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Half the misery in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth plainly, and in a spirit of love.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe

Possible LDS Olympians

Every four years the world seems to stand still for a few weeks while the population cheers on its fastest, strongest, and sharpest in Olympic competition. This year you can also cheer on a number of Latter-day Saints who have the potential to compete in the Olympiad. It will be held in Seoul, Korea, September 17th through October 2nd. Here’s a partial list of LDS athletes who have a chance of making their respective country’s teams. If you hear of any more, let us know.

Gymnastics

Scott Burr
An All-America gymnast who transferred to BYU from New Mexico in order to work with Coach Makato Sakamoto, who coached Olympic gold medalist Peter Vidmar.

Bob Gauthier
A member of the U.S. national gymnastics team, also training with Coach Sakamoto.

Swimming

Troy Dalbey
A swimmer who specializes in 100, 200, and 400 freestyle. He was the youngest male competitor in the ’84 Olympic tryouts, at age 15. This year’s times are good enough qualify him for the U.S. team.

David Lundberg
A Pan Am game silver medalist, ranked second in the U.S. in the 100-meter breaststroke. He’ll also try to qualify for the U.S. team in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Enrique Gonzalez
A native of Madrid, he currently swims freestyle for BYU. He has a chance of making the Spanish Olympic team.

Basketball

Karl Tilleman
The high-scoring guard on the Canadian basketball team in the ’84 Olympics. There’s a chance that he will compete again in ’88.

Track and Field

Henry Marsh
One of the world’s fastest steeplechasers, he holds the American record. This will hopefully be the fourth time he’s made the U.S. Olympic team. He’s been ranked among the top ten in the world for 11 consecutive years.

Ted Mecham
A member of the BYU track team, Ted is new to the steeplechase this year, but his times are some of the fastest in the country.

Doug Padilla
A runner who specializes in the 5K. He placed seventh overall in the ’84 Olympics.

Paul Cummings
A runner who could qualify in both the 10K and the 5K. He also made the ’80 and ’84 U.S. Olympic teams.

Ed Eyestone
A world-class 10K runner, Ed qualified to run the marathon in the ’88 Olympics by finishing second in the U.S. tryouts. He’d only run the race a few times before. There is a possibility that he will compete in the 10K event as well.

Julie Jenkins
A runner who has qualified for Olympic tryouts in both the 800 meter (her favorite event) and the 1,500 meter.

Angela Bridgeman
A former BYU runner who will probably compete for Scotland in the 400 meter and the 200 meter.

Sven Goran Svenson
A discus thrower from Sweden who is ranked second in his country and sixteenth in the world.

Stefan Fernholm
A discus thrower who competed on the Swedish Olympic team in ’84 and has a good chance of returning.

Bo Gustaffson
An ’84 Olympic silver medalist in the 50K walk. He is training to walk again this year on the Swedish team.

Wrestling

Mark Fuller
A Greco-Roman style wrestler who was a member of the ’80 and ’84 U.S. teams. He has already made the ’88 team, and will be representing the U.S. in the 118 lb. weight class.

Diving

Tristin Baker Schultz
A diver who has a good chance of competing for the U.S. on the 3-meter springboard.

Vanessa Bergman
A 15-year-old contender on the 3-meter springboard and the 10-meter tower. Watch for her in ’92.

Volleyball

Dylan Duncan
A member of the U.S. women’s B volleyball team. She will not attend the Seoul Olympics but will train for the 1992 Olympics.

Trapshooting

Walt Zobell
A member of the U.S. army reserve trapshooting team, from Montana. He was second man on the U.S. Olympic trapshooting team in ’84.

Rowing

Scott Southwick
A member of the Stanford crew team, who has been invited to train with the U.S. Olympic rowing coach.

Bible Book Report

When André Green of Folcroft, Pennsylvania, became a deacon, the bishop advised him to do good works beyond the usual duties of a deacon. André took the bishop seriously and at school asked his teacher and principal if he could use the New Testament as his next major reading assignment. At first, he was denied permission, but by proving that he was already doing other large reading projects, he was given permission to do an oral and written book report. Besides receiving an A+, the report was displayed before the entire school.

André is also a winner in a Young Authors of America Contest sponsored by a major publisher. His short story will be published with nine others in a special collection.

André plays the violin, enjoys programming computers, and participates in track. He is a member of the Broomall First Ward, Philadelphia Pennsylvania Stake.

Fleet of Foot

Karon Seigfried of Wapwallopen, Pennsylvania, has been an outstanding competitor in track. She was awarded the Most Valuable Player trophy for her accomplishments on her school’s track team. She went undefeated in the 200-meter dash and placed high in other events.

Besides track, Karon is active in school. She earns excellent grades and performs with the school chorus.

Karon has served as president of her Beehive and Mia Maid classes, as past president of her seminary class, and has completed three years of seminary. She is a Laurel and serves as assistant librarian in the Berwick Ward, Scranton Pennsylvania Stake.

National Prize

Chad Mitchell, of the Richland Washington Third Ward, took third place in the National History Day Contest for his project concerning the First Amendment and censorship. He competed against 98 other entries from 48 states. Along with the visual display, each project included two written pages explaining it.

For his project, Chad examined the reasons and history of censorship in classic literature.

Chad serves as first counselor in his deacons quorum.

Taking the Challenge

The Young Women of the Cedar Rapids Iowa Stake responded to the challenge presented by the stake Young Women leaders to read the Book of Mormon before they went to girls’ camp. The 63 girls who met the challenge were presented with a small vase, and those who attended camp signed a banner that said, “I Have Read the Book of Mormon.” The banner was sent to President Benson.

During camp, the girls and leaders were challenged to take home a Book of Mormon to give to a nonmember. The girls also added their comments to letters being written on long strips of paper that were sent to the full-time missionaries serving from their stake.

Besides learning more camping skills, the girls found that many testimonies were strengthened and new friendships made.

Soccer Success

Alejandro Castro of the Ginninderra Branch, Canberra District, Sydney Australia Mission, has been selected to participate in the Under-14 Boys National Training Squad for indoor soccer. The national team scheduled to play in Japan is selected from this squad. The Australian Capital Territory representative team, on which he plays, recently won the Australian indoor soccer title for under-14 boys.

In addition to soccer, Alejandro plays badminton, cricket, and basketball and swims. He is a very good student and enjoys sketching and painting. Alejandro serves as a counselor in his deacons quorum presidency and attends early-morning seminary.

A New Era for Everyone

The Young men of the Sunderland Ward, Sunderland England Stake, held a fund-raiser to provide subscriptions to the New Era for the inactive young men of the ward.

They auctioned off their Young Men president to do gardening, decorating, shopping, and car washing. Chiltern MacNaught, a priest, used his talent of ballroom dancing to hold a sponsored dance. Now every active and inactive Aaronic priesthood holder in the ward enjoys a monthly issue of the New Era.

Constitution Celebration

Youth of the Las Vegas Nevada and Las Vegas West Stakes joined forces to hold a youth conference using the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution as a theme.

On Friday after school, the youth met and divided into groups. They had prearranged with ward families to gather items of clothing and gifts to send to a Central American orphanage. They also purchased 30 copies of the Book of Mormon. They wrote their testimonies, had them translated into Spanish, and glued the translations along with their photographs in the fronts of the books. The groups returned to a central meetinghouse for a dance following dinner.

Saturday there were workshops held on subjects related to freedom. Following the luncheon the finals of the USIQ (United States Intelligence Quotient) game were held. Previously each ward had held practice games and playoffs to select a four-member team that would represent them in the finals. The questions were projected on a large screen, and teams responded as quickly as possible with the answers.

The evening was set aside for sports activities. A special testimony meeting was held early Sunday morning before the youth conference participants returned to their own wards for regular Sunday meetings. The conference concluded with a large fireside held Sunday evening.

First Eagle

Russ Lewis, Jr., of the Harkers Island Ward, Kinston North Carolina Stake, is the first Scout from Harker’s Island to earn his Eagle Award. He was named valedictorian of his junior high school graduation class. He enjoys playing the drums in his high school band and traveled with the band to New York to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Russ has served in many positions in his ward and hopes to go on a mission.

She’s Captain

Elizabeth Bruendell of the Huber Heights Ward, Dayton Ohio East Stake, has been selected as captain of her high school drill team for the second year in a row. This is only the second time in the history of the school that a captain has served two consecutive years.

Elizabeth has served in leadership positions in her ward. She loves dancing and singing, and she choreographed dances for the stake road show and dance festival, instructing both youth and adults.

Double Graduate

Terhi Salminen of the Lahti Ward, Tampere Finland Stake, has graduated in two countries. While an exchange student in Utah, Terhi graduated in the top 1 percent of her high school class. Then upon returning to Finland, she graduated with excellent grades, symbolized by the white cap with golden lyre, from her Finnish high school. She received special recognition for her abilities in the Swedish language.

Terhi has served as president of her Young Women and seminary classes. She now teaches Sunday School.

Scott Burr; Bob Gauthier; Henry Marsh; Ted Mecham; Doug Padilla

Paul Cummings; Ed Eyestone; Julie Jenkins; Angela Bridgeman; Sven Goran Svenson; Stefan Fernholm; Tristin Baker Schultz; Dylan Duncan

André Green

Karon Seigfried

Chad Mitchell

Lynn Hughes and Andria Burns, youth specialists

Russ Lewis, Jr.

Elizabeth Bruendell

Terhi Salminen