Forty years ago, Connecticut Olympians, including 3 with UConn connections, also missed a chance for gold — but for very different reasons A

ndy Bessette had his gold medal, and he didn’t even realize it.

On July 30, 1980, the day he would have been in Moscow competing for an Olympic medal had the era’s geopolitical winds blown differently, Bessette was instead on the steps of the U.S. Capitol receiving a medal he knew little about from President Jimmy Carter. “I still have pictures of my wife and my mom,” Bessette said, “we were on stage and we each were presented our Congressional Gold Medal, and I thought it was cool. But it meant nothing to me at the time.”

The honor had been bestowed on the giants of American history, starting with George Washington, but because Congress had voted to give out 461 to Olympic athletes and coaches kept home by the U.S. boycott, the medals were gold plated instead of solid, and there was some question about their status. When Bessette returned home from Washington, he stored the medal in his wife’s hope chest and there it remained.

Then in December of 2007, it was finally clarified, and Bessette and the others received a certificate in the mail asserting its legitimacy. As he reads the certificate, which is framed on his wall, Bessette gets a little choked up — especially when he gets to the last two words.

“You go back and look at who’s received it, and it starts with George Washington,” he said. “It says they bestowed it to the Olympic team and it’s the highest civilian award that could be bestowed by the Congress, and it’s ‘a tribute to the athletes, coaches and staff for their sacrifice and participation in the game. The U.S. Olympic committee is extremely proud of its members who will forever be remembered as

“… I’m reading it and to this day, it’s moving to me.”

Forty years ago, Bessette, Dee Rowe, an assistant coach in men’s basketball and Joe Morrone Jr., soccer star and son of the famous