Their Moments Will Last Forver : Some Olympians Left Indelible Marks in Victory, and Others Were No Less Memorable in Defeat. Here Is What Became of Some of Them.

Each Summer Olympics produces a collection of unforgettable heroes, sad failures and memorable characters, most of whom spend no more than a moment on the international stage. Whatever happened to . . . ? becomes a popular question. Here are some answers:

--Twenty minutes after Joan Benoit had won the gold medal in the first Olympic women’s marathon in 1984 at Los Angeles, a reeling Gabriele Andersen-Scheiss, a 39-year-old Idaho ski instructor who used her dual citizenship to represent Switzerland, entered the Coliseum. Suffering from heat prostration, she staggered the final 500 meters to the finish line, where she collapsed into the arms of waiting medics.

Released from the hospital two hours later, she returned to competition within two weeks in a race in Utah, where the athletes ran for 20 miles and rode horses for 18. In the summer of 1985, she won the 5,000 and the 10,000 meters in the veterans’ World Championships at Rome. Still living in Sun Valley, Idaho, Andersen-Scheiss, 47, remains active in road racing and holds several U.S. masters records.

--Swimmer Shirley Babashoff of Fountain Valley won a gold medal and three silvers in 1976 at Montreal, but she is remembered most for her accusations that the East German women, who won 11 of 13 events, were using performance-enhancing drugs.

She was so strident that the U.S. media referred to her as “Surly Shirley.” But she was vindicated when East German swimming coaches, after their country’s unification with West Germany, acknowledged years of institutionalized drug experimentation.

Babashoff, the mother of one, is a letter carrier in Huntington Beach. She also makes promotional appearances on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service, a worldwide Olympic sponsor.

--Alexander Belov scored the most controversial two points in Olympic basketball history. After catching a length-of-the-floor inbounds pass on the third replay of the final three seconds, he laid the ball in to give the Soviet Union a 51-50 gold medal victory over the United States at Munich in 1972.

In a mystery that has not been resolved even in the glasnost era, Belov died six years later. Some accounts say that the cause was a heart attack, others say cancer. But there also are rumors that he was involved in smuggling and died of unnatural causes. The 1972 Soviet Olympic coach, Vladimir Kondrashin, has Belov’s gold medal and has built a small memorial in his apartment in St. Petersburg, Russia, to the player considered by some to be his country’s best ever.

--After Greco-Roman wrestler Jeff Blatnick was found to have Hodgkin’s disease in 1982, he underwent removal of his spleen and appendix. Doctors advised him to retire. But he prevailed over the cancer through radiation treatments and, less than two years later at Los Angeles, won the gold medal in the super-heavyweight division.

Hodgkin’s disease returned the next year, but, with the aid of 28 chemotherapy sessions, Blatnick beat it again. He returned to wrestling in 1987, and although he failed to regain his former status, he went to Seoul in 1988 as a wrestling commentator for NBC, an assignment he again has accepted for this summer’s competition at Barcelona.

--Gymnast Vera Caslavska risked her career in the spring of 1968 by signing a Czechoslovakian declaration of independence from Soviet influence. Warned that she was in danger of arrest when Soviet tanks invaded Prague to put down the revolution, she fled to the countryside, where she stayed in shape by swinging from trees.

The communist-dominated sports committee coaxed her to return in time for the Olympics at Mexico City, where she won four gold medals--one for the all-around championship--and two silvers.

After returning home, Caslavska became a non-person. But when the Soviets finally were driven out two years ago by a nonviolent overthrow of the communist government, she became president of Czechoslovakia’s Olympic committee.

--Hammer thrower Harold Connolly of the United States and discus thrower Olga Filatova of Czechoslovakia won gold medals in relatively obscure events in 1956, but they were among the most celebrated athletes at Melbourne because of their Olympic village romance.

They later were married at Prague, where 40,000 onlookers celebrated the temporary thaw in the Cold War. The day after the wedding, the New York Times editorialized: “The H-bomb overhangs us like a cloud of doom. The subway during rush hours is almost impossible to endure. But Olga and Harold are in love, and the world does not say no to them.”

They eventually settled in Los Angeles, where they had four children before divorcing in 1973. She is on the staff at San Pedro’s Toberman Settlement House, which is funded by the United Methodist Church and the United Way. He lives in Washington, where he is the national administrator for the Special Olympics. One of their children, Jim, tried out for the 1992 Olympic team in the javelin.

--When swimmer Rick DeMont failed the drug test after his victory in the 400-meter freestyle in the 1972 Games at Munich, he became the first American since Jim Thorpe who was forced to forfeit his gold medal. He tested positive for a stimulant, ephedrine, found in his asthma medication, which the 16-year-old from San Rafael, Calif., had been taking for 12 years.

DeMont is now an assistant coach at the University of Arizona. One of his sprinters, Crissy Ahmann-Leighton, is expected to challenge Stanford’s Summer Sanders for the gold medal at Barcelona in the 100-meter butterfly.

--Dawn Fraser was one of the most accomplished swimmers in Australian history, winning the Olympic 100-meter freestyle in 1956, 1960 and 1964, and also the most controversial. A free spirit, she almost created an international incident at Tokyo in 1964 when she and some teammates stole a flag from Emperor Hirohito’s palace. The police arrested them, but the Emperor later gave Fraser the flag as a souvenir.

Australian swimming officials were not so forgiving, suspending her for four years. But she remained extremely popular with the public at home. She serves in the parliament of New South Wales, where she lives on a farm.

--The first double gold medals in Olympic swimming history were won by swimmers Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer in 1984, when they finished in a dead heat in the 100-meter freestyle.

Hogshead, who won three gold medals and a silver at Los Angeles, lives in New York, where she appears in advertisements for undergarments. She dates Congressman Tom McMillen (D-Md.), a former Olympic and professional basketball player.

Steinseifer lives in Phoenix. She is engaged to Dan Jorgensen, a 1988 and 1992 Olympic swimmer.

--Except for perhaps the members of the 1972 men’s U.S. basketball team, no American has ever felt more wronged in the Olympics than light-middleweight boxer Roy Jones. Although he had at least twice as many scoring punches as his opponent, Park Si Hun, during the gold-medal match at Seoul in 1988, three of the five judges awarded the decision to the South Korean.

That was Jones’ last defeat. Fighting professionally out of Pensacola, Fla., he is the World Boxing Assn.’s No. 3-ranked junior-middleweight and the World Boxing Council’s No. 4-ranked middleweight. In his first 18 fights, he scored 17 knockouts.

But, no matter how successful he becomes as a pro, his most lasting contribution to the sport could be that his defeat at Seoul inspired international amateur boxing officials to change to a computer scoring system that they believe will eliminate bias from judging.

--Distance runner Kip Keino, a Nandi tribesman from Kenya, entered the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 at Mexico City in 1968 over the protests of doctors. They were concerned about his severe stomach pains, which later were discovered to have been caused by a gall bladder infection.

He collapsed two laps from the finish in the 10,000, although he eventually completed the race. Then, four days later, he finished second in the 5,000. On the day of the 1,500, he got caught in traffic and had to jog the final mile to the stadium. Even so, he won the race, upsetting American Jim Ryun.

Today, Keino is a wealthy landowner in Eldoret, Kenya, where he also operates an orphanage for 63 underprivileged youths. His son, Martin, is a middle-distance runner for the University of Arizona.

--Tommy Kono was introduced to weightlifting when he was 14 and living in a Japanese-American detention camp where he and his family had been moved from their home in Sacramento during World War II.

He later became so accomplished at maintaining his strength at different weights that he won gold medals in 1952 as a lightweight and in 1956 as a light-heavyweight and a silver medal in 1960 as a middleweight.

Kono has remained active in the sport as a member of the U.S. Weightlifting Federation’s board of directors and as a coach for his club, Team Hawaii, near Honolulu. He recently was selected as a referee for this summer’s weightlifting competition at Barcelona.

--Television popularized women’s gymnastics in the United States in 1972 through the image of Olga Korbut, the pigtailed teen-ager from Byelorussia whose exuberance distinguished her from her expressionless Soviet teammates. Although she finished seventh in the all-around competition, she had more than her smile going for her as she won gold medals in the balance beam and the floor exercise and a silver in the uneven parallel bars.

Korbut, 37, lives today in Atlanta, where she is establishing the Olga Korbut Foundation for victims of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. One such foundation already exists in Seattle. Despite her popularity in the United States, she is less famous in the former Soviet Union than her folk-singer husband and child-actor son.

--Although Korbut received most of the attention in the United States, the most accomplished gymnast of her era was teammate Lyudmila Tourischeva. She won the women’s all-around gold medal in 1972 at Munich and finished third in 1976 at Montreal.

In retirement, Tourischeva married Ukrainian sprinter Valery Borzov, the 1972 gold medalist in the 100 and 200, and became one of the world’s most respected gymnastics judges. Recently, she became president of the Ukraine’s gymnastics federation.

But she will not be a judge this summer at Barcelona because the Russian-dominated gymnastics federation for the Commonwealth of Independent States, which includes the Ukraine, did not submit her name for consideration. She plans to return to the Olympics as a judge in 1996 at Atlanta, where the Ukraine will have a team. The president of the Ukraine’s Olympic committee is Borzov, who is separated from Tourischeva.

--While Russian fans at Moscow’s Lenin Stadium in 1980 booed and jeered, Poland’s Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz calmly won the pole vault at 18 feet 11 1/2 inches.

Then, after victory was ensured, as about 3,000 of his compatriots sang “Poland Is Not Beaten,” Kozakiewicz directed an obscene gesture toward the Russian fans that became a symbol of defiance for Soviet satellite countries.

Kozakiewicz later defected to the West. Living today in Hanover, Germany, he coaches pole vaulters and is attempting to become an agent for track and field athletes. Fluent in Russian, his potential client list includes primarily athletes from the former Soviet Union.

--Among 11 Israelis murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 1972 at Munich was track and field coach Amitzur Shapira, whose most celebrated athlete was hurdler Esther Roth. She withdrew from the competition after the attack but, four years later at Montreal, became Israel’s first Olympic track and field finalist. She finished sixth in the 100-meter hurdles final, still the highest finish for an Israeli athlete in the sport.

Now going by her married name, Shakhamorov, she lives in the beachfront community of Herzeliyah, Israel, a few miles north of Tel Aviv, and is on the staff at the Wingate Institute of Physical Education and Sport, the Middle East’s only sports college. Her 18-year-old son is one of Israel’s top fencers. In 1988, she was voted the best athlete of Israel’s first 40 years.

--Raised in the Bronx and one of the stars of Marquette’s 1977 national championship team, point guard Butch Lee agreed to play for his native Puerto Rico in 1976 after failing to receive an invitation to the U.S. trials.

In a first-round game at Montreal against a U.S. team that featured Adrian Dantley, Walter Davis, Quinn Buckner and Mitch Kupchak, Lee went 15 for 18 from the field and scored 35 points. The United States won, 95-94.

Lee, a former Laker, now coaches Capitanes de Arecibo, the first-place team in Puerto Rico’s professional basketball league. He also owns a nightclub.

--In the 1984 boxing tournament’s 12 weight divisions, the United States won nine gold medals, a silver and a bronze. The only U.S. boxer who failed to win a medal was bantamweight Robert Shannon, who lost his first fight, against South Korea’s Moon Sung Kil.

Shannon, of Edmonds, Wash., was the only member of the 1980 U.S. boxing team, which did not go to Moscow because of the boycott, who remained an amateur so that he could compete in 1984. He since has turned professional, fighting out of Seattle. His wife works his corner.

--Track and field sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos won the gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the 200 meters in 1968, but they are better remembered for their victory-stand protest.

Standing barefoot to symbolize black poverty, they raised their gloved fists in a black-power salute during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The U.S. Olympic Committee suspended them for the rest of the Games and ordered them out of the athletes’ village.

Carlos, who worked as a community liaison for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1984, is the coach of the track and field team at Palm Springs High. Smith is the track and field coach and a professor in the physical education department at Santa Monica City College.

--The United States dominated super-heavyweight weightlifting until 1960, when Soviet Yuri Vlasov won by setting two world records on one lift. For the next 28 years, excluding their 1984 boycott, the Soviets won every gold medal in that division, including two by Vasily Alexeev in 1972 and 1976.

A poet, novelist and historian, Vlasov in 1989 became a member of the Soviet Union’s Congress of People’s Deputies, in which he became one of the most outspoken critics of the Communist Party. He says that his father, a KGB agent, was assassinated by order of Stalin.

Alexeev, who weighed as much as 345 pounds during his competitive years, once gave this explanation for his disdain for exercise: “The turtle does not jog, and the turtle lives 300 years.”

Alexeev will coach the Commonwealth of Independent States’ weightlifting team at Barcelona.