wottle had equaled the world record winning the us trials. still, few had expected wottle, who had suffered tendinitis in his knees earlier that summer, to defeat arzhanov, as the soviet had not lost an 800 m final in four years; wottle himself was so surprised at winning the race that he forgot to remove his golf cap when the u.s. national anthem was played at the medal ceremony. when reporters later asked him if his failure to remove the cap, a good luck charm which he always wore while racing, was a protest against the vietnam war, wottle replied that he had merely forgotten and formally apologized to the american people.