No. 1 young gun...He's baaaaaack!...The long walk home: a florid tale

Struck
The first gold of the 1992 Summer Games, by Yeo Kab Soon, 18, of South Korea, who scored a total of 498.2 points in the women's air-rifle competition. Bulgaria's Vesela Letcheva finished second with 495.3 points, edging out Aranka Binder of Yugoslavia by .1. Yeo, who took up the sport in 1989, said, "I thought I'd need more international experience to get so far." She was no less surprised by her victory than the favored Letcheva, a two-time Olympian, who confessed, "I never thought any Korean would get a gold medal."

Beaten
The U.S. Olympic soccer team, 2-1 by gold medal favorite Italy in the first event of the Summer Games. Sorely missed by the American side was striker Steve Snow, who had scored 10 of the squad's 17 goals in the final qualifying round but rode the bench throughout the Games opener. U.S. coach Lothar Osiander tried to justify his mysterious decision by saying that he used up his two allotted substitutions on players other than Snow for "defensive reasons." Most cognoscenti, however, agreed with Snow when he said, "When you're down 2-0 [as the U.S. was 20 minutes into the second half], you don't have defensive reasons." On Monday, Snow did play and scored once in the U.S.'s 3-1 victory over Kuwait.

Granted
To George Steinbrenner by baseball commissioner Fay Vincent, permission to return to active duty as the managing partner of the New York Yankees on March 1, 1993. Two years ago, faced with punishment for paying gambler Howard Spira for information supposedly discrediting former Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield, Steinbrenner negotiated for a lifetime ban from baseball rather than a two-year suspension with three years probation. Having served the "lifetime" ban in only two years, Steinbrenner has effectively skipped probation, much to the chagrin, no doubt, of those New Yorkers who greeted the July 1990 announcement of his punishment with a standing ovation at Yankee Stadium.

Spun
By Miami Dolphin nosetackle Alfred Oglesby, 25, a yarn of having been kidnapped by armed robbers on July 22, abandoned in the Everglades and forced to walk the nine miles back to training camp at St. Thomas University in Miami—all in an effort to justify missing curfew and being absent from practice on July 23. In fact, Oglesby spent the evening of the 22nd drinking with a friend, and he slept at the friend's apartment until 11 a.m. the following day, when he discovered that the BMW he had borrowed from Miami offensive tackle Richmond Webb was gone. A panicked Oglesby called the Dolphins with his tale after seeing himself listed on television as a missing person. He soon learned his drinking buddy had taken the car for a spin and abandoned it eight miles from training camp. When questioned by detectives about his story, Oglesby revealed that it was fiction. "I didn't know what to tell Coach Shula," the remorseful Oglesby said, adding, "I didn't want to lose my job." Oglesby is still employed, but he is also out $4,000 in fines and has been threatened with suspension if he gets into trouble again.

PHOTO

GEORGE TIEDEMANN

Yeo got an unexpected experience.