Gymnasts coming from her gym in Culver City were looking very different from some of the others they were competing against.
They reasoned that while Daoud had been consolidating his personal power and pursuing new foreign ties, he had neglected the domestic issues that were straining his country.
To help change the minds of some of the countries that had decided to stay away, Soviet officials began offering inducements such as free travel packages that included transportation on the Soviet airline Aeroflot.
I had won the race by almost three seconds and that record stood for 20 years.