Not At All Pretty, But Almost Perfect

Next came two more bouts and two more golds: 1983 Pan Am Games 136.5-pound champion Randy Lewis, his right leg swathed like a movie mummy, beat another Japanese, Kosei Akaishi, 24-11 in 4:52, rallying after a sloppy start in which Akaishi had picked up Lewis and carried him around, looking for a suitable place to throw him. In the 198-pound class, Ed Banach stormed into Akia Ohta, also of Japan, at one juncture twisting Ohta's left wrist to such an extent that the bout was stopped so that medics could tape the wrist back into position. Banach went on to win a 15-3 technical-superiority decision.

But it was Lewis who provided the evening's most stirring moment when, with his mashed nose and cauliflowered ears still reddened, he cried tenderly through the national anthem. It was at this point that the crowds at the Anaheim Convention Center finally seemed to sense the lack of suspense in the matches.

When Friday night's mayhem was over, the U.S. had won two more gold medals, bringing its victory total to five in the first six weight classes. Dave Schultz whomped West Germany's Martin Knosp 4-1, and in the 100-plus-kilo class, Bruce Baumgartner, who weighs 267 pounds, beat Bob Molle of Canada 10-2. When Gable was asked that night if maybe he felt like Bobby Knight, he raised his battered eyebrows and growled, "Oh, did he win big, too?"

But imagine Gable's surprise when—horrors!—Saturday night's session opened with two Americans getting only silver medals. Barry Davis, at 125.5 pounds, was handily beaten by Japan's Hideaki Tomiyama, and in the week's messiest bout, Andrew Rein, a 149.5-pounder, tied You In Tak of Korea 5-5, only to lose the decision on criteria. But what the crowd was really waiting for was the return of Mark Schultz.

He didn't disappoint them: Waiting in center ring was Hideyuke Nagashima of Japan. Poor chap. Schultz whapped him across the forehead to get his attention and then pounced on him. Suddenly it was 5-0 for Schultz, and then, with only 1:59 having elapsed in the first period, it was over, 13-0, on technical points.

Mark came up grinning. "Was there an extra official just watching the Schultzes?" he said. He feigned innocence. "I didn't know that. Of course, it didn't help, my brother busting up that guy's leg like that." And then Mark recalled the angry episode with Karabachak and his compatriots. "Well, I thought about apologizing to him, I really did," Mark said. "But I knew if I did, he'd just say, 'Aw, go to hell. You broke my arm.' "

As a grand finale, the 100-kilo Banach brother, Lou, swarmed all over Joseph Atiyeh, who's from Syria—well, sort of, he wrestles for LSU—and won a medal with the only pin of the night. Thus ended the U.S. romp.

There was another happy result to report: Sejdi of the wrenched leg, David Schultz's fourth-round victim, recovered enough to get a bronze medal Saturday. How about that, Dave?

"I was really bothered by this 'brutality' stuff against us," he said. "You know, in a fair match, the better you are, the closer you come to being brutal. That's wrestling." Then he shrugged and took a different slant. "The fans are so enthusiastic about us," he said. "I mean, we're just walking around, our eyes all cut and scraped, and perfect strangers will recognize us. They cheer us. They'll "drive by in their cars and they'll roll down the windows, and you know what they yell at us? They yell, 'Kill 'em!' "