Gwinn High School - Gwinner Yearbook (Gwinn, MI)

Page 17 text:

Despite the personal if light hearted support of David Letterman, luge is still not a huge sport in the U S. For some reason, Americans have not clamored to clamber aboard a tiny sled for an 80 m.p.h. ride on a frozen chute designed to rattle you off. It’s like flying down some icy road with hairy turns in a car with no brakes, says Bonny Warner. She loves it. Disappointed when a crash dropped her to 15th at Sarajevo, Warner, 25, of Mount Baldly, California, last year finished fifth with the world champions. Four East Germans and a Soviet are now her competition. Expecting a good break for a change, Warner boasts brightly, Luge and I were made for each other. Suzy Semanick and Scott Gregory have only been skating together for 3 years. Gregory had been in the 1984 Olympics with Elisa Spitz but after a 10th place finish, she retired. Semanick, 20, of Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, and Gregory. 28. of Skanetales, New York, have been the U.S.’s top couple for the past year. However, in November at a competition, Gregory ruptured a disk in his back. Pain is not a problem but he has lost strength in his left leg. They are working their way around it as much as possible through their free dance routine and still hope for a bronze. Joe Holland could never have imagined himself as number 1 of the U.S. Nordic combined team — at least not the way he got it. First, Kerry Lynch, America’s best hope for a gold medal was disqualified for blood doping, which means taking an oxygen- boosting transfusion of blood before a race. This act is wide-spread and undetectable but when Lynch was questioned, he was honest and said yes, he had tried it once. The new number 1 crashed and broke a hip leaving Holland, Norwicky, Vermont, number 1. 13

Page 16 text:

Olympie Hopefuls The delirious gold medal in Lake Placid was followed by a dispiriting seventh place at Sarajevo, the worst U S. Olympic hock- ey finish ever. With the heights and depths behind them, the 1988 U.S. hockey team is trying to be sensible and dreaming only of the bronze. Even making the final med- al round of six teams will be difficult. Team U.S.A. beat a second-string U.S.S.R. squad six out of eight times during a tune- up tour, but the regular Soviet team and the Swedes, Canadians and Czechs all have an undisputed edge. “Our best level of play comes and goes,” Coach Dave Peterson observed. “We need it all the time to reach the medal round.” The make-or-break team for the U.S. to beat, given the draw: West Germany. Debi Thomas regained her U.S. title with a bravura performance. Now she is ready to take on East Germany’s Katarina Witt. In coincidental symmetry, the two will finish to the music of Bizet in a showdown. Debi is perfecting her figures on the ice and says, “I know just know I can win the gold! If she gets the gold, she will be the first black athlete to win a gold in the Winter Games. Bonnie Blair, 23. from Champaign, Illinois, is shooting for three medals at the Olympic Games while male teammates, Nick Thometz, 24, of Wayzata, Minnesota, and Dan Jensen, 22, of West Allies, Wisconsin, are both skating for the gold. 12

Page 18 text:

Presidential Candidates Sales pitch: Ready, on Day One, to be a Great President. Trans- lation: Four more years. Media character rap: Wimp Most gutsy stand broke tie in favor of '85 social-security freeze. Least gutsy stand: wooed religious right by declaring himself ‘born again. Sales pitch: a record, not a resume. Translation: I'm not George Bush. Media character rap: Captain Queeg Most gutsy stand: ’82 tax-hike, failed, ’85 attempt to freeze budget, including social- security. Least gutsy stand: initial straddle on INF treaty. Sales pitch: This is not a campaign, it’s a cause. Translation: I’m Reagan’s real son. Media character rap: Closed-minded, belief in own Polyanna rhetoric Most gutsy stand: talks up minorities in GOP primaries. Least gutsy stand: attempt to scare elderly on social security. PAT ROBERTSON Sales pitch: Restore America’s greatness through moral strength. Translation: Are you running with me, Jesus? Media character rap: Facts be damned Most gutsy stand: calls for ban on tobacco, fee on alcohol consumer. Least gutsy stand: conversion to textile pro- tectionism. Republicans 14