1984 US Olympic Team
Hoping to earn a spot on the 1980 US Olympic Team, working out over five hours per day, and working full-time six days a week at a steel mill, Cummings was one of many athletes disappointed by the U.S.'s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Games. Due to work demands and disappointment at the 1980 boycott, Cummings came close to retiring altogether from running. When he was laid off from the mill in late 1980, he began running full-time.
In 1984, Cummings won the US Olympic Trials in the 10,000 Meter run in Los Angeles, CA and finally became a member of the US Olympic Team. He was able to compete in the 10,000 meter run at the Olympics held in Los Angeles, but did not make the finals. Cummings suffered from allergies that hindered his performance at the games.
Read more about this topic: Paul Cummings
Famous quotes containing the words olympic and/or team:
“Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.”
—Joseph Heller (b. 1923)
“Imagination is a valuable asset in business and she has a sister, Understanding, who also serves. Together they make a splendid team and business problems dissolve and the impossible is accomplished by their ministrations.... Imagination concerning the world’s wants and the individual’s needs should be the Alpha and Omega of self-education.”
—Alice Foote MacDougall (1867–1945)