In 1984 Olympics, this sport's first tie in history brought US double gold

The 1984 U.S. Olympic swim team needed less than one minute to pick up its first two gold medals.

In the 100-meter freestyle – the first swimming event of the Los Angeles Games – American teammates Carrie Steinseifer (now Steinseifer-Bates) and Nancy Hogshead each touched the wall in 55.92 seconds, creating the first tie in Olympic swimming history.

“I thought it amplified the gold,” Hogshead said, “that it was like a double-gold.”

“It was really special to share it with another American,” Steinseifer-Bates said.

The two-for-one gold set the tone for one of the most dominant swimming performances in Olympic history. Always a force in the pool, the Americans established a stranglehold on the medal podium during the first Summer Olympics on home soil in 52 years, winning 20 of 29 events. It was truly a team effort, with seven different Americans winning three gold medals, including Steinseifer-Bates and Hogshead.

Ironically, this 1984 American tidal wave was partially propelled by the country’s decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics.

“I’m not sure if there was a 1980 Games that I would have gone for (1984),” Hogshead said. “I really thought that was it, that 1980 was going to be the end of my major swimming career.”

But after President Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. would not attend the Moscow Games, Hogshead decided to continue training in college at Duke – which might not have been possible without the introduction of Title IX just a few years before.

“Thank God for Title IX,” said Hogshead, who has spent much of her post-swimming careerprotecting the statute as a civil rights lawyer.

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Tracy (Caulkins) Stockwell also won three gold medals in 1984, including both individual medleys. But while the boycott robbed her of the opportunity to do the same in 1980, hindsight revealed it may have been a blessing. She met her husband, Australian swimmer Mark Stockwell, at the Los Angeles Games.

“Would I have been as motivated to go to 1984 had I gone to 1980?” Stockwell said. “And would I have met my husband? It’s funny how things work out that way.”

Steinseifer-Bates was just 16 during the Los Angeles Games, so she hadn’t suffered through the boycott. But in her eyes, the resolve from her older teammates who had seen their dream deferred four years formed the “backbone” of the U.S. onslaught in 1984.

“There’s not been an Olympic team like that since,” Steinseifer-Bates said, “and there may never be if we don’t get a boycott situation again.”

Zoe Grossman contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: In 1984 Olympics, this sport's first tie in history brought US double gold