THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 13 : An Olympic Cycle Is Completed

A 28-year-old American rode his bicycle around Olympic Stadium on Wednesday, completing a 14-month effort to ride on every track used to stage the modern Summer Games.

“It was just terrific--something I’ve been thinking about for five years,” said Sean Holland of Los Angeles after five laps around Seoul’s Olympic Stadium.

“After putting in more than 10,000 miles, it was a great feeling of accomplishment. A week ago, I still didn’t know if I could get in,” said Holland, who received the OK from Olympic officials on Saturday.

Only Moscow, the site of the U.S.-boycotted 1980 Summer Olympics, refused Holland permission, saying it allowed cyclists into the country only in tour groups.

But he has been to the 17 other host cities and bicycled a total of more than 10,200 miles in between, in four segments spaced out over 14 months. F

Holland said he got the idea in 1983 and began writing to the mayors of the host cities.

“I was thinking of trying to bring attention to the Olympics’ purpose of contributing to world peace,” he said.

In ancient Greece, there was a truce every four years for the Games but since the modern Games began in 1896, things haven’t worked out that way, he added.

“I want to remind people that beyond the medal counts and commercial hype, there is the underlying purpose of promoting peace,” said Holland, a law student at the University of Washington in Seattle.

He has ridden a lap on the Olympic stadium track in every city, although he pushed his bicycle around the Athens track because it was being torn up when he was there.

Holland said he does not carry any sort of flag or banner on his bicycle, which weighs 90 pounds, including a sleeping bag and tent.

And for his stadium rides and city hall meetings, he has a T-shirt with the flags of all the host countries up to 1984.

“That’s the one that I try to keep clean,” he said.

Holland said that while personally satisfying, his trip wasn’t always easy.

“I’ve been run off the road a few times,” he said.

And in Berlin, where he had to take the train because he wasn’t permitted to cycle through the surrounding East German territory, he still was unloading his bicycle when the train’s door closed and it started to pull away.

“I was running out of platform, and the train was reaching a speed faster than I could run. Somebody must have been pushing (the bike) from the other side,” he said.

Suddenly it came out, and he fell.

“I was bruised, but escaped lightly,” Holland said.

His 3,400-mile, 2 1/2-month European tour began in July 1987 in Olympia, Greece, where the Olympic flame is lighted for relay to the host cities. He visited Athens, Rome, Munich, Paris, London, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm and Helsinki.

Holland resumed his travels in April 1988, cycling 5,500 miles from Mexico City to Los Angeles, St. Louis and Montreal. In late summer, he biked 670 miles from Sydney to Melbourne. Then he rode 675 miles across parts of Japan and South Korea in visiting the two Asian Olympic hosts--Tokyo and Seoul.

Holland, paying his own way, estimated his biggest expense, air fare, at $3,500 but said camping out helped keep costs down.