It was, 1980 and athletes across the globe were preparing for the Summer Olympics in Moscow.

 

But 1980 was also a time of unrest in Europe and Asia. In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. That prompted President Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum to the Russians: either withdraw from Afghanistan or the United States would boycott the Moscow Olympics.

 

The Soviets refused, and on March 21, 1980, Carter announced the boycott. A total of 64 countries joined in the boycott.

 

That action did little to change the situation in Afghanistan, but it changed the lives of many athletes in a big way.

 

One of those athletes was Renaldo “Skeets” Nehemiah. That name might sound familiar to a few older football fans. Nehemiah was a wide receiver with the San Francisco 49ers for three years from 1982-1984.

 

But some people know him for being a world class track athlete.

 

At least that’s how I remember him. 

 

It was the spring of 1974, and I was a senior on the track team at Hudson Catholic High School in Jersey City.

 

It was a warm Saturday morning, and our team was one of about 15 schools participating in an invitational track meet at Scotch Plains High School in New Jersey.

 

We had a few good athletes on our team. Mark Dorsey was a great shot putter. Paul Santasieri was an outstanding miler and two-miler. Our 4x880-yard (yards, not meters back then) relay was pretty good.

 

My best event was the high jump. But I also ran hurdles and sometimes the 800 meters.

 

I think I finished in the top five in the high jump that day. But the memory that sticks with me the most that day was the hurdles. 

 

Back then in high school track there was an event called the shuttle hurdle relay. It was sort of like a relay in swimming, but in track, hurdlers would take off for their leg of the race when their teammate passed their starting line.

 

Our relay team was average, and we didn’t expect to win the event. But we were hoping to place in the top two in our heat and make the finals.

 

I was the fastest hurdler on our team, so I was put as the last runner - the anchor leg. To my right was an athlete from the home school, Scotch Plains - Renaldo Nehemiah.

 

As was customary back then, we shook hands before the start of the event. Little did I know at the time, but “Skeets”  Nehemiah would set the world record in the hurdles a few years later.

 

And it wasn’t long before I saw why. When it came time for the anchor leg in our race, his teammates had given him a few yards lead. But then he just disappeared. It was like he was running a sprint without any hurdles in his way.

 

He was just a sophomore then, with lots of time to improve. 

 

And he did. 

 

As a senior in 1977, he was the national junior champion in the 110 hurdles.  As a sophomore at the University of Maryland, he broke the world record in the 110 meter hurdles twice in two weeks, running 13.16 and then 13.00.  

 

At the 1979 Penn Relays, Nehemiah anchored UMD’s shuttle hurdle relay, 4x400 meter relay, and 4x200 meter relay, and was named meet MVP.

 

He was the favorite to win the 110-meter hurdles in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. But he never got the chance due to the boycott.

 

He showed everyone he was still the best in the world a year later in Zürich, Switzerland, when he broke the world record for the 110 meter hurdles again and became the first person to ever run the race in less than 13 seconds at 12.93.

 

That record stood for eight years until fellow American Roger Kingdom ran 12.92.

 

In an interview done five years ago, Nehemiah said some people still believe he was the Olympic gold medalist in the event. He said he politely corrects them and says he never had a chance to run in the the Olympics.