Taking recreational sports to the limits: military athletes go for gold.

When you or I go out to play a sport do it for recreation - to relax, to relieve stress, to stay healthy, or to have fun. If you're in the military you play sports for all those reasons as well as to stay fit to fight. In the business of national defense, physical fitness isn't an option; it's a requirement.

But a handful of military members take recreational sports beyond the limits of fitness for military readiness and fun. These soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who go for the gold are the athletes that qualify for the United States Olympic teams. In 1996, out of nearly two million U.S. active duty and reserve component military, 16 athletes and six coaches were selected to participate on United States Olympic teams.

Soldiers have competed in the Olympics as early as 1912, when 1st. Lt. George S. Patton finished fifth in the modern pentathlon at the summer games in Stockholm, Sweden. However, the military's most recent Olympic accomplishments have taken place since 1948, when Congress enacted Public Law 11 which legislated that no outstanding athlete be denied the opportunity to represent the United States in the Olympics and other major international sports events simply because he or she was in military service. PL 11 also stipulated that every qualified individual be given the opportunity to try out for national teams, and if selected, be permitted to compete The athletes who competed in this summer's games join the ranks of more than 500 active duty military personnel who have achieved Olympic status since 1948.

Thirty years later, in 1978, the Army established the World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) to assist aspiring Olympians. This MWR activity was allowed under the auspices of the Alexandria, Virginia-based U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center. (The Air Force recently established a similar program.) Serious athletes from all four services progress through service and inter-service competition to levels at which they can compete in national championships, the Pan American Games, the Goodwill Games, and the Olympic Games. As long as they win, maintain their military occupational skills to service standards, and continue their education, military athletes can participate in their chosen sport, and take advantage of the best training facilities and coaching available.

The road is long, sweaty, lonesome, and sometimes painful. Each athlete's story is one of courage, resilience, toughness and determination, a story they share with youth in public appearances at high schools and colleges around the nation. As ambassadors for their services, athletes provide positive role models to peer groups and youth as well as attract young adults to military service.

In an NBC television interview during the Olympics, Army Reservist 1st Lt. Ruthie Bolton, a Mississippi native, talked about how her Army career influenced her life, crediting the service for instilling the discipline she needed to excel. Bolton, a five-foot eight-inch guard on the U.S. women's basketball team, earned the military's only medal - a gold.

U.S. military athletes brought home a medal in 1992 from Barcelona, Spain, as well. There, Army Spc. Rodney Smith earned a bronze medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. Smith was back on the Olympic wrestling team in 1996, together with long-time teammate Staff Sgt. Derrick Waldroup. Smith and Waldroup were included in NBC commentator Dick Engberg's portrait of the U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team, an emotionally charged segment that showed Smith tearfully apologizing to his mother for failing to bring home the medal he'd come so far and fought so hard for.

The whole world joined Waldroup's wife and two-year-old son, Derrick II, as Waldroup took off his shoes, covered them with a black bandanna, and walked from the mat, symbolizing his retirement from Greco-Roman wrestling competition after a seventh-place finish. A member of the Army's World Class Athlete Program, Waldroup had much to be proud of, even if he didn't have a medal to show for it. No soldier wrestler has been around longer; he went to the Olympic trials in 1988 and 1992, only to end up as an alternate. Recent inductee to the Illinois Wrestling Hall of Fame and four-time national gold medalist, the Chicago-born, soft-spoken Waldroup realized a life-long dream with his selection to the 1996 U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team. Now, he will coach the Army's Greco-Roman wrestling team.

A Taste of Competition

"I wanted to be the best I could be, and as I go into coaching I still want to be the best I can be," said Waldroup. A communications specialist and 11-year Army veteran, he credits much of what he accomplished as a wrestler to lessons the Army taught him.

Most of the athletes' dreams of making the 1996 U.S. Olympic team really began to take shape in 1994 when the qualification process started. Many of them got a taste of Olympic-style competition in September 1995 when they participated in the first-ever Military World Games held in Rome. There, 201 of the U.S. Armed Forces' finest athletes competed against 4,000 athletes from 85 countries in 14 sports. In most cases, other teams consisted solely of military personnel whose only job is to train in their sport. This is not the case with the United States team, which explains its medal ranking in 21st place. But in the sports directly related to military skills - shooting, parachuting, seamanship - Americans brought home gold from Rome.

By the time Olympic trials began in January 1996, the services had narrowed the field down to just under 100 contenders in boxing, track and field, shooting, modern pentathlon, weightlifting, rowing, team handball, wrestling, and cycling. Just to get to the Olympic trials is a daunting feat. Once in the trials, the pressure is intense. Athletes compete against the top athletes in the nation: national champions, all-Americans from colleges and universities, and former Olympians. In some cases it's not just one trial, it's several.

In track and field, for example, Army Spc. Dionicio Napier - a one-time all-American and the fastest man in the military at the 1995 Rome games - found himself in qualifying heats running against the likes of Carl Lewis. While Napier ran a personal best of 20.32 in the Olympic trial semifinal heat, he was no match for Michael Johnson who ran a record-setting 19.66.

It was a similar scenario for military athletes in the boxing pre-trials, which narrowed the field for the actual Olympic trials. Despite the fact that they were all USA Boxing-ranked national champions in their weight classes, only two military boxers were selected as alternates.

In modern pentathlon (fencing, shooting, riding, swimming and running), there were three preliminary qualifications. It was Army Capt. Jim Gregory of Dumfries, Virginia who captured the only open U.S. slot, serving as an alternate for Mike Gostigan who finished 14th for the United States. On the day of the event, Gregory packed up his competition gear and traveled to the Olympic venue, where he waited. "It was one of the most difficult times of my life," he admitted as he was relegated to watching from the sidelines.

The first active duty military member to be selected to the U.S. Olympic team was Army boxing coach Sgt. 1st Class Jesse Ravelo, a Cuban-born 1968 Olympic qualifier who gave up his spot on the Cuban team to immigrate to the United States. Ravelo served as one of two assistant coaches for the U.S. Olympic Boxing team. The Greco-Roman wrestlers, who were coached by Navy Petty Officer Rob Herman, brought home three silver medals - the best U.S. team finish ever.

Another area in which a U.S. team finished well was handball, hardly known in this country. Abroad, team handball - a fast-paced, demanding sport - draws fanatic crowds. Because the United States competes internationally against other countries whose military sports include team handball, there is a U.S. armed forces team. The U.S. Olympic men's team was coached by two soldiers. one active duty, Army Capt. Rhett Nichol and one reservist, Army Capt. Rick Olyksyk.

It was Army 1st Lt. Michael Thornberry and Air Force 1st Lt. Dave DeGraaf who helped the men's team handball squad to their best Olympic finish ever - ninth place. In overtime against Algeria, a penalty gave the Americans one last shot from nine meters back. Earlier in the game, Thornberry, a six-foot seven-inch West Pointer from Suffolk, Virginia tied the game. A goal would give the Americans the first-ever back-to-back wins for the U.S. squad. Once the referee blew his whistle, DeGraaf would have three seconds to shoot over the wall of Algerians in front of him. He couldn't move his pivot foot; it couldn't leave the floor. He had never, never taken the shot before. The whistle blew, DeGraaf fired. The rest is history.

Meanwhile, another team was firing shotguns, pistols, and air rifles at the Wolf Creek Olympic shooting venue. "We came as close to greatness as we could without having something to show for it in terms of medals," was Army Capt. Rob Harbison's assessment of Olympic shooting competition that ended on with three U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit shooters garnerirg top-10 finishes in their events.

Harbison missed the medal stand, capturing seventh in the men's 10-meter air rifle, one of the two events in which he competed. He entered the final round tied for second place with eventual gold medalist Artem Khadzhibekov of Russia. The Fallston, Maryland officer lost his struggle with nerves in the finals. "I started getting a little nervous. In this sport, that kills you," Harbison said.

A Narrow Miss

Sgt. Theresa DeWitt came the closest to bringing home a medal, finishing fourth in the women's double trap competition. She narrowly missed the bronze, two points away from a third place tie with Germany's Suzanne Kiermayer. It was DeWitt's first olympics and although she is a national champion accustomed to the pressure-cooker of high level competition, she, too, succumbed to nerves.

Another top-10 finisher was Air Force Maj. Bill Roy, who grabbed ninth in men's skeet. The Holloman Air Force Base officer missed the final round by one point. Roy's teammate, Army Sgt. Todd Graves of Fort Benning, Georgia finished tied for 15th.

"I would love to present Department of the Army with some medallions and I'm sorry we didn't do that," said Harbison. "Certainly when you look across the Army team, the character, the sportsmanship and the discipline that was shown, I think we did the Army proud."

Cpl. Tom Gough did the United States Marine Corps proud. The weightlifter from Camp Pendleton, California set three American records in the 201-pound weight class, lifting a combined 808.5 pounds. Finishing 14th, he was bested in the medal chase by Russia's Alexsey Petrov who lifted 885.5 pounds for the gold.