‘The history of the Olympics is littered with the names of brilliant athletes built up before the Games as favorites who visibly wilted under the stress. I have in mind the case of Vera Nikolic, the Yugoslav girl who set a world record for 800 metres before the 1968 Olympics. She went to Mexico City as such a hot favorite that her country had a postage stamp bearing her picture ready to issue the day after her triumph. And what happened? In the semifinal she pulled up in the first lap and ran off the track — not from any physical injury, but acute psychological stress. Before the day was through, she tried to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. That is the sort of thing that makes us so wary of revealing Goldengirl’s talent prematurely. And it is my task to ensure that she can withstand the pressures when she can no longer be insulated from them.’
Dryden liked Lee’s style of delivery. It conveyed authority without recourse to psychological jargon. He was not condescending. He put over his ideas lucidly, taking account of his listeners. His voice helped, it was sensitively pitched, a relief after Serafin’s almost toneless enunciation. The interest of the group was made clear when they moved with him, unprompted, slowly up the tiered floor as he continued speaking.
‘So I am responsible for the preparation she has undergone to tune her mentally for what is to come. You will appreciate that press-simulation sessions are just one element in a pretty sophisticated program. So much of what is involved in being an Olympic athlete in 1980 is concerned with the personality that I hope Mr. Klugman will not object if I claim that my contribution is at least as vital as his. Because of our special circumstances, Goldengirl has to be initiated into quite basic situations that could promote stress. Take her first competitive appearance at the Metro Club Meet tomorrow. I have had to prepare her mentally for what could be quite an ordeaclass="underline" the pre-meet buildup, dressing-room nerves, the atmosphere in the arena and the tension of waiting between heats and finals of her three events. That’s just the brief for San Diego. Magnify it all to the scale of the Olympics, throw in the mounting interest of the media, the journey to Moscow, a partisan crowd, sex tests, dope tests, Soviet officialdom, life in the Olympic Village, and you have some idea why I am employed here full time.
‘What you will presently see is not staged for your benefit, gentlemen. It is the scheduled phase of her program. Her preparation for tomorrow is complete. As a diversion we turn to something she will enjoy. We make a mental leap of several weeks, and simulate her appearance before the press after her third victory in Moscow. Sessions like this are built into the program at regular intervals. We are great respecters of the influence of the media, you see. She needs to know how to acquit herself at a press conference, project her personality with charm but without conceit, answer questions without hesitation or evasion, and handle that difficult or unexpected one that always arises.’
The monumental presumption in all this didn’t seem to bother Lee. Like everyone else in this place, he was sold on those three gold medals.
The party had reached the back of the room and grouped around one end of a wood-encased electronic unit some twelve feet in length. A young man wearing earphones was staring shyly at one of the two blank TV monitors at the opposite end.
‘With our facilities,’ Lee went on, ‘we cannot physically reproduce the conference room the Russians will use in Moscow. That seats upward of a thousand correspondents. We have had to improvise. The lighting is arranged with a twofold objective: to subject Goldengirl to the glare of TV arc lights, and to create the impression from where she sits that the room is much larger than it is. From the front, you can’t see beyond the first three rows of seats, so they could stretch back indefinitely. And, of course, the audio system is graduated in a way that supports the effect. This device’ — he flattened his palm on the polished wood surface of the unit — ‘contains a bank of over five hundred questions. We recorded many at actual press conferences at major meets like last year’s Pan-American Games, but the majority have had to be individually styled for Goldengirl. The computer mechanism is capable of working in three different ways. First, it can ask her questions totally at random. Second, if we want to regulate the level of difficulty, it will select them by reference to a grading system. And the third mode of operation is sequential, so that she can be asked a series of questions exploring a particular theme in depth. I’m sure Dave Robb, our media resource expert’ — he extended his hand to the young man in earphones — ‘would dismiss this piece of wizardry as a simple electronic aid. It is only one of a number of ingenious gadgets he has constructed to assist Project Goldengirl. Dave actually had a lot to do with the technical side of the Goldengirl film. He fixed the audio system in the lounge too.’
Probably bugged the place while he was at it, Dryden thought. He stepped forward to examine the control panel. It was surprisingly uncomplicated. Two rows of six squares under glass. Presumably they responded to finger controls. He had seen parking-lot checkouts with more intimidating controls.
‘Without going into unnecessary detail,’ Dr. Lee went on, ‘there are six tapes bearing the questions graded in order of difficulty. If I touch this square on the left’ — he demonstrated — ‘it should throw out a simple question.’
‘Do you use weights in your training?’ a voice lower down the room asked the empty seats at the front.
‘And this should produce a more demanding one.’ Dr. Lee touched the square on the right of the top row.
‘Do your consider yourself completely feminine?’ a different voice barked from the opposite side.
‘The square at bottom left,’ Dr. Lee went on, ‘stops the tapes at random, like a fruit machine, and whichever one has a question closest in line is activated. Three seconds after Goldengirl’s response, the process repeats itself. It can go on indefinitely, and it is actually closer to the reality of a press conference than our questions in sequence, which we activate by means of the override controls, the remaining four squares in the second row. In addition, we have a few refinements controlled from Dave’s end of the console. We can phase in interruptions, simultaneous voices from different sides of the room, audience reaction in the form of laughter or hostile comment — in fact, any situation, apart from a maniac gunman, that a press conference could possibly produce.
‘The obvious thing now is to let you see Goldengirl down there batting. And if any of you would care to put questions of your own to her during the session, please do so — it will add to the realism. I would only wish to make one point about the phrasing of questions. Everything in Goldengirl’s conditioning — I’ve used the word, Mr. Valenti — is based on the premise that she will achieve the objective of three gold medals. Failure — even partial success — is not a concept she would understand. So it would not be constructive, for example, to ask her why she was beaten in one of her three events. Put challenging questions to her by all means — she is capable of coping with them — but kindly base them on an assumption of success. After all, that’s the purpose of the project.’ He spoke into a grille beside the console. ‘Ready to begin, William.’ Turning to the others, he explained, ‘Dr. Serafin will be at Goldengirl’s side. The press like nothing better than a proud parent beside the winner, if only for the photo session. The other place will be vacant this afternoon. It will normally be occupied by the IOC Press Chief. I should be glad if you would take your seats now — anywhere you please in the room. Do not be alarmed by our flash effects as they come in. We like to get as close to the real thing as conditions allow.’