Lieut. Pinkerton's Week

It almost seemed unfair. Time after time last week, the Japanese Self Defense Forces Band blared The Star-Spangled Banner to signal yet another U.S. victory in the 1964 Olympic Games --so often that foreign spectators and athletes caught themselves whistling its familiar strains. "But it's not The Star-Spangled Banner," an Italian insisted defensively. "It's from the first act of Madame Butterfly." At that, it did seem a little reminiscent of Lieut. Pinkerton's visit to Japan. Over the first seven days of the XVIII Olympiad, smashing 10 world and 18 Olympic records in the process, the greatest group of athletes ever assembled under any flag achieved one of the most amazing conquests in the gaudy history of sport.

A Shot for Theology. Altogether, the U.S. won 52 medals--almost twice as many as the Russians, who carted away the lion's share at both the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. The Russians were not all that bad; the Americans were just that good. Track and swimming came close to being monopolies (see following stories).

Where the rest of the world thought it had caught up, the U.S. pulled ahead once again--as in the 100-meter dash, won by a German in 1960, this time back in U.S. hands when Florida A. & M.'s Bob Hayes ripped off a fantastic (but wind-aided) 9.9 sec. in the semifinal and tied the world record with a 10-sec.-flat clocking in the final. After one astonishing U.S. victory in track and field, a Japanese spectator turned to an American in the stands and said simply: "I congratulate you"--as if the entire U.S. were responsible.

And so it was. A U.S. team won the silver medal in the curiously militaristic modern pentathlon (riding, fencing, shooting, swimming, cross-country running), edging out Hungary's defending Olympic champions. Nebraska's Gary Anderson, a theology student, shot his way to the 300-meter three-position free rifle title, with a world-record score of 1,153 points; two other marksmen gave the U.S. second and third in small bore-rifle prone-position competition. In 1960, the best Yankee yachtsmen could manage was one gold medal, one bronze. Last week, with four out of seven races completed, the U.S. was leading in one class, second in three others, third in the fifth.

The most startling surge came in rowing, a sport once dominated by Americans, since revolutionized by European advances in technique and equipment. Washington's Ed Ferry teamed up with California's Conn Findlay and Kent Mitchell to win a gold medal for pairs with coxswain; the U.S. picked up a silver medal in the double sculls, a bronze in the coxless fours. Darkness had already fallen over the Toda rowing course by the time the big race for eight-oared shells got under way, and flares burst overhead as crews from six nations stroked their way down the 2,000-meter course. The odds-on favorite: Germany's Ratzeburg eight, back to defend the Olympic title they won in 1960. Coxed by Robert Zimonyi, at 46 the oldest man on the U.S. Olympic team, the Vesper Boat Club crew was rated no better than third. They had lost a preliminary heat to Ratzeburg, had to survive a repechage to get into the finals at all. This time, the U.S. crew nailed the Germans at the 800-meter mark, drew away steadily to win by H boat lengths. Overjoyed, the Americans started to pitch Coxswain Zimonyi into the drink, changed their minds when he pleaded: "Tomorrow, please, fellas. Tonight I could get a heart attack."

A Medal for Kenya. There was still enough glory to go around. No fewer than 28 nations had something shiny to be proud of. "I couldn't go home without a medal," panted Cuba's Enrique Figuerola, who ran the race of his life to finish second behind Bob Hayes in the 100-meter dash. Japan swept three gold medals in Western-style wrestling. Rumania's leggy Iolanda Balas broke her own Olympic high-jumps record by 2 1/2 in., soaring 6 ft. 2 3/4 in., and Kenya's Wilson Kiprugut won his new country's first Olympic medal when he placed third in the 800-meter run.

Other nations, too, would have their days this week, and the laggardly Russians were hoping for a bumper harvest in such events as canoeing and gymnastics. But so far, at least, in sport's biggest show, the spotlight shone brightest on the U.S.

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