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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

1984 Summer Olympics

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Carl Lewis #915 of the USA runs the anchor leg of the Men's 4x100 meter relay race of the Track and Field competition of the 1984 Olympic Games held on August 11th ,1984 in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Carl Lewis of the United States, making his first of four appearances at the Olympics, equaled the 1936 performance of Jesse Owens by winning four gold medals, in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump.
Gina Hemphill runs through the stadium carrying the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony for the XXIII Olympic Summer Games on July, 28th 1984. Noted athlete O. J. Simpson was among the runners, carrying the torch up the California Incline in Santa Monica. Gina Hemphill, a granddaughter of Jesse Owens, carried the torch into the Coliseum, completed a lap around the track, then handed it off to the final runner, Rafer Johnson, winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Summer Olympics
1960 U.S. gold medal decathlete Rafer Johnson carries the Olympic torch through the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before lighting the Olympic flame and formally launching the summer games, July 28th, 1984. With the torch, he touched off the flame which passed through a specially designed flammable Olympic logo, igniting all five rings. Johnson became the first person of African descent to light the cauldron in Olympic history. The flame then passed up to the cauldron atop the peristyle and remained aflame for the duration of the Games.
Graphic for LA Olympics 1984. Offset lithography, 21 7/8 × 33 7/8 in. The 1984 Summer Olympics were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the second time that Los Angeles had hosted the Games, the first being in 1932. California was the home state of the incumbent U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who officially opened the Games
Hitting the Wall. 1984. 20ft. x 100ft. Acrylic on Cast Concrete. Location: 4th Street off-ramp off the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles, California Baca’s 1984 Olympics mural, commemorates female marathon runners. “In it, a female runner with her arms outstretched breaks through a finish line and takes down a brick wall with her, revealing the L.A. skyline behind. The image of triumph wasn’t just another piece of street art. Far from it. It was commissioned for the 1984 games by the international Olympic Organizing Committee and designed to depict a national milestone – the first time women were allowed to compete in the games.” – LAist
Freeway artwork is displayed along freeways and on-ramps near downtown Los Angeles prior to the Olympic Games, January 31st, 1984, Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1932 and 1984. Prior to the 1932 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles Times art critic Arthur Millier recommended taking visiting attendees on a tour of the city's murals. For the 1984 Summer Olympics, a series of ten murals were painted along the 110 and 101 freeways as part of the Olympic Arts Festival.
by Judith F. Baca. Los Angeles Daily News - Baca said she created the mural specifically in celebration of the first women’s Olympic marathon, staged that year at the L.A. games. Fifty female competitors came from 28 countries to compete on Aug. 5, 1984, with the 26-mile race concluding in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. American Joan Benoit won the gold medal, with the silver going to Grete Waitz of Norway, and the bronze to Rosa Mota of Portugal. That first Olympic marathon remains among the best-known. Benoit, the world record holder at the time, made a bold move to the front early in the race, despite the summer heat, and defeated hearty rival Waitz by a wide distance. The Olympics will return to L.A. in 2028. -