Sport: The Champion

In drama and accomplishment, their duel was the most stirring man-to-man competition of the Olympic Games. Drenched by rain, California’s strapping Rafer Johnson, 26 (TiME cover, Aug. 29), and Formosa’s wiry Vang Chuan-kwang, 27, had struggled until u p.m. on the first day of the decathlon—the exhausting, ten-event test that would decide which was the world’s best all-round athlete. On the second day, after the two men had wearily completed the ninth event (the javelin), statisticians figured that Johnson led Yang by a cliffhanging 67 points.

“I hope it’s all wrapped up before the 1,500 meters,” Johnson had said. “I never want to settle one in that thing.” But the 1960 Olympic gold medal was to be settled in “that thing”: the metric mile, despised by all decathlon men because it demands brute endurance just as their last bit of strength is ebbing away.

“Judas Priest!” Up in the stands in seat 18, row 10, entrance 5 was a short, bald track coach who knew better than any other man just how much the 1,500 meters would cost Johnson and Yang. U.C.L.A.’s Ducky Drake had trained them both. For two days he had alternately worried about Johnson (“He’s tense. Loosen up, Ray. Loosen up! Relax”), and exhorted Yang (“Judas priest! Get that blasted head down on that high jump”). Drake guessed that Johnson would forget about winning the 1,500 meters, try simply to stick close enough to Yang to preserve his overall decathlon lead. “If Ray doesn’t tie up, he’ll dog Yang all the way,” said Drake. “He’s got the heart to do it.”

When the two men lined up in the chilly night, their sweat-soaked bodies reflected light from the flaring Olympic torch. Right from the start, Johnson took his position behind Yang. At the end of the third lap, Yang suddenly let his head loll down to his chest. “Come on, Ray!” yelled U.S. Olympic Basketball Coach Pete Newell in a voice that carried to the track. “Come on, boy. He’s fading.” As though he had been slapped, Yang snapped his head up and increased the pace. Johnson painfully lengthened his stride.

“Walk, Walk, Walk.” Coming into the homestretch, Yang fought to gulp down air, and began his final bid for a gold medal. His lead grew to a foot, two feet, a meter. Inch by inch, Johnson somehow gained it back. Then, with only meters to go, Johnson’s legs went dead. Momentum alone carried him to the finish line a bare 1.2 sec. slower than Yang’s time of 4:48.5 That was close enough: the race of his career had won Johnson the gold medal by the Olympic record score of 8,392 to Yang’s 8,334. Left far behind in the third place with 7,809 points was Russia’s Vasily Kuznetsov.

With every rival conquered, Rafer John son later reaffirmed his decision to retire from the decathlon. “Tonight I’m going to shower and then just walk for abou four hours and look at the moon,” said Olympic Champion Johnson, “I don’ know where—just walk, walk, walk. I’ve got to unwind. I’m through, man, I’n through.”