Monday, November 9, 2020
Life Experiences Have Placed 1980 Boycott into Perspective for Cynthia ‘Sippy’ (Woodhead) Brennan
At the time of the 1980 Summer Olympics Boycott, and for several years after it, Cynthia “Sippy” Woodhead Brennan was one unhappy kid.
Just 16 at the time and ranked No. 1 in the world in four individual events, she said the boycott took the joy out of swimming for her.
She admits that joy never fully returned even when she made the U.S. Olympic team four years later and left Los Angeles with a silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle.
“I wish I could have found that spark again, but it never happened,” said Brennan, who won three gold medals two years earlier at 1978 World Championships and would have been the Olympic favorite in four individual events in 1980. “We were all left to digest the boycott on our own, and I wasn’t very successful at that.
“Obviously, life has gone on as it does, and it is such a small part of my thoughts now. Unfortunately, when you’re a teenager, everything you are doing at that moment is the most important thing in the world, and so to deal with the boycott as a 16-year-old was not easy to handle alone.”
Forty years later and with no “I’m sorry” from then-President Jimmy Carter regarding his decision to boycott those Olympics due to communist aggression in Afghanistan, Brennan and her 1980 Olympic teammates will be recognized during a virtual Golden Goggle Awards celebration Nov. 19.
And while she admits it’s nice to be recognized for any achievement, this one is tricky because while it’s nice, and she loves recalling her swimming days, it’s a bit tough to be gracious for terrible experience.
Brennan said she looks at this more as a chance to recognize that generation of swimmers – not just those that made the 1980 team.
“When I think of swimming, I always drift back to my most fond memories, and those don’t include the boycott,” she said. “We had such a great, fun group of people back then. All of the trips we went on before the boycott, the laughs we had, I treasure those times.
“People were always smiling because if something funny hadn’t just happened, something funny was about to happen. You just anticipated laughing all the time.”
Brennan’s march to the 1980 and 1984 Olympic teams began at the Riverside Aquatics Association in her hometown of Riverside, Calif., when she was 9.
She lived one block from the swimming club where all the neighborhood kids belonged, and they spent their entire days there from open to close during the summers.
“I would walk down and wait at the gates for it to open, and stay as long as my mother would let me,” said Brennan, who set her first American record in the 1650-yard freestyle when she was 13. “I swam on the club’s novice team in the summer from June to August until I was 9, and then I went over to an AAU club across town called Riverside Aquatics where I swam for Chuck Riggs.
“I loved swimming. I felt like I could always figure out how to get faster whether that meant working harder or changing my technique. I watched the faster kids, chased them in practice and tried to do whatever they were doing that was better than what I was doing.”
And it worked.
At 14, she won National titles in the 100- and 200-meter freestyles, broke the world record in the 200 and set American records in the 400 and 800 freestyle events.
Later that summer at World Championships in West Berlin, Germany, she won three gold medals and two silver medals.
By 15, she had broken the American record in every freestyle distance – 100 to 800 in meters and 100 to 1650 in yards – and was heralded as an Olympic favorite in all of her events the following year in Moscow. She finished the year with five gold medals at the 1979 Pan American Games.
The boycott, however, changed all of that.
While she said she doesn’t remember where she was or what she was doing when she learned about President Jimmy Carter’s politically-driven decision not to compete at the Games in Moscow, the damage in many ways was already done to her and her teammates.
“None of it made sense to me, and I still think it was a horrible decision to use the athletes as a political weapon,” she said. “I had been in France at an international meet in February of 1980, and the Russians interrupted the meet when I was just about to get on the blocks, and their entire team sang Happy Birthday to me. So, you see, it was all politics, and no thought was put in to the athletes and what their coming together for a moment of peace meant to the rest of the world.
“Unfortunately Jimmy Carter wasn’t on the same page. When we met him at the White House and were awarded honorary gold medals (which were actually Congressional Medals of Honor) my grandmother told me to ‘Give him a good kick in the shins and tell him it’s from your grandmother.’ I didn’t do it, but a few of the guys on the team said a few things to him when he came around to shake our hands one by one. I think the boycott ruined our sport for many years. It certainly took the heart and soul out of swimming for me.”
After the disappointment of 1980, Brennan continued swimming but experienced a series of illnesses and injuries that hindered her continued success.
She swam for the University of Southern California, and in 1984, she made good on her dream of swimming at the Olympics when she qualified in the 200-meter freestyle.
But even then, the passion she once had for swimming had dissipated.
It just wasn’t the same.
“I hate to admit it, but 1984 for me was more about letting myself have an experience that I was denied in 1980,” she said. “I was not even close to my best, but it was the best I could do at the time.
“It wasn’t my favorite experience by far. It’s no fun showing up at a meet of any type and not being at your best. At least I got to go to an Olympics, so that is a good thing, because the Olympic Games are special.”
Brennan retired from competitive international swimming after winning an Olympic silver medal in the 200 freestyle in Los Angeles, although she did continue swimming collegiately for USC.
And although she considered a comeback in her late 20s, ultimately she decided she wasn’t doing it with the right mindset and gave it up.
“I stopped swimming when I finished school at USC; that was just what everyone did back then,” she said. “I was definitely done. I was mentally and physically just tired of the daily grind of it all.
“At the end of the day, I was emotionally drained from all of it. Plus, at that time, it wasn’t looked on as something that would be very promising. People didn’t swim that late in their lives.”
Today, Brennan, who coached for a decade at USC where she was a three-time All-American and is a member of the USC Hall of Fame, remains involved with the sport cheering on twin 17-year-old swimmers Jamie and Ryan.
For years, she organized her days around driving them to and from swim practice, meets, etc., but they recently got their driver’s licenses and now she’s learning new ways to support them as they get closer to going away to college.
Coupled with the tragic passing of her second husband, Chris, who suffered a tragic heart attack while swimming and passed away a few days later in 2019, Brennan is discovering new ways to fill her days and find new meaning in her life.
“They got their driver’s licenses when they turned 16, came home from the DMV, grabbed their swim gear and drove off to practice…without me!” said Brennan, who lost her first husband, Michael Kanzer, in a car accident in 1995. “I was driving them around about 12 hours a week, and that went straight to zero, so that was an adjustment, but a welcome one. I’m a much nicer person now.
“What I found most amazing about them passing their driver’s license tests was that their dad had died 10 days prior, and they were able to go down to the DMV, take the driving portion of their test, and pass. I think their years of swimming helped them put everything aside and focus on the task in front of them.
For her, having her kids involved with the sport that gave her so much for so many years is a great reminder of all that swimming brings to people’s lives.
“I was basically raised by U.S. Swimming, and I will always be grateful for my experiences,” she said. “I travelled all over the world, I’ve been to every continent, and made some great lifelong friends along the way. It made me who I am. I learned so many things from swimming.”
Brennan said President Carter’s decision had lasting ramifications for her as well as many of her U.S. teammates for many years.
And while time – and life – have definitely put the boycott into perspective, it remains a significant experience in her life.
“It was a bad experience that affected me at a young age, for several years, but it is not something I think about with any amount of feeling or passion any longer,” said Brennan, who lives in Manhattan Beach, Calif., about 200 yards from the ocean.
“The boycott and swimming in general have been put into context multiple times for me. It’s so important to enjoy what you are doing and to be present while you’re doing it, whatever that is. Every day won’t be a picnic, but it’s so important to spend your valuable time doing things you want to do or that help you get where you want to go.”
Just 16 at the time and ranked No. 1 in the world in four individual events, she said the boycott took the joy out of swimming for her.
She admits that joy never fully returned even when she made the U.S. Olympic team four years later and left Los Angeles with a silver medal in the 200-meter freestyle.
“I wish I could have found that spark again, but it never happened,” said Brennan, who won three gold medals two years earlier at 1978 World Championships and would have been the Olympic favorite in four individual events in 1980. “We were all left to digest the boycott on our own, and I wasn’t very successful at that.
“Obviously, life has gone on as it does, and it is such a small part of my thoughts now. Unfortunately, when you’re a teenager, everything you are doing at that moment is the most important thing in the world, and so to deal with the boycott as a 16-year-old was not easy to handle alone.”
Forty years later and with no “I’m sorry” from then-President Jimmy Carter regarding his decision to boycott those Olympics due to communist aggression in Afghanistan, Brennan and her 1980 Olympic teammates will be recognized during a virtual Golden Goggle Awards celebration Nov. 19.
And while she admits it’s nice to be recognized for any achievement, this one is tricky because while it’s nice, and she loves recalling her swimming days, it’s a bit tough to be gracious for terrible experience.
Brennan said she looks at this more as a chance to recognize that generation of swimmers – not just those that made the 1980 team.
“When I think of swimming, I always drift back to my most fond memories, and those don’t include the boycott,” she said. “We had such a great, fun group of people back then. All of the trips we went on before the boycott, the laughs we had, I treasure those times.
“People were always smiling because if something funny hadn’t just happened, something funny was about to happen. You just anticipated laughing all the time.”
Brennan’s march to the 1980 and 1984 Olympic teams began at the Riverside Aquatics Association in her hometown of Riverside, Calif., when she was 9.
She lived one block from the swimming club where all the neighborhood kids belonged, and they spent their entire days there from open to close during the summers.
“I would walk down and wait at the gates for it to open, and stay as long as my mother would let me,” said Brennan, who set her first American record in the 1650-yard freestyle when she was 13. “I swam on the club’s novice team in the summer from June to August until I was 9, and then I went over to an AAU club across town called Riverside Aquatics where I swam for Chuck Riggs.
“I loved swimming. I felt like I could always figure out how to get faster whether that meant working harder or changing my technique. I watched the faster kids, chased them in practice and tried to do whatever they were doing that was better than what I was doing.”
And it worked.
At 14, she won National titles in the 100- and 200-meter freestyles, broke the world record in the 200 and set American records in the 400 and 800 freestyle events.
Later that summer at World Championships in West Berlin, Germany, she won three gold medals and two silver medals.
By 15, she had broken the American record in every freestyle distance – 100 to 800 in meters and 100 to 1650 in yards – and was heralded as an Olympic favorite in all of her events the following year in Moscow. She finished the year with five gold medals at the 1979 Pan American Games.
The boycott, however, changed all of that.
While she said she doesn’t remember where she was or what she was doing when she learned about President Jimmy Carter’s politically-driven decision not to compete at the Games in Moscow, the damage in many ways was already done to her and her teammates.
“None of it made sense to me, and I still think it was a horrible decision to use the athletes as a political weapon,” she said. “I had been in France at an international meet in February of 1980, and the Russians interrupted the meet when I was just about to get on the blocks, and their entire team sang Happy Birthday to me. So, you see, it was all politics, and no thought was put in to the athletes and what their coming together for a moment of peace meant to the rest of the world.
“Unfortunately Jimmy Carter wasn’t on the same page. When we met him at the White House and were awarded honorary gold medals (which were actually Congressional Medals of Honor) my grandmother told me to ‘Give him a good kick in the shins and tell him it’s from your grandmother.’ I didn’t do it, but a few of the guys on the team said a few things to him when he came around to shake our hands one by one. I think the boycott ruined our sport for many years. It certainly took the heart and soul out of swimming for me.”
After the disappointment of 1980, Brennan continued swimming but experienced a series of illnesses and injuries that hindered her continued success.
She swam for the University of Southern California, and in 1984, she made good on her dream of swimming at the Olympics when she qualified in the 200-meter freestyle.
But even then, the passion she once had for swimming had dissipated.
It just wasn’t the same.
“I hate to admit it, but 1984 for me was more about letting myself have an experience that I was denied in 1980,” she said. “I was not even close to my best, but it was the best I could do at the time.
“It wasn’t my favorite experience by far. It’s no fun showing up at a meet of any type and not being at your best. At least I got to go to an Olympics, so that is a good thing, because the Olympic Games are special.”
Brennan retired from competitive international swimming after winning an Olympic silver medal in the 200 freestyle in Los Angeles, although she did continue swimming collegiately for USC.
And although she considered a comeback in her late 20s, ultimately she decided she wasn’t doing it with the right mindset and gave it up.
“I stopped swimming when I finished school at USC; that was just what everyone did back then,” she said. “I was definitely done. I was mentally and physically just tired of the daily grind of it all.
“At the end of the day, I was emotionally drained from all of it. Plus, at that time, it wasn’t looked on as something that would be very promising. People didn’t swim that late in their lives.”
Today, Brennan, who coached for a decade at USC where she was a three-time All-American and is a member of the USC Hall of Fame, remains involved with the sport cheering on twin 17-year-old swimmers Jamie and Ryan.
For years, she organized her days around driving them to and from swim practice, meets, etc., but they recently got their driver’s licenses and now she’s learning new ways to support them as they get closer to going away to college.
Coupled with the tragic passing of her second husband, Chris, who suffered a tragic heart attack while swimming and passed away a few days later in 2019, Brennan is discovering new ways to fill her days and find new meaning in her life.
“They got their driver’s licenses when they turned 16, came home from the DMV, grabbed their swim gear and drove off to practice…without me!” said Brennan, who lost her first husband, Michael Kanzer, in a car accident in 1995. “I was driving them around about 12 hours a week, and that went straight to zero, so that was an adjustment, but a welcome one. I’m a much nicer person now.
“What I found most amazing about them passing their driver’s license tests was that their dad had died 10 days prior, and they were able to go down to the DMV, take the driving portion of their test, and pass. I think their years of swimming helped them put everything aside and focus on the task in front of them.
For her, having her kids involved with the sport that gave her so much for so many years is a great reminder of all that swimming brings to people’s lives.
“I was basically raised by U.S. Swimming, and I will always be grateful for my experiences,” she said. “I travelled all over the world, I’ve been to every continent, and made some great lifelong friends along the way. It made me who I am. I learned so many things from swimming.”
Brennan said President Carter’s decision had lasting ramifications for her as well as many of her U.S. teammates for many years.
And while time – and life – have definitely put the boycott into perspective, it remains a significant experience in her life.
“It was a bad experience that affected me at a young age, for several years, but it is not something I think about with any amount of feeling or passion any longer,” said Brennan, who lives in Manhattan Beach, Calif., about 200 yards from the ocean.
“The boycott and swimming in general have been put into context multiple times for me. It’s so important to enjoy what you are doing and to be present while you’re doing it, whatever that is. Every day won’t be a picnic, but it’s so important to spend your valuable time doing things you want to do or that help you get where you want to go.”