Читать книгу Indiana University Olympians. From Leroy Samse to Lilly King онлайн

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“He was there to win the gold medal,” Alford said.

Alford did not stick around for the closing ceremony. He and his parents and brother, Sean, rode home in a van at a leisurely rate. They stopped for two hours in Las Vegas and walked around Caesars Palace. Steve had been “put through the ringer,” as his father, Sam, put it, and he slept a lot. As they crossed the Illinois-Indiana border, he saw the first sign: “WELCOME HOME, STEVE. CONGRATULATIONS.”

There were more signs and banners on Interstate 70 overpasses. East of Indianapolis, he saw a police car in which a girl was waving from the backseat. It was Tanya Frost, his girlfriend at the time and his wife since 1987. Past the Greenfield exit, the Alford van pulled over, and Steve and Tanya loaded into a convertible for a caravan home.

For six miles along I-70, all the way to the State Highway 3 exit, cars lined both sides. Helicopters hovered overhead for TV cameras. After arrival in New Castle, townspeople reached out to shake Alford’s hand, and hundreds of people were lined up on both sides of the family home on Hickory Lane.