World champion athlete Candy Young brings Cold War sports journey home to Pennsylvania
CRANBERRY TWP — A record-setting hurdler and native Pennsylvanian has returned full circle since first crossing the Iron Curtain.
Candy Young, 60, formerly of Beaver Falls, spoke before the Rotary Club of Cranberry Township on Tuesday, Sept. 27 at the Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA. She described her achievement of multiple youth records, her junior athlete tournaments in Moscow and Berlin, and her hopes for the United States’ future.
At age 15, she said, she won the chance to compete as part of an international junior championship between the U.S., the Soviet Union and other nations held in 1977.
“After many hours of flying, we landed in Moscow. We exited the plane, surrounded by military forces with high-powered weapons. I had never seen a machine gun in my life. Now I’m surrounded by 30 men in uniforms, with machine guns, and they are pointing, with their backs to us, pointing away from us. We were told this was to protect us while we were in this country. I immediately thought this is nothing like my ‘America the Beautiful’ and the freedoms that I have at home.”
She prides herself on her unique role as an ambassador of United States culture.
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