Close on a Bike, Closer in the Pool

The first day of competition for United States athletes was ladies’ day.

Connie Carpenter-Phinney, 26, a former speedskater who had taken up Olympic cycling late in her athletic career because a women’s road race had been added for the L.A. Games, outsprinted the teenage favorite, Rebecca Twigg, at the end of a 49-mile road race in Orange County to win by the length of half a wheel.

Carpenter-Phinney’s gold medal was the first American cycling medal since 1912. An estimated 200,000 had gathered to watch as the competitors turned laps on the course in Mission Viejo.

In swimming, 16-year-old Carrie Steinseifer, a high school student from Saratoga, Calif., touched out at the end of the 100-meter freestyle at the same moment as favored 22-year-old veteran Nancy Hogshead. Literally, at the same moment.

The finish of the two Olympic village roommates was so simultaneous that the electronic touch pads at the end of the pool, precise to thousandths of seconds, could not separate the two. So, for the first time in Olympic swimming, two gold medals were awarded in the same event.

In Palo Alto, where some of the preliminary soccer games were held, the U.S. men defeated Costa Rica, 3-0, in front of 78,265. At the time, that was the largest soccer crowd ever in this country, topping those attracted by Pele and the New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League.

The U.S. baseball team was warmed up and ready for its appearance in what was then a demonstration sport, having been led in a series of games against area all-star teams by a muscular hitter from USC named Mark McGwire.

After the first day, the medal count was U.S. 9, China 6, and the American team never looked back.

But some tradition remained. The first Olympic medal always goes to a pistol shooter, and in Los Angeles it went to Xu Haifeng, a fertilizer salesman from China.

Even more traditional was the result of the U.S. men against India in field hockey. Final score: India 5, U.S. 1.

-- Bill Dwyre