Gallipolitan
Dr. Stephen K. Rerych Speaks To Gallipolis Rotary
President Deb Rhodes opened the regular meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club at 7:15 am with a good crowd on hand. Bob Hood gave the invocation. Our special guest and speaker for the morning was Dr. Stephen K. Rerych, MD who gave a very interesting talk to the club about his experiences as a gold medalist in the 1968 Olympics. Here is a photo of Dr. Rerych with President Deb and he is holding the display case showing the Olympic wreath and his gold medal for the 100 meter relay event.
Club Board Meeting–President Deb reminded club members that this Wednesday, November 6th is our monthly club board meeting to be held at the OVB Main Office at 1:00 pm. This is an excellent time to make up a club absence and attendance is REQUIRED for at least one board meeting for all red badge members. Any member is welcome to attend to learn more about the workings of your club.
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Rotary Reading–Emily Dailey reminded Rotarians that this Wednesday is also our regularly scheduled reading to the first graders in the Gallia Local Schools. All the school slots are filled for this month and the Rotarians who signed up need to keep the appointment with the appropriate school. There is one slot open for December 3rd at Vinton Elementary if anyone is interesting in helping out. This is a great project for our club and the children in the county schools really like seeing Rotarians on our reading days! If you haven’t experienced the fun in this project, contact Emily and get signed up for school in January or February.
Club Fellowship–’Was anyone late today?’ Fellowship chair, Lou Ellen Werry, nailed several Rotarians–Debbie Saunders, Greg Sojka, and Jim Phillippe–for arriving after the bell. Lou Ellen shared some interesting information from the holiday film, A Christmas Story and urged everyone to be sure to vote today!
Split-The-Pot–Dan Whiteley ran STP for the meeting today and our small pot was pushed to $10 to the lucky ticket holder. Dan had our speaker draw for the winner which was Dave Smith, who hoped that this would be one of many ‘wins’ for him today! Dave missed the big one of $97 by drawing the two of hearts. The Foundation Fine was assessed against any Rotarian who had voted already today–a Rotarian Poll Tax! Good one!
Program–PDG Mel Simon is program chair for the month of November which is Foundation Month. Mel welcomed our speaker, Dr. Stephen Rerych, adding, “And I approved of this message!” Dr. Rerych is a Thorasic Surgeon at Pleasant Valley Hospitalin Point Pleasant and a fellow Rotarian. Our speaker trained for the 1968 Olympics which were held in Mexico City and provided Rotarians with a glimpse of what it was like to prepare for the summer games.
Dr. Rerych won two gold medals, both in relay events in the ‘68 games and training in those days was very different than it is today. The Olympians of that day were truely 
amateurs and trained individually. A typical day of training consisted of swimming three times a day for a total of 10 miles each day. Swimmers are unique as not every athelete can tolerate the extreme physical conditioning that is required for Olympic competition. Our speaker provided an interesting look into the 1968 games and how these were the last of the ‘free games’. The USA competitors all stayed in the Olympic Village and security was light. It would not be unusual to have outside visitors in the Village. This is not the case today, due to the extreme security standards.
In addition, today’s athletes are compensated in different ways so they are professional athletes. Many have a staff of coaches, nutritionists, psychologists, and the like. With such a personal following these athletes now stay in hotels instead of the Olympic Village. There is less unity in the teams due to the specialization and massive egos that go along with the professional status. During the interesting Q& A, Dr. Rerych predicted the increased emphasis on drug testing. Testing samples are now specially perserved to be tested years in the future. In 2008, over $35 million was spent on drug testing of athletes! There are certainly no easy answers about how to cope with performance enhancing drugs.
Thank you very much, Dr. Steve, for the interesting program!