He was 30 at the time, enjoying his peak years as one of the top water polo goalies on the planet. He was an All-American at San Jose State in 1971; voted the best goalkeeper in the world-renowned University Games in 1973 and was preparing to launch Team USA to a gold medal in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

Hamann had his role model picked - Jim Craig, who was netminder for the U.S. hockey team that shocked the Soviets on the way to winning gold at Lake Placid, N.Y., that same year.

"It was the same situation," he recalled Tuesday from his home in Cobb. "The Soviet Union and the U.S. were the best in water polo, too. I owned them as a goalkeeper. They had nothing I couldn't stop.

"What (Craig) did, that was a big win. It would not have been that situation for me because the U.S. was an underdog in hockey. I was going to be even better."

Hamann never got the chance.

He and the entire U.S. contingency stayed at home, rather, serving as pawns in the U.S. boycott that protested Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Many nations, including France, Greece and Great Britain, supported the move. But while their athletes had permission to participate, America's did not.

President Jimmy Carter confirmed the boycott on March 21, 1980, all but clinching gold for the Soviets in men's water polo.

Hamann and his teammates were playing in a tournament in Eastern Europe when they heard.

"We knew for months it might happen," he said. "We kept practicing. All we could do was hope Carter would rescind it.

"We would have been one of the favorites for the gold. To have that all yanked from you, a dream you worked for your entire life, for a very political reason - it's tough even today."

Hamann expressed sympathy for the Soviet athletes, who missed the 1984 Games in Los Angeles because of a Moscow-imposed boycott. The U.S.S.R. cited security reasons in light of anti-Soviet hysteria. Rather than endanger its athletes, the Kremlin told them not to compete.

"All you can do is move on," Hamann said. "It's not something to dwell over. Time marches on."

Time unfortunately has marched on - to another generation of athletes who will miss the upcoming games for reasons beyond their control.

We call it politics.

Less than two weeks before the opening ceremonies, five Iraqi athletes were banned from Beijing amid a political feud in Baghdad that angered Olympic officials. The International Olympic Committee said last Thursday that it would uphold its ban imposed in June after the Iraqi government replaced its National Olympic Committee with members not sanctioned by the IOC.

This is the same war-torn country that drew an uproar of applause during opening ceremonies in Athens four years ago.

"Clearly we'd like very much to have seen Iraq's athletes in Beijing," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told the Associated Press. "We are very disappointed that the athletes have been so ill-served by their own government's actions."

The blame doesn't rest in Baghdad. Although the country's young government knowingly went against IOC policy in forming a non-independent NOC, which included holdovers from the Saddam Hussein-era Olympic Committee, the IOC revealed a systemic flaw Tuesday when it reversed its decision after the Iraqi government pledged not to interfere in the country's Olympic movement. Two Iraqi athletes will be allowed to participate in Beijing - Dana Hussein, a sprinter, and Haider Nasir, a discus thrower. The other five will still be left out, simply because track and field events have a later registration date.

The IOC pledges to act in the best interest of the athletes. Couldn't it have just moved the date back or prorated registration in hopes negotiations would succeed?

It's not that simple, but exceptions can and should be made. We're talking about the Olympics: a unification of all nations through sport - regardless of race, origin or politics.

"It's a boy and girlhood dream," said Hamann, who's a member of both the SJSU Hall of Fame and U.S.A. Water Polo Hall of Fame. "For that particular reason, with the Russians in '84 and the athletes this year, it's unfortunate."

And it's all too common. A feat so precious as making the Olympics should be left to one governing body - the athlete's.