    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [July 19, 1996]
    [Pages 1156-1158]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1156]]

    Remarks to the United States Olympic Team in Atlanta, Georgia
    July 19, 1996

        Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much for that wonderful
    welcome. Thank you, President Clough, for making all of our athletes
    feel so welcome at Georgia Tech. Thank you, Dr. Walker, for all the work
    you do. Thank you, Teresa, for sharing your birthday with us. [Laughter]
    And thank you, Bruce, for that introduction, for your leadership, and
    your example.
        I was looking at Bruce standing up here--[laughter]--obliterating
    the microphone and the podium. [Laughter] You know what I thought? I
    thought, if I'd had a body like that I'd have done a better job in
    politics. [Laughter] I should have gone in for wrestling earlier before
    I had to do it for a living. [Laughter]
        You know, the first United States Olympics team in 1896 also did our
    Nation proud, even though they literally missed the boat for the first
    games. They got on the wrong ship in Hackensack, New Jersey. But the
    Lord was looking over them. Thank goodness they set off 2 weeks early,
    so they got there on time anyway. [Laughter]
        Well, thanks to the wonderful people of Atlanta, we got around that
    problem this time because the Olympics came to us. And so I'd like to
    begin just by asking all of us to express our heartfelt appreciation to
    the people of Atlanta, the people of Georgia, people who have worked so
    hard to bring these games here and are doing such a magnificent job to
    make the world feel welcome in the United States. [Applause]
        There have been a lot of nice touches to this day for Hillary and
    Chelsea and me already. For one thing, they arranged for me to meet all
    the members of our team who are from my home State or who went to school
    there. And I appreciate that. And I have to say, since I've got all
    these senior Olympians here, I brought another person from my home State
    who won the silver medal in the high hurdles in 1948, Clyde Scott. I'd
    like to ask him to stand up and be recognized, my great friend.
    [Applause] And also tell you, for you sports buffs, he's the only person
    who ever made first team All-American football for two different
    universities. And it's not because he didn't make enough grades to stay
    in the first one. [Laughter]
        I want to thank all of you for making it possible for the former
    Olympians who are standing behind me to be here. I owe one of them an
    apology. Mark Spitz came by to see me earlier, and when I saw him, I
    could only imagine--I kept remembering that picture of him with all
    those medals hanging around his shoulders--around his neck. And he
    informed me that he was supposed to carry the torch in, and he carried
    it as far as he could, but the Presidential motorcade prevented his
    final entry. So I think we should acknowledge Mark Spitz as bringing the
    Olympic torch in here. [Applause]
        There's so many of the people standing behind me that I watched in
    the Olympics, that I admired. An awful lot of them, believe it or not,
    have come to the White House since I've been President because of
    something good and worthwhile they're doing today--always to help other
    people. I think maybe the most considerate act I've ever seen one of
    them perform was my friend Edwin Moses actually allowed me to run with
    him at one time, which I thought was uncalculated charity under the
    circumstances. [Laughter]
        But I say that to make this point: When these Olympians come to the
    White House, many years after their days of Olympic glory, to advance
    the cause of young athletes or some other cause they're interested in,
    it's important that you know that we still celebrate what they stood for
    and what they did and what they stand for and what they do. I say that
    because by making this team, you become part of America's team. And for
    the rest of your lives, other people will look to you in a different
    way, in a good way. And you will have a chance not just in your field of
    competition, but you'll have a chance from now on to have an impact on
    people, especially young people, that can be profound and lasting and
    wonderful.
        For some of these--you here, I'm sure you can hardly bear to think
    of it, these are your first Olympics. Some of you are veterans. Some of
    you will still be competing in the Olympics in the next century. But
    whatever your future holds athletically, I just want to thank you for

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    your hard work and your dedication, for your courage and your heart, and
    for your example, because you say loudly to every young person in this
    country, ``If you have hard work and discipline, if you have a tough
    will and enough courage and heart, you can live out your dreams.'' And
    if every kid in this country really believed that he or she could live
    out their dreams, we'd be a lot better off, and we will be because of
    you. And I thank you for that.
        Most of you probably know this, but when the Olympics came back to
    life in modern times, it was William Milligan Sloane who took it upon
    himself to organize the first American team. And then when two of his
    athletes couldn't afford the tickets to Athens, he gave up the tickets
    that he had. So he never even saw his dream come to life.
        Dr. Sloane's first recruit was a man named Robert Garrett, who had
    never competed in sports before. So he literally started with only a
    dream, and he had to figure out what he was going to do. He saw a
    picture of an ancient discus thrower, and he asked a blacksmith to make
    one for him. Unfortunately, it weighed 13 pounds. [Laughter] But he
    didn't know any better. He only knew he could not throw it further than
    49 feet. He heard the Europeans were throwing it 87 feet, but he showed
    up for the competition anyway. And when he showed up, the folks took
    away his 13-pound discus and gave him one that weighed 2\1/2\ pounds.
    [Laughter] He tossed it out of the stadium and won the medal. [Laughter]
    So sometimes our handicaps in life can become great advantages.
        William Milligan Sloane and Robert Garrett started America's road to
    Atlanta 100 years ago. The grandson of Dr. Sloane, William Milligan
    Sloane, is here today. I'd like to ask him to stand and be recognized.
    Where are you, Mr. Sloane? [Applause] Thank you so much.
        I'd like to close with a few words to you about your country and
    what it means for America to be hosting these games in 1996. As I think
    perhaps you know, before I came here, I went over to your amazing dining
    quarters and shook hands with as many of the athletes from other
    countries as I could. And I sat and visited with some of them. And I'd
    like to just sort of tell you what I think it means for us and,
    therefore, what you can mean for us here.
        Think about how the world has changed in the last hundred years. A
    hundred years ago, there were far fewer democracies and much less
    freedom. Now we see the American idea of democracy taking root all
    around the world, more and more and more new nations. Even 4 years ago
    we could not have imagined that a country like Bosnia would be able to
    redeem the promise of its own Olympics in Sarajevo, but they have a team
    here.
        When I was walking through the crowd, a very tall, fine-looking man
    from Croatia came up to me and thanked me for what our country has done
    for Croatia. It was in Dubrovnik, Croatia, that Secretary of Commerce
    Ron Brown's plane crashed, full of Americans who were going there only
    because they wanted to help bring the blessings of peace to people in
    another country.
        When I was walking down the sidewalk, a man who is a part of the
    Palestinian team came up to me, and he said, ``We are an ancient people,
    but we have never had a team in the Olympics. This is our first team
    because you in the United States helped us to make peace.''
        I was in the dining hall and a man from Ireland came up to me,
    almost with tears in his eyes, saying that he remembered when Hillary
    and I went to Ireland last year, and there had been a year and a half of
    peace that the United States had helped to support, and thousands and
    tens of thousands of people were lining the streets, happy and gay. And
    now they have lost their peace again. He said to me, he said, ``I'm glad
    to be here, but I don't want to lose my country. Make it come back.''
        That's what people think about your country, that somehow we can
    help to make things better in the world by bringing people together. It
    was not easy for us to come to this point. A hundred years ago there was
    a lot more racism in the United States than there is today, and
    segregation kept a lot of the most gifted people away from athletic
    competition. Women had few rights, and no nation, including ours,
    allowed them to compete. Think how many medals that would cost us this
    time. [Laughter]
        Now we live a lot closer to our own beliefs. Now we have learned
    that we have to draw strength from our diversity, that all of our people
    count and they can all be partners in our great enterprise. And I'm
    telling you, that shines across the globe. And when you go out to
    compete and people see that here's this American team and you--half of
    them you can't tell where they're from, because they're from all
    different

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    kinds of racial and ethnic groups, all kinds of religious and cultural
    traditions, bound together by their common heritage in this great land.
    You don't have to say anything about it.
        One of the folks that walked in with me said that he was so pleased
    to see the spirit of the Olympics taking over when he saw some North
    Korean and South Korean athletes sitting and talking together at dinner.
    I've been trying to get the North and South Koreans to talk for 4 years,
    and I haven't done it. I've been trying to get it done for 4 years, and
    I haven't done it.
        So tonight when you walk into that opening ceremony and billions of
    eyes all over the world are on you, you carry the symbol of all that we
    have become not only in fact, but in the eyes and the spirit and the
    hopes of the rest of the world. And just as surely as those of us who
    work in the diplomatic area or the fine people who wear the uniform of
    the United States military, you will become a symbol.
        I want you to win all the medals you can. I want you to mop up and
    do great. But I want you to realize that just by being what you already
    are, you are a source of enormous pride to our country and an
    inspiration to the world. And I hope tonight and these next couple of
    weeks are the greatest times of your life.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:14 p.m. in the Olympic Village. In his
    remarks, he referred to G. Wayne Clough, president, Georgia Institute of
    Technology; LeRoy T. Walker, president, U.S. Olympic Committee; Teresa
    Edwards and Bruce Baumgartner, members of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team;
    and former U.S. Olympians Clyde Scott, Mark Spitz, and Edwin Moses.