Stories from an unforgettable Olympics held in Los Angeles 40 years ago

Their names became instant gold along with their performances, their faces featured on Wheaties boxes and in fast food commercials, while the person presiding over the 1984 L.A. Olympic Games was awarded Time Magazine Man of the Year for rescuing an institution many feared was headed for extinction.

Forty years later, mention of these American sports heroes – Peter Ueberroth, Greg Louganis, Mary Lou Retton, Edwin Moses, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Rowdy Gaines and others who won a collective 174 medals amidst a Communist boycott – still evoke vivid memories for those who were alive to watch and flickers of recognition from those who were not.

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“It’s weird,” said Gaines, a 10-time world record-holder in swimming who won three gold medals in L.A. at age 26. “I look at the videos every once in a while and I remember every single detail of what that moment was like. And then the other half of me goes ‘Who is that guy? I’ve never seen that guy before. Wow, that guy won a gold medal.’”

Over the course of three months this spring, graduate students at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism endeavored to recapture that sense of wonder, interviewing more than 80 Olympic athletes, coaches, officials, journalists and assorted experts in a sweeping retrospective of one magical summer.

Through the experience, they uncovered stories never before told, reassembling the last amateur U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team; chronicling six nights of miracles in U.S. gymnastics; and examining the bedrock of women’s basketball with stars like Cheryl Miller who were never fully given their due. We are reminded of the groundbreakers in track and field, and swimming and diving along with pioneers in technology amidst the backdrop of 1980s politics and culture.

As Paris 2024 draws closer and LA28 looms, Gaines is so right. It is weird. Forty years have gone by in an instant. But like the icons who defined the 1984 L.A. Games, it is gilded in gold.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stories from an unforgettable Olympics held in Los Angeles 40 years ago