MY 2-TIME OLYMPIAN BROTHER
How many people can say their brother is a 2-time Olympian? MY brother Larry Miller ran in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1988 in Seoul, Korea. Picture this 1984…South Dakota, me 10 years old. I remember being glued to the television set the night of opening ceremony…being careful not to blink for fear I’d miss a glimpse of my brother Larry walking the track, waving his arms….proud of his remarkable accomplishments. His perseverance and determination paid off, he had become one of the fastest humans in the world. Finally, there he was! Amidst the camera lights flashing, lively, inspiring music in the background and cheers like you’ve never heard before….Larry, right in front of the camera in his track suit. How ironic the Olympic Opening Ceremony takes places on the track. The track, his home turf, the same track where he would give it his all LIVE on international television. What a proud moment! I still get chills thinking of that moment….then again in 1988. Even on this day, August 8th, as we are moments away from the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony, my heart palpitates…it’s an adrenalin rush.
Now picture this…the day of one of his three big races. The 400m event…Larry in his starting blocks…silence….anticipating the instant the gun would go off. Those moments felt like an eternity for me….for him probably a life-time. BAM! He was off, Larry striding the entire track like I’d never seen him do before. This was his moment, his moment to show the world what he was capable of. His stride, the look of pain on his face as he pushed himself towards the finish line. I’m sure he didn’t hear the cheers of the crowd…just the sound of his breathing, the sound of his track spikes ticking, ticking, ticking on the turf. As my brother ran focused on beating his record…in a foreign land across the world from me, I jumped up and down frantically screaming, “Go Larry! Go! Run! Run! Run! Faster! GO LARRY!!! GO!!!” Words I had yelled a thousand times before as I stood on the sidelines cheering on my big brother….in Antigua, South Dakota, all over the United States and now THE WOLD OLYMPICS. I was his biggest fan.
In 1984 and 1988 Larry competed in the 200m, 400m and the 4×400m relay. Larry made it to the semi finals…in the end, he was the 7th fastest man in the 400m. Amazing.
By the way, Larry also competed in Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games, Yale University Track Captain and has several undefeated track records all over the nation. During his time at Yale, Larry won three outdoor and one indoor Heptagonal titles, while breaking a record for the 600 yards. He’s phenomenal.
Stay tuned to Tazewell Today. Throughout the weeks of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, I’ll share more of my personal experiences with the Olympics.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader or email.
Subscribe to RSS
[...] 8, 2008 at 11:07 am Well today is the big day 08/08/08 and the Olympics are here! Over at Tazewll Today she blogs about her brothers not one but two time Olympic experiences. Do you have any Olympians [...]