00:00:11.000 - 00:04:20.000

Camera Crew Member #1:: Black Champions, Miles Films Productions, April eleventh, nineteen eighty-five; Benita Fitzgerald-Brown. Sound roll thirty-three, camera roll sixty-eight, sound one-zero-three. Camera Crew Member #2:: [inaudible] Go. Interviewer:: Benita Fitzgerald-Brown, you were an Olympic champion in 1984, at Los Angeles. And you also won in an event that no American had won in over fifty years. Were you aware of that when you went into the meet? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: No, I wasn't. That more or less came out after I'd won the medal. I guess I, you know, all the, the information and everything was right at hand to the media so they picked up on that right away. And I'm really only the second woman to win it, because Babe Didrikson was the first American woman. And, and last, before me. [[slate]] Interviewer:: What was it like going to Los Angeles? This was an incredible event, I mean, in terms of the size and, and really the, the, the glamorous dimension of this Olympics. Did it, did that put any particular pressure on the athletes, do you think? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: The pressure was in making the U.S. team, [laughs] to tell you the truth. The Olympic trials were very intense. All the athletes walked around like zombies for like eight days, for the whole eight days of the Olympic trials, because, you know it, you know, really, you can think about the games all you want, but if you don't make the team, you're not gonna be there; and so you really have to concentrate on, all your efforts into making the team, even people, you know, Edwin Moses, Carl, Carl Lewis and people like that, even had to really just focus in on the Olympic trials in chil-really try not to look too far ahead. And after making the team, it seemed almost as if it were a piece of cake because you kinda [laughs] laugh, I've gotten through this, I can get there anything; and you kind of have a more relaxed attitude towards the games and can really enjoy the, all the hype and hoopla and, along with, of course, concentrating on your event. Interviewer:: When you went to the trials, what did you feel about your chances? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: I was confident that I could make the team. I was on the Olympic team in 1980 as a freshman in college. I was eighteen and we didn't get to go to Moscow; but I didn't feel like I was in a position to really do well at the games in eight, 1980 anyway. I thought, I want to go there for the experience and just, you know, to have been there, but it's far as placing or winning a medal or something like that, I thought that was kinda four years along the way. And so, coming into the Olympic trials in '84, like I said it was just very intense, because I'd done it before and it was expected of me to do it again; and I was number one in the country the year before, and top ten in the world, so you just, that pressure's on you and you're saying, well, I've done it before, many, many times; I've never placed lower than second in the national championship, so that, you know, all those things were pointing to the fact that, well, you should make the team, but anything can happen, especially in a hurdle race. You can trip over a hurdle or, I don't know, anything; fall, [laughs] anything can happen between the start and the finish of the race, so-and it did. Four of us crossed the finish line at the exact same time in the Olympic trials, within a hundredth of a second of each other. The winner ran thirteen-point-one-two, and the next three of us crossed in thirteen-point-one-three. So it took a photo finish and about twenty minutes worth of examination in order to figure out who made the Olympic team. And I ended up second in the race. So it was [laughs] pretty exciting. Interviewer:: Who are the top women hurdlers in the world today? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Kerstin Knabe from East Germany, Bettine Jahn from East Germany, and another woman from Pol, Poland, Lucy [sic] Kalek. Those are the top three in the world. I'm, I was ranked number nine in the country. I won the gold medal, but the Eastern Bloc countries weren't there for me to compete against them; and they ended up with faster times at the end of the season, even though I didn't ever get to really race against them throughout the year. [[sic]]

00:04:21.000 - 00:09:48.000

Interviewer:: Is, do you regret that? Do you regret that the Eastern Bloc countries were not at the Olympics? Do you feel perhaps your level of competition might have been raised if, if- Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Yes, it would've been definitely; but you have to look on the bright side of everything. I do, anyway, and after I found out that they were going to boycott and they definitely weren't gonna come, I just realized that, well, it just opens more doors for me and gives me a better chance to win a gold medal. So I just have to focus in on that and worry about everything else after. Or, you know, what might have been, but I just felt like then it was more pressure on me, because I felt like there's no reason for me not to win now because my major competition had, had gone out with the Eastern Bloc countries. Interviewer:: Now you have raised, Kerstin Knabe, I think, you, is it, is that her name- Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Yeah. Interviewer:: East Germany? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Mm-hmm. Interviewer:: From East Germany? You, you've run against her. Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Yes but that was in the world championships the year before, and I was eighth in that, in the world championships. And 1983 in Helsinki. Bettine Jahn won it; I think Kirstin Knabe was second; and I didn't run a very good race. It was the end of the season in August and as I was still running collegiately then; and in the United States we run a really heavy season in April, May, and June, because of the collegiate season, especially collegians because, getting ready for NCAAs in your collegiate coaches have you running dual meets and invitationals and things like that. And you really get burnt out, and by August, you know, you're really on your last legs and you really just out there more or less going through the motions and doing what you can, but you're really past your peak; and that's the point I was in, I was at, at the world championships in '83, so I really don't feel like I was at my best; I thought that if I had been, I probably would've been probably fourth or fifth in that race instead of eighth. Interviewer:: What is it like for you to race in other countries? I mean, what sort of reception do-a lot of people have told us as we talk to them that, Peter Westbrook for example, the Olympic fencer, said that the reception is not always good for American athletes in, in his experience. What has it been like for you when you go see other parts of the world? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Most the time for the track athletes, when we go in, in mostly European countries, they really like track and field a whole lot; they don't have the professional sports that we have as far as football, baseball and everything else taking away from the amateur sports, so mostly it's soccer and track and field and that's it. So they really know the American track and field athletes. So when they see you walking the streets or, and you're in your hotel room and go down to the hotel lobby, you've got fifty or sixty people there hounding you for your autographs, where, in the U.S. you don't get that kind of reception because there's so many good athletes and so many different sports, as you really can't get to know them all. And so I feel like we get a better reception when we're overseas, myself, because of the fact that they appreciate track and field a little bit more. Interviewer:: On the point of your reception; you, you, you've raised a point that you get a better reception over there sometimes perhaps than you do in the United States. Many of the athletes, I think, after the Olympics, most particularly and let's be frank about this, most particularly black athletes felt that America's response to them after the Olympics, in the post-Olympics, was not always as enthusiastic as it might have been. Many other athletes were paid much more attention, many athletes got endorsements and, and, and very lucrative contracts, Mary Lou Retton most particularly. How do you think the American, particularly the black trathle, track athletes; it's important to note that all the gold medals won in track and field at the Olympics were won by black athletes. There is no black athlete on the Wheaties box. Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Yeah. Interviewer:: How, how, did you all talk about that? Wha, what kind of a feeling did you have? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Well, I was pretty disappointed at first because, you know, they, they led us to believe so much, I guess all the athletes that, if we did win gold medals and did do well, that there is gonna be so much waiting for us down the road; and there, w-it wasn't there, and so you have to kind of, I guess, re-evaluate your goals and say, well, first priority for me was to graduate from University of Tennessee in December. And I did that, and I got an agent and everything; and, and, the things just didn't come in for me. So I get to Austin, Texas; I said, well, since I'm not gonna be doing a lot of endorsements, I might as well start on my career; and that's opened the door for me to work at Tracor as an industrial engineer. So I, like I said, I have a tendency to look on the bright side of things. The major accomplishm-major good feeling I got out of, I guess, the Olympic Games was the fact that the people at home, my neighbors in Dale City, Virginia, and the people at home, really appreciated what I did out at the Olympic games. They had a parade for me, and a reception and everything after I got back from the games; and still now I'm, I'm supposed to be the keynote speaker at my sister's graduation in July at my old high school, and I used to play in the Lassie League, softball, so there they have a scholarship fund set up in my honor, and they named a street after me in my hometown and things like that. So when you really get down to it, as long as those people really appreciate what you've done, and your family, and you've done something for them, and done something to improve their quality of life, then I feel like I feel fulfilled. So that's what I have to concentrate on.

00:09:49.000 - 00:16:11.000

Interviewer:: You had a, what would appear, on paper at least, a very rich sort of childhood. I mean, rich in the sense that you had an opportunity to learn a lot of things: You were a musician; you took dance; you, you were an athlete. Tell us a little bit about growing up. Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: I, looking back on it now, I feel like I had a terrific childhood and my parents did ninety, everything ninety-nine percent right; I would thin-I'm sure they didn't do everything perfectly right, but they introduced me to all kinds of things, and more or less let me choose and find out what I was best at. And even then in high school, I had my academics, of course; and then music and track and field, and my father wanted me to go into music; and I was doing really well, probably better in music, probably my s, freshman and sophomore years in high school than I was in track and field, and then after my junior year I made the, my first U.S. team and traveled to Russia and West Germany, and, and I met a whole lotta people and I got to travel a little bit more the next winter during the indoor track season and found that I guess I could travel- Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: -more and meet more people and do more things- Interviewer:: We're out. Camera Crew Member #1:: Cut. [[rollout on camera roll]] [[wild sound]] [[cut]] [[camera roll #69]] Camera Crew Member #1:: Sound zero-, one-zero-four. Interviewer:: Benita Fitzgerald-Brown, I think a lot of people would be interested in what the athlete goes through on the day of a championship. What is, do you have a particular ritual or were the things that you did in Los Angeles on the morning, let us say, of your gold medal hurdles round? Could you tell us a little bit about that? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Well, it's funny because when you're at the Olympic Games and you're in the Olympic Village, it's kind of a totally different atmosphere from one than you've ever been in before. I've been to, like the World University games and things like that, or world championships where you've had to stay in a village, but I think there is so much more excitement at the Olympic Village. It's, I guess mainly because there's so many more athletes, you know, because it's so many different sports, but I stayed out in Pasadena with L, with Laron, my husband for the whole week and a half he was out there, and then the night before my race, I stayed in the Village because I had, I wanted, that's what it was, I wanted to get up and eat breakfast and do all that and not have to worry about having to travel on the freeway from Pasadena all the way to the Village, so I stayed in the Village and there were about eight of us, I guess, and in two rooms, so you were really crowded in there. So I get up and I, I just got ready and got dressed and ate some breakfast and came back up and sat around and watched television. I was talking to the girls and then, in the, in the room, and that was going through my mind; and they were were saying, well how do you feel? And I said I feel ready to go. I was just kind of excited and, and full of anticipation, I guess. Just kind of really excited, I guess, to get out there. I wasn't nervous at all. I was just excited, and that was a good feeling because if you're too nervous, a lot of times you just, you can't really concentrate on what you need to concentrate on. I was just looking forward to the race, a whole lot. And so that's really all that was going to through my mind. I just couldn't wait to get out there. [[slate]] Interviewer:: Tell us about the major competitors in, in the finals. Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Well, two of my teammates, all three of us made it to the final, all three Americans that were entered into the one hundred meter hurdle race. So that was Kim Turner, who ended up getting the bronze medal; and Pam Page, who ended up eighth. And then also from Great Britain, Shirley Strong. And she had finished fifth in the world championships the year before, the race that I had finished eighth in. And so she was major competition, even, probably even more so than my teammates. And a girl that had won a gold medal in the heptathalon, I can't think of her name, but she was from Australia. She was a good hurdler. And a couple from West Germany also. So the whole field was pretty full of people that were running close to the same times. Mine was slightly faster than the rest of them, but it, you know, a few hundredths of the second don't make that much difference when you're in that type of competition. Interviewer:: Did you feel any-were you affected at all by the size of the crowd? Of course, the place you were running at is an incredibly large stadium. Did that affect you at all, or did you sort of put that out of your mind? What actually happens when you go into the starting blocks? Does all that shut out, or- Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Well, people are usually nice at a, at an event like that. They sh-they're really quiet when the gun goes-before the end goes off when they're giving you the commands in the blocks. I didn't really notice the c, the crowd while I'm warming up. They let you out there; you go through the tunnel; and they check your spikes and everything like that. And they check your numbers and, and all that type of thing. And they they s-led, lead you out to the track to another bench where you have to sit there; or you can just run around, but you can't get into the blocks and warm up over the hurdles yet. So you're kind of lookin' around and doing strides, mostly. That's all I was doing, just trying to keep my legs warm and loose, and I didn't really notice the crowd that much, either. The noise is, is, it's kind of low, like in a cafeteria and you're eating; you know there's noise, but you don't really pay that much attention to it, because you're, well you're concentrating on something else and you get into the blocks, and the race goes off, and I didn't really hear the crowd either during the race, but after the semifinal race, I won my semifinal and ran a good strong race and that's what my goal was, to run a good strong race and go into the final with a positive attitude. I crossed the finish line, and I heard this m, monstrous roar, because they just love to see you as athletes do; well, they don't care if it's the semifinal or a trial heat or anything. If you win, they just go crazy; and they were waving flags and yelling my name and, just as if I won the gold medal already. And so I said, Gosh, if they're gonna do this for the semifinal, I can't wait to get out here and see, you know, and try and win this race so that I can feel is feeling again, because it was, it was just so great; it was a wonderful feeling. So I had to come back, excuse me, half an hour later and run the final-well, almost half an hour. It's about and hour and a half they give you, but by the time the semifinal race have run, and I got back to the warm-up area, I had a half an hour; so I came back again and, and won the race that much later.

00:16:12.000 - 00:21:23.000

Interviewer:: The Olympic, the stakes at the Olympics, of course, are tremendously high. I mean, people come there, I'm sure feeling that this is, you know, the chance of a lifetime. What does that do to the relationship between the athletes? Are you able to speak to the other, I mean, can you maintain any sort of relationship with, with the rest of the people? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Yeah, I think it's, like I said, the, the feelings are more intense at the Olympic trials than they were at the Olympic Games as far as between the athletes were concerned, because you know you're here to beat this person out of a spot on the team, you know, and that is just, like I said, just, that is a major thing is just getting there, because after that you feel like it's all downhill. All you have to do is run your race, keep yourself together and like Coach Brook, Brooks Johnson always says; he was the head women's coach, what got you there will keep you there, so you continue to do the things that you've been doing and more, you know, nine times out of ten it will come out well for you. So I ended up talking to the athletes probably more at the games in, especially my teammates, than I did at the trials. It was just kind of, you see them and you don't wanna really get too friendly because [laughs] you don't want to let your guard down until after the race is over, but after the semifinals, and I had run well, I talked to my ch-the people that were in my race that had made the final, they were saying how well I'd run, and I'd compliment them and you go on off about your business and do your warm-up, and after the race I wasn't sure if I had won right away. You know you, it's like well, I know I put my arms up and I, jerked them down really quick, and I said, I don't want to celebrate too soon. It's, it seems too overwhelming that you could've actually won a gold medal in the Olympics. And the girls came up and patted me on the head and huggin' me and stuff, saying I won, so, you know, if the people in the race, they think you've won, really you should believe it, so I was happy. The girls were really great in my race. Interviewer:: What made you choose the University of Tennessee? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: When I was coming out of high school, a lot of people were recruiting me; a lot of schools, and I had narrowed it down to UCLA, and Penn State, Tennessee, and the University of Virginia, and Tennessee seemed to have a women's program overall that was up-and-coming and that really cared about the athletes. And the head coach there at the time, Terry Crawford, called me all the time and she talked more about more things than just track and field. She was interested in my academic life, and you know what how the engineering school was gonna work into the fact that I was there on a full scholarship and things like that. And she seemed really interested in me as an individual and I appreciated that. She didn't have a sprint hurdle coach before I got there and she hired one, especially so that I would get the training I needed. So when she was saying that she was looking for sprint hurdle coach so that I would get the best training, since she didn't know that much about the hur, the sprints and the hurdles, I felt, well, she's really putting a lotta effort into this, and that's why I went. Interviewer:: The hurdle event has always impressed me as something tremendously difficult, because you have to maintain speed, and you also have to be able to elevate yourself, lift yourself over the hurdles. Is that, does skill in that come from training, or do you have to have some special sort of natural gift for it? How did you come to it? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: You have to have a pretty natural rhythm inside you, so that, it's kind of instinctive once you've done it enough times to know that three steps and another hurdle's gonna be there; but I started running the hurdles in junior high school, and there were only four hurdles over fifty yards, and naturally came out of the blocks and, and went over the hurdle and had three steps in between; and went to the next one, and three steps without alternating my legs or anything like that, and that was the right technigue for the event; and so I just kind of naturally fell into it, where a lot of girls would hop over the hurdle then kinda take itty-bitty steps and hop again. I wasn't doing that and never have. I used ta could say that I had never fallen in a hurdle race, but I did last year in Columbus, Ohio. But that was one nice thing because, because of a natural rhythm, because of of the fact that I naturally fell into the event, I hadn't had any problems with trying to get to the hurdle. And it takes a lot of practice as far as refining the technique of hurdling. I have, I'm very long-legged, [clears throat] and I have a lotta speed, but my speed usually comes from my stride length. So a couple of years ago, my coach and I had to, [clears throat] excuse me, get together and decide how to shorten my stride and, and increase the stride frequency so that I wouldn't have to take such big steps in between the hurdles. It was getting me too close to the hurdles, so I was hitting them towards the end of the race. So I chopped down my stride and now I don't sprint as fast, as far as the open race is concerned, but it has helped my hurdling out tremendously. Interviewer:: Have you ever competed in any other track events besides hurdling? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Yes, I used to sprint, do the hundred meters and two hundred meters. For like three or four years I was ranked in top ten in the country in all three events. But when I decided to totally concentrate on the hurdles in '83, that's when everything turned around and I, I went from number two in the nation to number one, and that felt really good, so I decided just to concentrate on the hurdles ever since then.

00:21:24.000 - 00:26:28.000

Interviewer:: I would have to imagine that when you've won a gold medal, and certainly there's a great deal of pressure to get there, to win the medal; and there's a great deal of pressure in the process of winning of the actual race, but it would seem to me also there'd be a tremendous amount of pressure once you've won the medal, because then you've got to think, well where do I go from here. If I don't win my next race it was just a- Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: [clears throat] Interviewer:: -fluke, if I go to the Olympics again and don't do well, people will say I was just a flash in the-and do you feel that? Do you still- Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Yeah, I'm feeling it a lot, because it's hard for me to get back up for the races and for training because I guess I- Interviewer:: Are we out? Camera Crew Member #1:: Yeah. Interviewer:: We'll come back to that. We'll come- [[rollout on camera roll]] [[wild sound]] [[cut]] [[camera roll #70]] Camera Crew Member #1:: Sound roll thirty-four, camera roll seventy. Sound one-zero-five. Interviewer:: Had you participated in other track events before your current career started? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Uh-huh, I have run the hundred and two hundred, and of course relays on, on my college team; and I really enjoyed sprinting, but I just kind of fell into running the hurdles and concentrating on that event because I felt that I had the most potential in the hurdles. I was ranked top ten in the country for like three or four years in both the hundred in the two hundred, and the hurdles all the same time, and I ended up dropping the hurdles, the sprints in '83, and becoming number one in the country, because I concentrated all my efforts into one place. They say, Jack of all trades and master of none; that's more or less what I was until I concentrated on just the hurdles. [[slate]] Interviewer:: Tell us something about your family. You come from a rather extraordinary background; I think certainly a very encouraging and nurturing one. Tell us a little bit about the people in your family. Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: My father graduated from Virginia Union University. Both parents did, their undergraduate work anyway; and my father got his Master's at Virginia Tech and my mother got hers at Columbia University. Both of them, I guess started their careers before they got married. I think they started teaching, I guess my mother about twenty-two, twenty-three; and my father after he got out of the Air Force. So they had probably five or six years on their own. So they didn't get married till about twenty-nine. I think they were more mature, more ready to handle, you know, a lot of things than, well, they'd be even older than I am now at twenty-three and twenty-one. So they really knew what they wanted to teach their children; you know, the values and everything else, and how they wanted to go about doing that. So all my life they've introduced a lot of things to me that a lot of parents don't, or just let the child find out for themselves, but my father would always take me sightseeing and bike riding and introduced me to classical music, and I play the violin. I was in ballet, tap dancing, gymnastics, softball, you name it. So I got to explore a whole lot of different things and then find out what I was best in. Interviewer:: You are an example, I think, also, of a person whose athletic ability acquired for her an education. You've recently graduated from the University of Tennessee. You might probably have gone to college anyway, but how do you feel about the fact that athletics can in fact provide a person an education? Is that a good thing? We hear about the abuses that people have recruited into virtual nervous breakdowns, and that there is some abuse of athletes once they get into college. What was it like being a full scholarship person at the University of Tennessee? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: For me it wasn't as bad as some of the stories you've heard or I've heard, because the fact that m, my coaches were so understanding and responsive to my needs and that's, like I said, one reason why I went to University of Tennessee in the first place. They understood that engineering takes a lotta time and I understood also that track and field was the reason I was at University of Tennessee in the first place, as far as them paying for my school. So instead of taking the required-not required, but suggested eighteen, seventeen hours a quarter, I took twelve to fifteen hours a quarter and took five years to graduate, but in that way, I was more rested and, and, and didn't have to put so much effort into my schoolwork that would take away from my track and vice-versa. During finals week or during the time I had a test, if I needed, if I had stayed up all night studying, or if I needed extra time for a test I would just tell my track coaches, who would say, OK, take the day off; go on back and study or go back home and sleep or do whatever, [laughs] you know, I needed to do; so, I had really good understanding with my coaches, though for me it worked out really well. I took advantage of the situation. My fifth year, in '84, this past year, to continue to go to school, a lot of people would've taken off from school in order to train for the Olympics, but I figured I had been running well and going to school for four years and I felt like I could do it one more year and ended up, and finish up my degree, and so that's what I did. I didn't wanna take off that one year. I've seen a lot of people do that and then, well, I'd rather do this, and never really get back to it. And since it was free and they were still paying for it, I felt like I really should do it. And that's what I did.

00:26:29.000 - 00:31:51.000

Interviewer:: When you were growing up, did you have some-were there athletes who were the people in sports you looked up to particularly? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: No, not really, not as far as, you know, heroes or, or idols. I had heard of Wilma Rudolph, of course, and Jesse Owens; and you always think of things, like wow, you know, that would never happen to me; you know, it was more or less not something that you're aspiring to do, but as far as really admiring them for doing what they've done. But not until I was in high school-I was a freshman, and a, a neighbor of mine and also a friend and teammate, Paula Girven, made the Olympic team in '76, and she was a senior at my high school on the same team as I was, and she made the team in the high jump. And my coach, at the end of that summer, said to me, Oh, Benita, you could be there too. You have the potential, you have the talent; and she said, Just somethin' to think about. And four years later I was; and four years after that I was also, and won the gold medal. So I think Paula really had a [clears throat] great deal to do with my realizing it's not just the Wilma Rudolph and Jesse Owens, so far away, but as someone right here at home that lives around the corner with a similar background, you know, both parents very educated and living in middle-class neighborhood that can achieve those things. You really don't hafta know the way, on Mars' it seems almost as if they are because they're so far away from reality when you're, you know, twelve, thirteen years old. Interviewer:: If a friend came to you and said, I've got a daughter, ten, twelve years old, let's say, and she dreams about being an Olympian. She dreams about being a champion. Will you come and look at her, take a look at what kind of athletic ability she has, what kind of temperament she has. What are the kind of things you'd be looking at? What kind of advice would you give a person? First of all, what kinds of things would you look for, temperamentally, and, perhaps, in terms of physical abiity? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Well, a lotta people have the talent to be champions in, in a sport; not necessarily just track and field; any sport, and there's so many athletes, especially guys I know, [laughs] that have gone to college or have been in high school and just been awesome athletes and gotten to college and you never hear them again; or they don't have the grades to go to college and you really never hear of them again after that, and it's really disappointing. So I would, I would look for average intelligent person, you know, because you'd have to, you know, have that in order to know what it means to be a champion, what you have to put into it physically and emotionally; and, and also to take advantage of whatever opportunities may come your way, such as a full scholarship in, in your, your particular sport. Also, a person that isn't, doesn't have tunnel vision, I guess, as far as wanting just to do one thing, oblivious to everything else in their lives. I think it really is important to take into account your education or your family and everything else that's going on around you, because a lot of people [clears throat] put all their eggs into one basket and then it doesn't come true for them and then they're kinda devastated. They don't have anything else to fall back on. A lot of people in this, this summer in '84 did not make the Olympic team that should have, you know. In my race, the, the girl they have been the country before me, Stephanie Hightower, did not make the team. And she was concentrating on that; that was her number one goal for four or five years was to make the Olympic team and it didn't happen. Well she does have a degree, so she had something else to fall back on, but a lot of people didn't. And a lot of people, They're, they're older now and you know, twenty-eight, twenty-nine years old. They don't have another Olympiad in them. And so if they haven't gone out and tried to do something else outside of track and field or outside of their sport, they're really kind left in the dust as far as something else to do with their lives are concerned. Interviewer:: Do you think too much emphasis is placed on athletics among black youngsters across the country? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: [clears throat] I don't think so. I think that it's not too much effort to place an emphasis placed on sports. It's not enough placed on other areas. They just make it seem as if sports is the end-all. I think you really do need to throw yourself into it in order to do well. You have to concentrate on the sport when you're there. When you're at practice, you need to be concentrating on the, on practice. When you're at the meet, concentrating on what you're doing, and, you know, putting all of yourself into that. But they don't concentrate enough on everything else. Like I said, you need to be a little bit more well-rounded so that there are other things in; and don't let your schoolwork go by the wayside, because you can be the best athlete in the world and if you don't have the grades, you're not gonna, A, get into the University; or, B, if you get in, you won't be able to stay. Interviewer:: How would you finish the sentence, To be a champion? Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: Huh [laughs] To be a champion. I don't know. [laughs] As far as how it feels or, or wanting to be one. [clears throat] Interviewer:: If somebody said, here first part of a sentence, to be a champion, and, and, what would be the rest of the sentence as far as you're concerned. Benita Fitzgerald-Brown:: To be a champion is to have achieved the pinnacle of success in a particular area. That's what I feel it is. Camera Crew Member #1:: Cut. [[cut]] [[end of interview]]