Standing Eye to Eye with the Silver Medalist

   Gary has often said that winning his second Olympic gold medal 

   was much more difficult than winning the first one. 

In 1968 there were only seven events in shooting, with 63 nations entering athletes in shooting.   Gary's event (300m free rifle) was the last of the seven, and the USA did not have any gold medals at that point.  There were moments of drama before and during this competition.  At the equipment check before the competition, the Russian Anatoli Bogdanov, while serving as a member of the Rifle Jury, (coincidentally, Gary's idol and hero when he started shooting) (see “Meeting Bogdanov Face to Face,” published March 21, 2012), refused to pass his leather shooting mitten because the knitted liner was not attached to the leather shell (never mind that there was nothing in the rules about this).    But Gary foiled the attempt by asking friend Ralph Rodriquez of Puerto Rico, who was standing a little further back in the equipment control line, to take the glove through equipment control.   The glove was passed, it was not even questioned, even though Ralph is a right-handed shooter and Gary is left-handed.

The Russians tried to have Gary disqualified by
challenging the legality of his shooting glove.

In the late afternoon on the day before the 300m rifle competition, Gary went alone to the 300m range and stood on the firing point where he would compete the next day.  It was a final step in mental preparation and he had to see himself shooting well the next day because he was now the favorite who had a great reputation to live up to.  He reminded himself that he was prepared, well trained and had run through his head every possible scenario that could go wrong and how he would respond.

Then on the morning before the competition as they were departing from the Olympic Village, 25m rapid-fire pistol teammate Bill McMillan, a 1960 gold medal winner in that event, put his hand on Gary's shoulder and said, "You are our last chance for a gold."  Gary said he felt like the weight of the world had just been placed on his shoulders.

Bill McMillan †

Four things occurred during competition that could have derailed Gary:

       1.   The competition began with a unique coincidence because the Jury draw (supposed to be a random draw) for firing positions in the 300-meter match placed the two leading medal contenders in the middle of the range, standing eye-to-eye with each other.  Gary shoots left-handed and was squadded on the right of the right-handed Russian Valentin Kornev.    Gary had not mentally prepared to face his rival in this way.   But it turned into a good thing, because Gary realized he could watch Kornev's shots through his telescope and know pretty much shot for shot where Kornev was in the competition.  He said afterwards that it probably bothered Kornev more than it bothered him.  The fact that the two leading medal contenders were shooting side-by-side meant that as many spectators as possible were gathered in the middle of the range behind them.  That made the struggle for both more difficult, but in the end added to the sense of triumph they experienced from having performed well in front of such a huge crowd.

Valentin Kornev, Silver Medal Winner

         2.  An over-zealous American spectator, who will go unnamed, was in Mexico to watch the competitions.  He started a tit-for-tat protest series after he noticed that Kornev's teammate, Shota Kveliashvili (Olympic silver medalist, 1964 Tokyo Olympics) was placing his butt-plate hook on his side well below his shoulder in the kneeling position.  This was not illegal at the time, but the spectator complained to USA Team Captain Harry Reeves and convinced Reeves to complain to Rifle Jury Chairman Otto Horber.  Horber inspected Kveliashvili’s position and decided it was OK, but this was unfortunate because Kveliashvili’s kneeling score was substandard for him.  Gary was not aware that this was going on until after the match and he always felt badly about this.   Retaliation came during the standing stage when the USSR team leader complained to the Rifle Jury that Gary's shooting jacket was illegal.   What followed was one of the classic examples of the mental preparations Olympic champions do.  The Chairman of the Rifle Jury approached Gary, informed him that his jacket had been protested.  He proceeded to make a couple of superficial tugs on the jacket closure and pronounced the jacket legal.  While this was going on, Gary had a big, calm smile that spectators didn’t understand.  He was smiling because one of the scenarios he had mentally rehearsed in the months prior to the Olympics was of Jury Chairman Horber inspecting his shooting jacket during the competition.  Gary knew his jacket was legal and that the purpose of any protest would be to disturb him so he imagined himself remaining cool and calm while this happened.

For the second time, the Russians tried to
derail Gary by demanding that his leather
shooting jacket be measured during the
competition. 

         3. During prone, Gary fired a perfect 100 in the first series, but in the second series, he had five 9s including four in a row at the end of the series.  His confidence in his rifle and ammo was shaken.   He gave the rifle to his coach, Bill Pullum, who took it to the team gunsmith.  When Col. Pullum returned, he said "the rifle is fine now."   Gary does not know to this day what was done on the rifle, but he got back in position and finished with 99-100.    Although Gary was an overwhelming favorite to win his second gold medal, he was tied for seventh place after 40 shots prone, four points behind Kornev.

Gary is talking to coach Bill Pullum after shooting
four 9's in the second string prone.

        4.  Gary went into the kneeling position needing to gain back those four points and then to beat Kornev in standing.  Gary had the best kneeling score on the line, with a 97-96-99-97-389, so he picked up five points on Kornev and took a one-point lead into standing.   Now the pressure was really on; the gold medal would be decided in standing.  In their first series, Gary gained one more point, 95 to 94.  They were even in the second series, both with 93s.  When they got into their third series, Gary started seeing 8s and 9s being signaled on Kornev’s target.  He sensed that things were beginning to go his way.  Then a Russian coach began yelling at Kornev from behind the firing line.  This was when Gary knew the gold medal was his if he could just keep shooting like he had been shooting.  That third series went to Gary 93 to 88.  Kornev gained one point back on the last series, but it was too late.  Gary’s 374 standing tied Switzerland’s Kurt Muller for the high standing score.  He finished with a new world record of 1157, six points ahead of Kornev’s 1151 and nine points ahead of Muller’s bronze medal score of 1148.   It had been a grueling six-hour competition and maybe the most memorable of all the matches in Gary’s competition career.

Ruth Ann strains to see the results on the scoreboard.

Gary's final score of 1157 was a new World Record, New Olympic Record, and a Gold Medal score.

This is a preliminary scorecard, not the final result.
The standing score was 375 for a total of 1157.

The first thing Gary did after he finished was to go over and give Ruth Ann a long embrace.

Gary with his rifle soon after the competition

"When Gary's feat was announced, there was great cheering from practically all the countries, not just from the U. S. and the polite Mexican hosts.  The crowd all but mobbed him in a true tribute to a great and superb competitor."  (footnote:  American Rifleman, Volume 116, No. 12, December 1968, page 26)

Ruth Ann called Gary's father, Roy, but it wasn't easy.     First she had to go to the International Phone Booth on the range, ask for the international operator, deposit enough Pecos for a three minute call -- and wait.

The Awards Ceremony came the day after the competition.  It was held late in the day, well past the time when there was good lighting for photography.

Girls in typical Mexican dress carried the medals to the victory stand.

Photo credit: 1968 United States Olympic Book, p. 178

In the medal presentation box, there was supposed to be a 1968 Olympic lapel pin for the Gold Medal Winners.  Gary's pin was stolen before the Awards Ceremony and was never replaced.     At this Olympics, all Gold Medal Winners were also given a box with olive branches from Olympia, Greece.

This is one of Ruth Ann's favorite
photos from the Olympics in 1968.

For the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony on October 27, each nation could nominate six athletes to represent their country.  Gary and five other outstanding athletes were chosen by the entire US delegation to represent the United States. 

Gary's home town of Axtell, Nebraska, honored him with a welcome home program and banquet in mid-November 1968.    U.S. Senator Carl Curtis said "Gary Anderson is an ambassador of good will who has set a noble example before the world."    The city fathers presented Gary with a key to the city of Axtell.

When Gary caught up with his mail, he received a letter from then Governor of California Ronald Reagan, offering his congratulations:

In late November 1968, Gary and Ruth Ann departed NYC for Munich where they would experience life in Germany for a year as members of the Hauptschützengesellschaft München.