![]() The Olympics is supposed to glorify the individual, not a nation.” “We use the Games for propaganda-that’s not what it’s supposed to be. The idea is you lay down your weapons and instead of the shot put becoming a cannon ball, it becomes a shot put,” Richards says. “The Olympics was meant to solve the problem of war. He still travels the country talking to people, but today the topic is how to return to the original Olympic ideology. Sports breaks through those things.”Īt 66, Richards carries on the mission he began nearly 40 years ago as a Wheaties spokesman. Strangelove’ psychology and just hug a human being. “Of course I think that was one of the greatest moments of my life, to break through the ‘Dr. ![]() I thought it was wonderful because that’s the spirit of the Olympics, but people back home were upset because of the Cold War,” Richards remembered. “When I won the vault, a Russian came out and hugged me. ![]() ![]() “If we can get the peoples of the world together and just sit down in a common athletic park, that is what the Olympics is all about.”ĭuring a telephone interview from his home in Waco, Richards recalled one particular incident at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki that he says symbolized the true meaning of the games. “It’s not in the gold medal, but in trying to be your best, in reaching out. “It’s in the striving, not in the winning-that’s the Olympics,” Richards says. ![]()
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