Corvallis Gazette-Times

Carol Menken-Schaudt stood on the winner’s stand at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and accepted her gold medal along with the other members of the United States women’s basketball team.

Just a few months earlier, Menken-Schaudt, a former Oregon State player, was worried she might not make the U.S. team.

Even though she played for the national team in 1981 and 1983-’84, there was a logjam of post players trying to get on the Olympic roster.

Getting through the first cut during tryouts at Colorado Springs wasn’t difficult. She was among the 16 pared down from 300, but that’s when it got sticky.

“They still needed to cut four and the selection committee couldn’t make a final decision,” Menken-Schaudt said. “They just couldn’t agree on the final 12, so they sent everyone home.”

The players went home with the instruction to keep working out on their own to stay ready for a second tryout.

“That time from first to end of second tryouts was an extremely stressful time for me,” Menken-Schaudt said. “I was concerned that I was going to be going through all of this effort and all of this stress and then not make the team. That would have been very difficult.”

After the second set of tryouts, the players were taken into the wrestling room for the final announcement.

They began calling off the names of the Olympians alphabetically. Menken-Schaudt waited nervously as they approached the Ms.

Her name was not announced. She sagged, figuring all the stress and work was for nothing.

Then they got to S. S for Schaudt. She had made the team.

“I thought I hadn’t made it and it’s like my heart is sinking,” she said. “And then they got to Schaudt and they named my name. So there was a period of maybe four people where I thought I hadn’t made the team.”

The team then spent the summer months leading up to the Olympics touring with the men’s team and playing exhibition games.

The players ate at banquets together before the games, so Menken-Schaudt was able to meet future NBA legends such as Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing.

The women’s team usually played first, so she was able to watch the men in action.

“It was pretty amazing,” she said.

In Los Angeles, it was all business. Although the Olympics were boycotted that year, leaving the U.S. women’s team as heavy favorites without their rivals from the USSR and East Germany, the team wanted to leave little doubt about getting the gold.

Athletes were given free tickets to the other events, but Menken-Schaudt and her teammates had to skip most because they could not plan ahead around practice schedules.

They did get a dose of diving, however. They were quartered next to the venue.

“We were watching out of the balcony and we kept finding ourselves turning around and watching the TV coverage of the diving events because you could see the slow motion of it,” Menken-Schaudt said. “Pretty soon we found ourselves watching the event on TV with the window open so we could hear the crowd.”

Once the basketball competition began, the team had a lot of fun.

As expected, most of the games were fairly easy for the women, so they were able to relax and absorb the experience.

“Everybody got a lot of playing time, there was never any doubt of who was dominating the game or what the outcome was going to be,” Menken-Schaudt said. “So we were just enjoying ourselves.”

The U.S. team took on South Korea in the gold medal game and quickly took a big lead. By halftime, Menken-Schaudt knew they were headed for gold.

However, she had not gotten into the game.

“I started to think, what would happen if I didn’t get into the game and we win by 30? How am going to explain this to my friends back home?,” Menken-Schaudt said. “So I started to develop a strategy at halftime. I put my sweats back on as sort of a visual signal to the coach (Pat Summit) that I hadn’t been in the game.”

Second-half play began and Menken-Schaudt waited. Still no call. She started to move closer to Summit on the bench, hoping to get noticed.

Nothing.

“With about six minutes left in the game, there I am, sitting next to the coaches with my sweats on,” Menken-Schaudt said. “Finally, (Summit) looked down and saw me there.”

Menken-Schaudt got in with four minutes left.

“Well, I scored two baskets. That’s four points in four minutes. If I had played 40 minutes, I’d have had a heck of a game,” she said with a chuckle.