Goldengirl

Melody led them outside and across the compound to a two-storied building. They mounted an open staircase to the upper floor.

‘Nice to get some fresh air,’ Klugman commented, pausing at the top.

‘Ain’t you fit?’ said Valenti, flicking his Panatella as he marched past.

In layout the room resembled a small university lecture theater, with twelve rows of tiered seats facing a demonstration table. The front was cluttered with TV cameras and sets of arc lights, all focused on three empty seats behind the table. Loudspeakers were suspended from the ceiling at various points.

Someone Dryden had not seen before welcomed each of them solemnly as they entered: a man of forty or so with the unusual combination of a tall frame and oriental features. Behind thick, black-framed spectacles, his eyes had the spark of high intelligence.

‘This is Dr. Lee, gentlemen,’ Melody explained. ‘He is an associate of Dr. Serafin’s who specializes in psychology.’

‘The resident shrink,’ murmured Valenti.

Dr. Lee nodded affably and said in perfect English, ‘At your service whenever you have need of one, Mr. Valenti. Gentlemen, this afternoon you are to observe one of the simulated press conferences we hold from time to time to acquaint Miss Serafin, or Goldengirl as we call her, with the conditions she is likely to experience not only at the Olympic Games, but before, when her nomination for three events becomes public knowledge.’

‘Conditioning,’ Valenti declared in his authoritative style.

‘A term I would prefer not to use,’ Dr. Lee mildly retorted. ‘It is implacably associated in popular ideas of psychology with Pavlov’s experiments on dogs. What we are trying to achieve here brings us, I assure you, significantly further in learning theory than that. We have progressed some way beyond B. F. Skinner, whose work postdates Pavlov’s by more than half a century. But I must not be drawn into lecturing you, gentlemen. We are here for another purpose. As you must have gathered from Dr. Serafin’s account of Goldengirl’s childhood and adolescence, she has led a relatively sheltered existence up to now, and to expose her unprepared to the pressure of Olympic competition and all that goes with it could have a disturbing, not to say disastrous, effect.

‘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 ordeal: 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.