Jenny Egnot used to beat the pants of me at yachting back when we were both about 14. She’s a good prospect for a medal, after coming fourth in the preolympic regata, in the womans 470 class so I don’t feel so bad about it now.
Rachel Petrie buys sushi from me. Shes playing hockey right now and is also in with a chance for a medal especially if they can beat the Dutch today.
My fencing coach compeated in the Barcelona Olympics but I can’t for the life of me remember his name.
Back in the 70’s when I was a kid, at our school sports banquet I had the pleasure of meeting Carmen Barth, now deceased, who won a boxing gold medal at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. He was a very kind and friendly man.
Small world. I helped train Tommy Martin ('76 and '80 Olympian), who used to do battle with the Cohens all the time. Well, in truth, Tommy used to kick my ass all over the dojo. Lemme tell ya…I threw him for ippon once, and paid for it for years! As a kid, I lost on two separate occasions at the Jr. Nationals to a future Olympic silver medalist, Bob Berland, who coincidentally, was trained by Steve and Irwin Cohen.
I’ve also competed against Steve Seck in local tournaments while I lived in LA.
Oh, yeah…I’ve been on several teams with Brett Barron ('84 - Los Angeles), and was coached at a few Jr. Nationals by Willy Cahill, one of the ancillary US Judo coaches.
I’ve met Yasuhiro Yamashita, multiple world judo champion and Olympic judo champion (LA - 84), too…when we shook hands, it looked like I was holding a leg of lamb…that SOB had HUGE hands. At the same time, I met another former world and Olympic champion, who was the coach of the Japanese National Team at the time.
Sam Perkins, who was on the goldmedal-winning 1984 USA baskeball team, went to high school with my sister. I played in a few pickup games against him. Also, I used to work with George Tucker, who one Olympiad was the Puerto Rican Winter Olympic team, as a luger.
My brother used to compete in high school shot and discus against Jeff Blatnick, who later won Greco-Roman wrestling gold in the 1984 games. And my dad used to work with Ray Barbuti who won the gold in the 400 meters at the 1928 games.
I can think of 2 right now, there’s others for sure.
The father of a high school buddy, Gustav Hanson, is a nordic skier and won a silver medal for Sweden. I’m guessing sometime in the fifties or early sixties. He imports and sells sports equipment.
The other is another nordic skier, Bill Spencer has been to several Olympics Games. I worked with him one summer at an engineering firm. But it took me three weeks to figure out where I knew his name from. I finally asked him why his name sounded so familiar… He’s a civil engineer now. And I asked him once if he puts “Olympic Athlete” on his resume when seeking jobs. He does.
Rusty Kanokogi was my self-defense teacher in college. She coached the women’s judo team in Seoul in 1988. Though she didn’t say brag at all about her achievements, I learned later that she is a pioneer in women’s judo. She organized the first Women’s Judo World Championships in 1980, and now is in the WSF Hall of Fame.
Also took an Olympics class with a professor who was a fencer for the US Team. Her name escapes me at this time.
The newspaper I work at covers a lot of Stanford sports, and since Stanford sent a billion people to the Olympics, I’ve interviewed more than a couple Olympians. So maybe this doesn’t qualify as “knowing” them, but I’ve exchanged a few words with them, and that’s still sorta cool. Lessee … I’ve talked to Logan Tom and Kerri Walsh from the volleyball team, Derek Bouchard-Hall and Nicole Freedman from the cycling team, Julie Foudy from the soccer team, Anne Kremer in tennis and Jenny Thompson in swimming.
Freedman was probably the most interesting story. In order to cut down on expenses so she could devote more time to her Olympic training, she moved into a van parked in her friends’ driveway.