What is sport without the spectators?

I WAS among the 95,000 spectators who witnessed high drama unfold at the 1984 Olympic Games at the Los Angeles coliseum.

A limp figure limped into the noisy stadium, and as though choreographed, the whole arena erupted in applause for a drooping athlete struggling to stay on her feet. Dehydrated Swiss marathoner Gabriela Andersen-Schiess, suffering from heat exhaustion, staggered onto the track, her torso twisted, her left arm sagging and her right leg mostly seized up.

With her every step, the cheer decibels soared. She switched lanes in dizziness but still managed to plough on for five minutes and 44 seconds before collapsing at the finish line. She etched her name into sporting record books.