Men's Volleyball: Tragedy to Triumph

Hugh McCutcheon's Olympic experience was rare.  These 2 weeks were the worst, and the best, of his life.  

McCuthcheon's Olympic experience began with the brutal stabbing of his in-laws while they were site-seeing in Beijing.  The attack by a deranged Chinese national killed his father-in-law died; his mother-in-law survived, but was seriously injured and remained in the hospital throughout the Olympics.  To make the attack even more crazy, the attacker took his own life by jumping off the tower on which McCuthcheon's in-laws had stood.  

This senseless attack would have ended many people's quest for gold, but McCutheon knew that his in-laws would have wanted him to compete.  So, McCutcheon continued to coach the Olympic men's volleyball team.  

McCutheon and his players banded together to play in the memory of the coach's father-in-law.  Two weeks after the brutal attack, McCutcheon and his players won a gold medal and heard the roar of a Chinese crowd that saluted the team's victory, but also tried in some way to apologize for an attack by one of their countrymen.  This must have made the cheers of "U-S-A!" even more special to McCutcheon. 

He will remember these two weeks for the rest of his life as memories... both GOOD and bad.