{"id":10626,"date":"2015-06-08T12:44:29","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T16:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=10626"},"modified":"2015-06-09T12:22:26","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T16:22:26","slug":"theflagwasstillthere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/theflagwasstillthere\/","title":{"rendered":"Special: Caitlyn Jenner’s Maine Connection (our interview with the decathlon gold-medal winner, April 1996)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"caitlyn-jenner-van-fair-style-600\"<\/a>A worldwide audience watched as Mainer Steve Elliott leaped over the\u00a0stands at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, dashed across the infield, and\u00a0handed the American flag to Bruce Jenner. But for 20 years, nobody \u2013 including Jenner \u2013 ever learned who he was\u2026 until now.<\/p>\n

Ever heard of Moon Mondschein? Nicolae Avilov? No? They’re two of the\u00a0greatest decathletes in the history of track and field. You might not have\u00a0heard of Bruce Jenner,<\/strong> either, had it not been for a single American flag.\u00a0It was an image that clicked – Jenner waving the Stars & Stripes after\u00a0winning the 1976 Olympic decathlon in Montreal in front of a cheering\u00a0crowd of 70,000.<\/p>\n

Jenner wound up on the cover of the Wheaties box, and the flag followed\u00a0him there, too. Now, it’s easier to imagine Dorothy Lamour without her\u00a0sarong than it is to picture Jenner without that flag.\u00a0But who was the mystery man who dropped 12 feet down the stadium wall,\u00a0rushed across the infield with a comic line of 40 Olympic officials\u00a0chasing him, and became a footnote to history by saying, “Take the flag,\u00a0take the flag” as he thrust the scrap of polyester bunting into Bruce\u00a0Jenner’s hands?<\/p>\n

“He just disappeared,” Jenner says. “I wish there were some way for me to\u00a0thank him. It was one single incredible moment, and oddly, this\u00a0unidentified young guy was there to share it with me.”<\/p>\n

Bruce Jenner, 46, of Beverly Hills, California, meet Steve Elliott, 43, of\u00a0Ellsworth, Maine. Jenner’s on cable 24 hours a day doing sports\u00a0infomercials that eclipse those of even Cher, while Elliott lives a world\u00a0apart, a landscape designer in Maine’s lobster country who flattens apples\u00a0during the off months.<\/p>\n

“My uncle and aunt got hold of some tickets for the Games in 1976, and was\u00a0I thrilled,” Elliott says. “We stayed in a trailer park and visited the\u00a0Olympic Village everyday. ”<\/p>\n

“The Olympics were more than you could talk about. We walked around\u00a0Montreal’s immense stadium and it was gorgeous, such a unique design.\u00a0You’d walk 20 feet and hear 3 or 4 different languages. We were part of\u00a0something bigger than all of us. I’ll never forget that feeling.<\/p>\n

“We stayed for the whole track and field week. Everything built up to the\u00a0decathlon, and now Bruce Jenner had reached the final event. He jumped\u00a0higher and ran faster than he’d ever dreamed of, and now he was running\u00a0the 1,500 meters and about to win the Olympic decathlon.<\/p>\n

“As he entered his last lap, over 70,000 people went wild around me.” The\u00a0roar almost tipped over the stadium. Sensitive Olympic instruments\u00a0measured the track going up and down from the deafening sound, and all of\u00a0a sudden Elliott amazed himself by shouting, “I’m going down there and run\u00a0the victory lap with him.”<\/p>\n

“To this day I can’t explain what came over me,” he says. The Olympics\u00a0were exploding like a shaken beer, and Steve Elliott was spilling over the\u00a0edge with the foam.<\/p>\n

“Don’t be ridiculous,’ my aunt said.<\/p>\n

“A man just below us waved a large, two-piece American flag, and I asked\u00a0him if I could take it down to Jenner.’<\/p>\n

“No,’ he said. ‘I’m going myself!’<\/p>\n

“Then a lady across the aisle, part of a family waving little flags, said,\u00a0‘You can take one of ours. We live in Connecticut just down the road from\u00a0Newtown, where Bruce grew up.’<\/p>\n

“Thanking her, I grabbed it and maneuvered down through the crowd toward\u00a0the track. Bruce was on the straightaway now. If he finished in the top\u00a0three, he’d win the gold-and he was doing it! In fact, he was moving into\u00a0second, and was challenging for first! Just as he broke around the corner\u00a0for the final sprint, I jumped over the side. It was a 12-foot fall. I\u00a0hadn’t thought about that. Whump. I thought everybody was going over, too,\u00a0but when I wound up on the track and looked up, I was stunned. I didn’t\u00a0think I’d be down here alone!”\u00a0It was as if he’d broken into Buckingham Palace. “The whole perimeter was\u00a0lined with guards. I hadn’t thought about that, either. I took off, as\u00a0fast as I could. I’d been a quartermiler at the University of Maine at\u00a0Orono, so I led a chase of guards from all nations following me out onto\u00a0the infield like a stream of bees out of a hole. I ran over the high-jump\u00a0pit and felt a guy float past me in slow motion, trying to give me a\u00a0flying tackle, but I sidestepped him. It was the race of my life, too. The\u00a0whole finish line was just surrounded, and they closed in on Bruce as he\u00a0crossed. I was running wide open. As Jenner got there, he was still coming\u00a0to a stop. He emerged from the group of the people and thrust his arms in\u00a0the air, just pumping them, and he tossed his head like a stallion.<\/p>\n

“Maybe nobody should have seen what I saw next. It was an enormously\u00a0private moment. Certainly there were no cameras there.<\/p>\n

“You could see something happening to the guy. He roared and threw both\u00a0arms in the air, and the crowd went nuts. He’d won the Olympic decathlon!<\/p>\n

“I’d never heard a roar like that. It lifted us off the ground. This guy\u00a0was the best athlete in the world, and he was an American.<\/p>\n

“‘Congratulations, Bruce. Take the flag, take the flag.’ I just looked up\u00a0at him. All I could remember was these huge armpits. To my 5’8″, he was\u00a0enormous. You could see the whites of his eyes, like horses’ eyes, and\u00a0something else-he was alarmed. He looked beyond me for a second and\u00a0grabbed the flag a moment before a guard crashed into me. A man with a\u00a0French accent cranked my arm behind my back and lifted me onto my toes. He\u00a0said, ‘You’re really lucky. When I was younger I could outrun anyone on\u00a0this field.’ Then a British guy said, ‘It’s all right, son. Nobody’s going\u00a0to hurt you.’ But they were too late. Jenner already had the flag and was\u00a0beginning to run around the track. As I was marched through the tunnel a\u00a0group of Finnish guys on the other side reached encouragingly out and\u00a0slapped me on the back. I was taken straight to jail in a paddy wagon.”<\/p>\n

Once there, Montreal officials questioned Elliott in French. “I knew a\u00a0little, so I could see that they wrote down silly things like, ‘Blue\u00a0pants, blue shirt.’ They released me in less than an hour, and I went back\u00a0to the trailer park and home with my uncle and aunt. What I’d done didn’t\u00a0seem real, even though I was on film they replayed for days. I can’t\u00a0imagine the power it must have taken to pull me out there now that I look\u00a0back on it. There’s a funny side note to this: Since I was a little boy,\u00a0I’d collected Wheaties boxes featuring all kinds of athletes. And on one\u00a0of the boxes now they showed my arm extending the flag to Bruce. I was\u00a0edited out of the later boxes, but the flag was still there.<\/p>\n

“On the original Wheaties commercial, it kind of showed me from behind,\u00a0shooting from the high-jump pit to the finish line. I ‘appeared’ in Sports\u00a0Illustrated, on the national wire services, and on Johnny Carson a couple\u00a0of times, too. Friends at home who didn’t believe me got to see it at that\u00a0point.”<\/p>\n

Then Elliott, quiet Mainer that he is, went home and went to work.<\/p>\n

Jenner Remembers\u00a0“When I crossed the finish line, all kinds of things were going through my\u00a0mind. Obviously, I was very tired. My hands went into the air and I\u00a0screamed so bloody loud I thought I broke my vocal chords. It’s yours.\u00a0Nobody can ever take it away from you. I didn’t care about the rest of my\u00a0life! But the moment had a bittersweet side to it, too. It was very\u00a0exciting to win, but it was over. It was very sad, because it was my final\u00a0competition, like walking away from my best friend. Then as I slowed down,\u00a0the next thing that flashed into my mind was something absolutely\u00a0ridiculous.<\/p>\n

“You blew the picture.\u00a0“In the Munich Olympics in 1972, a European photographer had taken an\u00a0award-winning picture of me as I won my heat in the 1,500.It was black and\u00a0white, the hair kind of flowing, the look on the face, the lighting. He\u00a0won European awards for this thing, and he sent me a copy of it, which I\u00a0tacked up on the wall. For three years I looked at this picture, with my\u00a0head looking up at the sky, and I dreamed of winning in 1976 that same\u00a0way. I want that last stride, I told myself while training night and day.\u00a0I want to have the last step of the 1976 Games.” But life doesn’t work\u00a0that way. “When real life kicked in, my mouth was wide open in ’76 and I\u00a0kind of stumbled through the final step. I’d visualized this athlete\u00a0coming through, his hair behind his head, and now that it was me I was\u00a0slowing down and thinking, ‘I just blew it!’ For years I’d visualized\u00a0every thing I’d do in that stadium, every throw, every step. I was\u00a0dumbfounded that real life would play such a trick on me. Laughing, I\u00a0realized, that’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever thought. Big guy, you’ve\u00a0just won the Games, and you’re thinking about the picture.”<\/p>\n

Then Jenner felt his future tapping him on the back. It was Steve Elliott.<\/p>\n

“Creating a spectacle was the last thing I would have done,” Jenner says.<\/p>\n

“It just wasn’t my style. I honestly paid no attention to him, but he kept\u00a0tapping my shoulder and putting the flag literally into my face. Next\u00a0thing I knew I had that flag in my hand. I lifted it in the air and the\u00a0crowd let out a tremendous roar. Then I lowered it. I lifted it one more\u00a0time and started my victory lap.”\u00a0For one instant, Elliott and Jenner were connected-both fan and star\u00a0needle and thread to the spangle of history.<\/p>\n

“That moment changed the Games,” Jenner says. “Bango. I had that flag in\u00a0my hand. It really started something.”<\/p>\n

“I still can’t believe I went out there,” Elliott says. “A friend at\u00a0school who saw it on TV said it was like ‘bagging a deer on the King’s\u00a0land.’ But that moment I intruded upon Bruce – I’ve had little flashes of\u00a0it since then, on a much, much, much smaller scale over the last 20 years.\u00a0Talk about a brush with fame! I wondered if I’d ever feel as good as Bruce\u00a0did.<\/p>\n

“You see, I press cider.” Elliott pauses as if no more explanation is\u00a0necessary. “My moments are quieter. People don’t often rush up here to\u00a0hand me flags. But there are days when I just nail the cider with the\u00a0perfect tartness, and it’s truly the best in the world. That’s when I get\u00a0a little of that chill of the perfect moment. When the blend’s just right,\u00a0and it’s cooled just right, it’s the best cider in Maine and maybe in New\u00a0England. Maybe it’s the best there is. We do all our cider by hand. Last\u00a0year we pressed 8,600 gallons.”<\/p>\n

Hearing this, Jenner bursts into laughter, and Elliott shakes his head,\u00a0too, at the coincidence. Jenner’s winning decathlon total in 1976 was a\u00a0world record 8,618.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April
\nA worldwide audience watched as Mainer Steve Elliot leaped over the stands at the Montreal Olympics in 1976…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10626"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10642,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10626\/revisions\/10642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}