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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > August > 10
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Tragedy of Olympic proportions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beijing — In another month, in another part of the world, it’s still a tragedy. Dead father. Critical mother. Grieving daughter. And the scum who did it takes the cowardly exit and leaps from a building.
The difference is that in another month, in another part of then world, these senseless acts otherwise blend into the scenery. In the Olympics, everybody notices. We would like to believe when nations come together for 17 days for reasons of medals and anthems every four years that everything else can be put on hold. But shouldn’t we know better by now?
The bomb in Centennial Park.
The stabbings at the Drum Tower in central Beijing.
No difference, except that this senseless act touched Olympic athletes closer to home. The wife of the U.S. men’s volleyball coach was touring this historic city with her parents Saturday. They were attacked. Now Todd Bachman is dead, Barbara Bachman is critical, their daughter Elisabeth is grieving and a group of young athletes and coaches — who only came here to compete for an Olympic medal — is trying to move forward.
The U.S. men’s volleyball team, which is ranked third in the world, won its first match against Venezuela Sunday. It wasn’t easy but they managed in five sets. Head coach Hugh McCutcheon skipped the game and certainly could be excused for missing the rest. He is with his wife, Elisabeth, a former Olympian who remains close to the program.
“He’s sorely missed by the players and coaches and myself,” said assistant Ron Larsen, who has taken over. “I’d much rather be sitting on the bench, telling him what I think he should be doing, and having him saying, ‘I don’t think so,’ rather than where I am right now.”
Some things you can’t prepare for. But the players did what they could. They wanted to put some sort of patch on their jerseys but there wasn’t enough time. So they wrote the Bachman’s initials, T.B. and B.B., on the back of their shoes. They also locked arms for a prayer just before the game, “taking a moment to let him know that we’re thinking about him,” said Ryan Millar.
Thomas Hoff, the team captain, said, “They were not going to start without us. We wanted to have a moment of silence where we could gather our thoughts before we started this journey.”
The team was 20 minutes into practice Saturday when the attack occurred. McCutcheon left to take a phone call and his players haven’t seen him since. They initially didn’t think much of his departure. But when they arrived for a team meeting two hours later and several USOC and federation officials were there, they knew something had happened. That’s when they were told the news.
McCutcheon held a conference call with his players later in the evening.
“He talked about trying to move on,” Hoff said. “He just told us, ‘It will be difficult, but together we’re going to be much stronger.’”
The U.S. women’s players actually knew the Bachmans better than the men’s team. Many were teammates of Elizabeth, whom most know as ‘Wiz.”
But Lloy Ball summarized the feelings of the men’s team, saying: “We were given horrific news about someone we love and care about whose family was attacked. Our knee-jerk reactions were like any other human being’s would be. We were angry. As a male [team], we tend to hide our feelings a lot. But there was definitely a moment when guys let off how they felt about the [things].”
Beijing is blanketed with 80,000 police, soldiers and security officials. Still, this happened.
Ball spoke to his wife by phone about the possibility of his family not making the trip from Indiana.
“Of course, she got on the plane,” he said. “You can’t live in fear or anger. All you can do is send your prayers and sympathies to the family and try to continue what Hugh would want us to do: Win a gold medal.”
Riley Salmon said, “My mom and dad will be here. They’re concerned for the Bachmans. They’re concerned about their own safety. But they’re coming here to support us.”
It’s what this stage is suppose to be about. But life still swirls around it.
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