Havel, Laurie Lewis

Description

Sweatsuit jacket worn by Laurie Lewis (Havel) as a member of Team USA volleyball at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympic Games. Lewis, a high school volleyball player made the national team in 1967 which won a gold medal at the Pan American Games that same year. After competing in the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City, she joined the UCLA Bruins volleyball team in 1969 and led the Bruins to their first women's championship in 1972.The 1968 Olympic Games were the first to be held in Latin America and the first in a Spanish speaking country. The 1968 US Olympic track and field team was one of the most successful track teams’ ever-assembled winning twenty-four medals, including twelve golds. The high altitude of Mexico City, where the Games were held, was attributed to many of the records broken in the short distance races although those in the endurance races suffered from the lack of oxygen. These games also introduced the world to the Fosbury flop as Dick Fosbury won the gold with a new backward approach to the high jump, 16-year-old Debbie Meyer became the first US woman to win three individual golds in swimming and newcomer, George Foreman won Gold in boxing. These Games were the first to subject athletes to drug testing which led to the first disqualification of an athlete after consuming beer before his pentathlon competition. The politically charged atmosphere around the globe that year also contributed to controversy on the medal podium when...

Record Contributed By

National Museum of American History

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution