A pair of homegrown Georgia heroes excelled Saturday, one bringing home America's first medal, as the United States and its Dream Team took advantage of the home court on Day 1 of the Atlanta Olympic Games.
Dream Team III, the millionaires' club of newly acquired Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal and friends, needed the help Saturday. The world's best basketball team looked little like its powerhouse predecessors for much of the night before blasting overwhelmed and underpaid Argentina, 96-68 (see accompanying story on this page).Muhammad Ali and Arnold Schwarzennegger were among the celebrities who watched as the Dream Team, plagued by 14 turnovers, struggled to a 46-44 halftime lead. Charles Barkley, once again playing the ugly American, received a technical for arguing a referee's call.
Angel Martino of Americus, Ga., grabbed the bronze in the women's 100-meter freestyle to put America on the medal stand, starting a string of three medals in four events for the swim team.
Martino, who later gave her medal to a cancer-stricken friend (see story on Page D6), was joinedin short order by silver medalists Jeremy Linn in the 100-meter breaststroke and Allison Wagner in the women's 400-meter individual medley.
Earlier Saturday, Kennesaw, Ga., native Kris Benson took the mound at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and pitched the U.S. baseball team to a 4-1 victory over Nicaragua.
"It meant the world to me," Benson said of his dream-come-true start. "I wanted to pitch on opening day. I knew the significance of getting off on a good note."
The first day of competition, following ex-heavyweight champion Ali's poignant lighting of the Olympic torch, continued the glow of good feelings for U.S. competitors at the Centennial Games.
In addition to the swimming medals and baseball win, the U.S. boxing team started strong when 119-pounder Zahir Raheem handily won his first bout, as did 147-pounder Fernando Vargas. The American Greco-Roman wrestlers took five of their first seven bouts. The women's field hockey team, on a goal with 1:57 left, pulled out a 1-1 tie with the Netherlands. And the women's volleyball team, led by sisters Bev and Eleina Oden, dispatched the Ukraine in straight sets.
"I heard the crowd and I heard my teammates. That motivated me," said Raheem, who arrived in the ring to chants of "USA! USA!"
The toughest loss was suffered by the U.S. soccer team, which grabbed an early one-goal lead against heavily favored Argentina before losing 3-1 to disappoint a raucous sellout crowd in Alabama. The men's water polo team went down to Italy, 10-7.
Waiting for Monday's finals: the U.S. men's gymnastics team, which placed fifth in Saturday's compulsories to qualify. Russia and China placed 1-2.
Fan support at the first American games in a dozen years was vociferous at worst, overwhelming at best - particularly in Birmingham, Ala., where more than 80,000 packed the Crimson Tide's Legion Field for the U.S. soccer team's loss.
The pro-USA crowd at the pool rooted hardest for Martino, 29, the oldest U.S. woman Olympic swimmer in 72 years. The Georgian, who won two golds and a bronze in Barcelona, blew a post-race kiss to her cheering fans.
Martino's teammate, Amy Van Dyken, came in fourth despite a career-best performance. The exhausted Van Dyken, who took up swimming to battle an asthma problem, needed assistance from trainers on the pool deck after the race.
Fred Deburghgraeve of Belgium, who earlier set a world record, won gold in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1 minute, 00.65 seconds. Le Jingyi of China, one of only two members of the controversial Chinese woman's team to qualify for Saturday's finals, won the women's 100-meter freestyle.
At the 1994 world championships in Rome, China's women won 12 of 16 gold medals. But just two weeks later, seven Chinese swimmers, including two of those champions, tested positive for steroid use before the Asian Games in Japan.
Michelle Smith of Ireland won the gold medal in the women's 400-meter individual medley, her country's first Olympic swimming medal.
The three favorites expected to vie for basketball silver and bronze played Saturday. Yugoslavia, despite foul trouble that benched Charlotte Hornets center Vlade Divac for the game's last 11 minutes, defeated Greece 71-63.
Lithuania, the defending bronze medalist, defeated 1992 silver medalist Croatia 83-81 in double overtime. Chicago Bulls sixth man Toni Kukoc, playing with a broken thumb on his shooting hand, scored 33 points for Croatia.
Boxer Raheem, of Philadelphia, staggered Hoe Jong-Gil of North Korea seconds into their fight and cruised to a 19-4 win before a loud, flag-waving crowd at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Raheem's teammates chanted "USA! USA!" as the fight went on - a chorus that was repeated at other venues.
Vargas, of Oxnard, Calif., the only other U.S. boxer to compete on opening day, won a 10-4 decision over Tengiz Meskhadze of Georgia at 147 pounds.
At the home of the champion Braves, local boy Benson survived a shaky first inning in the biggest game of his life as the U.S. baseball team won its opener. Benson, 21, outdueled 35-year-old left-hander Asdrudes Flores for the victory.
The Americans' top competition in baseball, the Cubans, routed Australia 19-8 in their opener.
Other firsts on Day 1 of the Summer Games:
- The first gold medal was won by Renata Mayer of Poland in the women's 10-meter air rifle competition.
- The first world record was set by Deburghgraeve with a time of 1.00.60 seconds in the 100-meter breaststroke preliminaries.
- The first bizarre defeat came as defending 10-meter air pistol champion Wang Yifu flinched to blow his final shot - and the gold medal - before collapsing against a wall. He was given oxygen and taken to the medical tent for treatment; officials blamed the heat that reached as high as 99 degrees.
- The first athlete eliminated in a scheduling mix-up was defending gold medalist David Khakhaleichvili of Georgia, who went to the wrong venue Saturday morning. A bomb scare kept the judo heavyweight from entering the right venue, and he forfeited his match.