The Four By One Relay

I bet you don’t remember.
Their names are lost in yore.
Most don’t know they lived at all,
The girls that I adore.

Forgotten, I endeavor,
To put their names in rhyme.
So they shall be remembered
Forever, from this time.

It’s not so hard recalling
The tears I shed that day,
As they swam against a tide
The Germans sent their way.

It wasn’t fair to ask them
To do what they’d not done.
Swim their fastest times of all,
The same for every one.

So it was for each in turn
Against the steroid tide.
Each girl forced to walk the plank,
They had no place to hide.

Kim went first, then Wendy swam,
And each girl did her best.
Both girls swam their fastest time.
But still, they couldn’t rest.

In went Jill, then Shirley too,
And both swam faster still.
All the girls gave all they had,
As champions always will.

So when the race was over,
The steroid time was there.
They broke their own world record
But really didn’t care.

On the board for all to see,
A time I won’t forget.
The U. S. girls amazed them,
A new world record set.

All cheered for Kim and Wendy,
Both Jill and Shirley too.
Those who swam their fastest times.
Their names, I list for you.

I don’t think you’ll forget them.
You can’t just write them off.
It’s Peyton, Boglioli,
And Sterkel, Babashoff.

When they stood on the platform,
I wonder how they felt?
The Gods of Mount Olympus,
Most surely must have knelt.

It’s sad most have forgotten,
Much to our nation’s shame;
The deed that they accomplished,
Much less each Damsel’s name.

But now you know their story,
Though written long ago.
The Montreal Olympics,
The German’s tainted show.

It makes it much more cherished,
The gold they won that day.
I wonder where they are now,
The four by one relay?