Setting:
The small college town of Caballo, New Mexico, in 1978; the Mescalero Apache reservation in Cloudcroft, New Mexico; the New Mexico school for the blind; the Handicapped Olympics in Arnheim, Holland, in 1980.
Synopsis:
Bobby Lucero was the fastest runner in the history his high school, but his Olympic ambitions are crushed when a rare disease destroys his vision. Bitterly depressed, he retreats in defeat into himself. His mother takes him to live at the New Mexico School for The Visually Handicapped, where he is encouraged to begin training as a blind runner. Helped by his former coach, he takes a job working as a VISTA in the community center on the Mescalero Apache Indian reservation in the mountains of New Mexico. There he is abused by cynical young Indians who hang out at a local bar, then helped by Linda Silverthorn, an angry young half-Indian girl (with whom he falls in love), and George Madrid, a reclusive old Apache shaman who teaches him to see with other vision, and to look beyond his immediate physical circumstances. They help him to confront the world again, and to reclaim his ambition to be a champion. As he begins to win local events, he is recruited by promoters, and the media begin to make a celebrity of him. He is tempted by the fast life at first, then eventually disgusted by the exploitation, and the drugs and party life going on around him, and resolves to have nothing to do with any of it, and he returns home. Then when the leader of America’s Olympic track team is denied his own chance to win in Moscow by President Carter’s boycott of the 1980 Olympics, he offers Bobby an opportunity to fulfill his dream, and to meet the ultimate challenge of his life. Paul Shapiro is the one man who is fast enough to serve as Bobby's tether lead runner so he might set a new world record. Bobby goes to Arnheim, Holland, and becomes a medalist for the US in the Olympics for the Handicapped (as George Mendoza did), then returns to Alamogordo to marry his true love Linda, and become a teacher of other handicapped athletes.
Principal Cast:
BOBBY LUCERO, 18-21, a handsome young athlete who loses his vision, and faces the challenge.
LINDA SILVERTHORN, 20, an angry half-Apache dropout at the Mescalero Reservation community center.
LELAND CROWSON, mid-20's, motorcycle-riding, hard-drinking young Mescalero Apache who taunts and endangers Bobby.
GEORGE MADRID, 80, reclusive old Apache shaman who rescues Bobby and teaches him to seek spiritual help.
PAUL SHAPIRO, 24, Olympic runner, denied his chance to win in Moscow by President Carter’s boycott.
MABEL LUCERO, 48, hardworking attractive widow, Bobby's mother.
COACH BURKE, 50's, Bobby’s high school coach, who gets him into the VISTA program, and inspires him to continue running, even though blind.
PACO MEDINA, 40's, the VISTA supervisor who befriends and helps Bobby at the reservation.
TYLLAN PRESCOTT, 30-ish, sexy young news reporter who discovers, seduces, and exploits him in the media, and leads him into the fast life of celebrity.
Others include:
SHERRY, 18, Bobby's high school girlfriend.
MIKE HOLMES, 18, Bobby's high school friend.
PETE KASELL, 22, Bobby's first tether-holding lead runner.
MEL SANDERSON, 24, a cocky blind runner at the NM School.
ALICE RUSSELL, 35, an Apache, supervisor at the VISTA Community Center.
