REFLECTIONS OF THE L.A. GAMES : Four Who Played Important Roles in 1984 Olympics Reminisce on the Magical Moments They Encountered : A TOP OFFICIAL : Community’s Spirit Rose for Big Event

With the benefit of time, the Los Angeles Olympic Games are just now coming into focus for me. I have fleeting images of the competition between Mary Lou Retton and Katerina Szabo of Romania, of Carl Lewis carrying an Olympic flag on his victory lap, of wrestler Jeff Blatnick winning the gold medal and a battle against cancer.

I remember a great swell of pride when Rafer Johnson, having ascended those steep steps to the top of the Coliseum, turned to face the world, poised and regal, to light the Olympic flame. I can still hear the roar of welcome for the Romanian delegation as those mavericks entered the stadium for the first time. And I recall grave concern over reports of a bomb having been planted on a team bus as athletes were leaving the Games.

But more than that, more than all the combined successes, the individual victories and defeats, the poignant moments and the times of sadness, and those long and difficult years leading up to the event itself. I remember with clarity and joy the great sense of community and spirit and friendship and sharing that existed.

When I became president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1979, the naysayers had a long list of reasons for why we would fail. Among a litany that included security fears, financial woes and traffic gridlock, those naysayers glumly predicted that the people of Southern California were too aloof and too unresponsive to play hosts to the world.

They said (Southern Californians) weren’t hospitable and wouldn’t welcome the athletes of the world with warmth and feeling. What’s more, they said, the people of Southern California were too selfish to volunteer and the volunteer system which we needed and counted on to succeed would fail.

The naysayers were wrong--on all counts. The people of Southern California met the challenge and were warm and gracious hosts. They demonstrated to the athletes of the world and a worldwide television audience a giving side that the naysayers refused to believe existed.

They also supported the Games through volunteerism. They worked 16- and 20-hour days, without pay, many without free meals and without an opportunity to see a single Olympic event. They did it because they cared about their community, they cared about the athletes and they cared about the Olympics.

The true legacy of the L.A. Games is not the success of the U.S. athletes or the size of the surplus that went to amateur sports, but the quality of the Southern California community. Its ability to mobilize and accomplish a worthwhile goal in the face of adversity and extreme doubts from every quarter will not be forgotten.

Southern California proved that when a community of people gets together and focuses on a single goal, it can accomplish just about anything. That I remember clearly. And I am proud to have taken part.