006 to honor Al Oerter were Otis Davis, Bob Beamon, Jenny Thompson, Pat McCormick, Horace Ashenfelter, Tom Courtney, Ray Lumpp, Charley Moore ands Ollan Cassell. (© Victah Sailer / Photo Run)

On Wednesday, October 11th, 2006, the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) will host a gala evening in honour of one of its most celebrated members, Al Oerter. The occasion will be the 50th anniversary of Oerter’s gold medal winning performance at the Olympic Games of 1956, held in Melbourne, Australia.

Established in 1868, the New York Athletic Club was a seminal force in the organization of the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee and the US Olympic Committee. Since its founding, the Club has accumulated 213 Olympic medals. It is fitting, therefore, that Oerter, among the most iconic of Olympic figures, competed for the NYAC, even from his earliest days as a promising schoolboy competitor from Nassau County, Long Island.

The athletic world knows that Oerter’s 1956 victory, in the discus throw, was the first step along a glorious path that would install him among the pantheon of Olympic heroes. In the subsequent three Games - Rome in 1960, Tokyo in 1964 and Mexico in 1968 - Oerter was peerless, successfully defending his Olympic crown and becoming the first athlete in history to claim a gold medal in the same event in four successive Olympic Games.

On each occasion, he also improved the Olympic record. (NB: Carl Lewis subsequently emulated Oerter’s feat, winning the long jump in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996).

Oerter, now 70, has suffered with serious heart trouble in recent years, but he is as passionate about his new avocation - painting - as he was about re-writing the definition of athletic excellence. Not surprisingly, he successfully marries sport and art. He has created some of his works by throwing a discus across a canvas. Oerter’s creations have been displayed in Germany, Denmark, Greece and South Africa, as well as across the USA. He is also a founder of Art of the Olympians, a program that provides a forum for current and former Olympians to present their art.

The “Olympic Evening” at the New York Athletic Club will see a host of athletic luminaries gathering to pay tribute to a track and field legend. Among those expected to attend are Lindy Remigino (Olympic gold medal, 100m and 4x100m, 1952), Horace Ashenfelter (Olympic gold medal, 3000m steeplechase, 1952), Charlie Jenkins (Olympic gold medal, 400m and 4x400m, 1956), Bruce Baumgartner (Olympic gold medallist, wrestling, 1984 and 1992), Tom Courtney (Olympic gold medallist, 800m and 4x400m, 1956), Charlie Moore (Olympic gold medallist, 400m hurdles, 1952) and Ollan Cassell (Olympic gold medallist, 4x400m relay, 1964). The evening’s MC will be ESPN track and field analyst, Larry Rawson.

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