[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.