STORYCORPS SHORT PIECES

Carol Lindsey and Kim Clarke pose for a photo outside the Broadmoor
U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum photo
Carol "Coke" Lindsay and Kim Clarke talk about their paths to becoming Olympians in team handball.

A quick conversation: Carol “Coke” Lindsey and Kim Clarke

Share

Carol Lindsey first heard of team handball in 1974. The International Olympic Committee had just added women’s team handball as an Olympic sport for the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games. Team USA was going to field a team and try to qualify. “Their plan of attack was to recruit all-around athletes from college teams, bring us together, teach us and see if we could qualify,” said Lindsey, who often went by the nickname “Coke” as she played basketball at Purdue University. “The basketball coach at Purdue said, ‘You should try this.’ “
Listen: “How fast do you do the 50? How far can you throw a softball?”

Lindsey also was a starting halfback on the Purdue field hockey team (a sport she never played before college) and started at shortstop for the Purdue softball team.

Team handball, though, was where she found a home. While the U.S. did not qualify for the Montreal Games and Team USA boycotted the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games, Lindsey made her Olympic debut at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games.

“It is definitely a family sport,” Lindsey said. “Once you’re in, you’re hooked and you’re family forever.”



Kim Clarke certainly had family to thank for becoming a three-time Olympian in team handball. Her sister saw a magazine ad looking for candidates for the U.S. junior national team and sent in an application for Kim.

“Which I did not know about,” Clarke said, noting that she first knew about this when she received a letter in the mail inviting her to attend a tryout in Colorado Springs.

Clarke made the team and, at age 16, moved to New Jersey to begin training.

“It is amazing when I tell my friends now, how my parents let me go at such a young age,” Clarke said.

MORE STORYCORPS SHORT PIECES

USOPMUseum on Facebook
Related
A Native American from tiny Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Billy Mills surged down the stretch to win the 10,000-meter run at the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games, one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history.
More in Spotlight
More in spotlight
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum is excited to open its latest exhibit, "Return to Paris: 1924 | 2024," on June 28 in Colorado Springs.
Skip to content