    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [August 7, 1996]
    [Pages 1266-1267]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Honoring the 1996 United States Olympic Team
    August 7, 1996

        Thank you very much. I want to welcome Dr. Walker here and Dick
    Schultz and Maynard Jackson and others who come from the Olympic
    committee and from Atlanta. I want to say also a special word of thanks
    to the Vice President, who worked so hard on America's contribution to
    the Olympic games, who can't be here today, and to my good friend Mack
    McLarty for all the work they did to help the Olympics succeed.
        And I want to welcome the coaches and the family members who are
    here. But most of all, I want to welcome you here. I want you to know
    you've caused us two problems. One is, none of us got any sleep for the
    last 2 weeks, and I don't think we hurt the public interest--
    [laughter]--but we enjoyed watching you, sometimes until 1 o'clock in
    the morning. The second thing you have done is good in a way; we've all
    intensified our training schedule around here--[laughter]--since we
    watched the Olympics. But I asked my staff if there were any special
    requests that I should make of you, and an enormous number of people
    asked if we could get the women's soccer team to teach us that belly
    slide. [Laughter]
        As all of you know, this was a very great thing for the United
    States. When Hillary and I had a chance to come and meet with you at the
    beginning before the Olympics began, I said that we would cheer when you
    won and cry when you lost, but that your efforts and what you symbolized
    for America would be the most important thing. And I really very much
    believe that today.
        This was a remarkable Olympic experience. And I think in many ways
    it was fitting that the centennial Olympics were held in the United
    States because we do represent so many nations. When I leave you, I'm
    going out to California. There were 197 teams in the Olympics. In one
    county in California, there are people from the same places as over 150
    of those teams. That's what's special about our country. And you gave
    that to the world when we saw you, when we saw you compete, when we saw
    you win. And we're very grateful to you. I'm also very grateful to the
    people in Atlanta who did a magnificent job in organizing the games and
    for the community spirit there after the bombing. I thought it was
    magnificent.
        There may have been some discussion about this, but I believe that
    since more people saw these games than any games in history, both in
    person and on television, because they were so well organized, because
    there were so many countries represented, because you were so
    magnificent, and because of the way people reacted to the tragedy, as
    far as I'm concerned, these Atlanta games were the best. They were the
    greatest games in the history of the Olympics.
        I also would like to say a special word of appreciation to all the
    athletes who competed and all those who won. But let me say, when I
    looked at our team, I couldn't help--as the father of a daughter of whom
    I'm very proud, I couldn't help but note that over 20 years ago, in a
    complete bipartisan commitment here in Washington, the United States
    Congress passed something called title IX which made it possible for a
    lot of the women athletes to be here today. There were 77,000 spectators
    at the women's soccer finals. There were a lot of men basketball players
    watching the women's basketball finals thanking God they weren't on the
    court that day. [Laughter]
         We should be on the forefront always of bringing more people into
    the world of sport, more people into competition, more people having a
    chance to live out their dreams whatever they are. And yesterday we saw
    off the torch for the Paralympics which will be starting in

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    Atlanta soon. And I know every one of you support that. One of our
    runners in the Paralympics actually is on an NCAA Division I track team
    at my alma mater Georgetown University. So we ought to be for more and
    more and more people having a chance to participate.
        And let me finally say that I had very high hopes for all of you and
    for our country. They were exceeded not only by the medals you won but
    by the way you won them. And you gave something very special to the
    American people. I'm glad you can be here today. And we'd like to just
    have a chance to give a small portion back to you through your tour of
    your house that you gave to all of us for those wonderful 17 days.
        Thank you all. God bless you, and good luck.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:28 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to LeRoy T. Walker, president, and
    Richard D. Schultz, executive director, United States Olympic Committee;
    and Maynard Jackson, former mayor of Atlanta, GA.