Triumph and tragedy in 1991
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from December 1991.
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Longstanding barriers fell from Bob Beamon's seeminglyinvinciblelongjump record to South Africa's banishment from international sports. But Diego Maradona's fall from grace after his suspension from soccer and arrest for cocaine, and Magic Johnson's stunning announcement that he had the AIDS virus appeared to garner the most attention.
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson's indictment on a charge of raping a Miss Black America beauty pageant contestant in Indianapolis and America's all-time winningest jockey Bill Shoemaker's paralysis from a car accident also tainted the year in sports.
The year started with Maradona's problems. The Argentine of Italian first-division club Napoli had a season of tangles with his team and fans that started as far back as the 1990 World Cup. Napoli was slipping in the Italian League; it was eliminated from the European Champions Cup and more pressure and attention was added when government prosecutors linked him in February with a drug and prostitution ring in the Naples area.
But that was a mere annoyance compared to April 6, when Maradona was suspended by the Italian League for 15 months for testing positive for cocaine following a March 17 game against Bari, a ban in force worldwide.
He returned to Argentina, but on April 26 he was arrested in a Buenos Aires apartment for cocaine possession. He was convicted in absentia in the Italian case but given a suspended sentence. The Argentina charges are still pending.
Tyson's biggest problem lies ahead_a Jan. 27 trial and a possible 63 years in prison. The rape charge eventually cancelled his long-awaited bid to regain the heavyweight title. He was to have fought Evander Holyfield for the belt on Nov. 8, but a rib injury forced a delay. Because a suitable replacement date couldn't be found between Tyson's recovery and the start of his trial, the bout was called off.
But the biggest shocker was Johnson's. Unlike the often-moody Maradona, Johnson was the smiling world ambassador of professional basketball. When the three-time NBA MVP announced on Nov. 7 that he was retiring because he had the AIDS virus, the world took notice. It put AIDS back on the front pages and stories appeared about the temptations offered athletes at every turn.
He said he would become a spokesman for AIDS education and will be in Barcelona, Spain next summer to lead the first NBA all-star squad into the Olympics. In Barcelona, Johnson will have to share headlines with South Africa, expected to return to the Olympic community after 32 years.
With all major apartheid laws removed and South Africa President F.W. De Klerk's vow to share power with the country's black majority, the International Olympic Committee readmitted the country on July 9, ending its official ban from the IOC after 21 years.
South Africa already has broken the sports boycott, starting with a fall cricket tour of India approved by the International Cricket Council and the ATP Tour's rescheduling of its season-ending doubles championships to Johannesburg.
In December, the United Nations ended its formal sports boycott. On the field, the third IAAF World Championships for Athletics in Tokyo produced more big stories than any other event. Mike Powell broke the sport's longest-standing record - Beamon's 8.90-meter (29 feet-2 1/2 inch) long jump from the 1968 Olympics. In a duel with fellow American Carl Lewis, who had the greatest series of jumps, Powell had one spectacularleap-8.95 (29-4 1/2).
And while Lewis lost the event, his effort was part of a legendary performance at the World Championships. Lewis had three jumps over 29 feet, anchored the 400-meter U.S. relay team to a world record time of 37.50 and earned the title of the world's fastest human with a world record 9.86-second run in the 100 meters.
Also at the World Championships, Katrin Krabbe was the only individual double gold medalist, winning both the 100 and 200 meters, but did not lead an expected windfall of medals for the newly united German team.
Sergei Bubka's performance at the World Championships was anticlimactic. He already had raised the pole vault record eight times in 1991 - four indoor and four outdoor - becoming the first man to go over 20 feet. He won the World Championship gold with a vault of (19-6 1/4), but was one jump short of finishing sixth.
Soccer officials continued to try to increase scoring - without much success. The professional foul rule, ejecting players who foul opponents in clear goal-scoring opportunities, only resulted in ejections, not goals, and in angering coaches and players.
The efforts got a boost when Red Star Belgrade won the European Champions Cup over Olympique Marseille on penalty kicks and then admitted it played defensively to forece the tiebreaker.
Fan deaths continued to mar the sport. Forty-two people died after being crushed in Orkney, South Africa following a goal in a game between the Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. In South America, 10 peopled were killed and 128 injured in Santiago celebrations after Colo Colo became the first Chilean team to win the Libertadores Cup. This occurred the same year Manchester United won the European Cup Winners Cup to cap England's first season back into Europe after a six-year ban. It also was the year that Liverpool, the team whose fans caused the ban, returned to the continent.
Argentina won its first Copa America since 1958 with Gabriel Batistuta replacing Maradona, and the United States made its first dent in international play as Bora Milutinovic coached it to a CONCACAF Gold Cup title. Michelle Akers-Stahl led the Americans to the first Women's World Cup title.
In tennis, Monica Seles won her a version of the Grand Slam that didn't include Wimbledon. After winning the Australian and French Opens, Seles pulled out of the grass-court event claming injury in a minor, yet unspecified, incident. Rumors abounded, including one that she was pregnant. She later claimed shin splints and a stress fracture. She went on to win the U.S. Open and the Virginia Slims Championships, but because of her refusal to play in the Federation Cup-another shin splints claim was rejected by the International Tennis Federation - she won't be playing at the Olympics.
JoiningSelesintheheadlines was Jimmy Connors, who despite not winning a single tournament caused a sensation by reaching the thirdround at Roland Garros and the semifinals at Flushing Meadow at age 39.
Meanwhile, Ayrton Senna won his third world driving title while Ferrari went without a Grand Prix victory for only the third time in the last 21 years. In the United States, Michael Andretti followed in his famous father's footsteps by winning the Indy-car title.
Australia dethroned Pacific neighbor New Zealand as king of rugby union, beating the All Blacks in the semifinals of the World Cup in Britain and then defeating Five Nations champ English on their home ground of Twickenham.
Marc Girardelli won a record-tying fourth overall World Cup title but Alpine skiing lost two of its own in 1991. Austrian Gernot Reinstadler was killed in a Jan. 18 qualifying run crash and former World Cup champion Rudolph Nierlich, also of Austria, died in a May automobile accident.
The United States finally won back golf's Ryder Cup from the Europeans when Bernhard Langer slid a 5-foot (2-meter) putt past the cup on the final hole at Kiawah Island, S.C. France avenged a 1982 loss in the Davis Cup final by beating the Americans in the 1991 final.
Miguel Indurain of Spain rode out of the shadow of his more famous teammate Pedro Delgado, taking the yellow jersey in the Pyrenees and going on to win the Tour de France while Greg LeMond faded in pain.
