Ali: a national, international and Olympic treasure who carried the torch for us all

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It was and may always be the most indelible moment in U.S. Summer Olympic history, and it had nothing to do with competition.

It was so much bigger than that, befitting the image of the man at its center.

It was about the transformation of this country's attitude toward an Olympic champion and global icon, whose willingness to speak his mind had made him a pariah rather than a prophet in many precincts of his own land. It was a confession of and atonement for our past sins.

It was, as I described it in the Chicago Tribune, the moment at the opening ceremony of the 1996 Centennial Olympics in Atlanta when Muhammad Ali lit the cauldron:

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Becca Mann, author, Rewriting Olympic quest story of Becca Mann, swimmer

Becca Mann in the 5-kilometer open water race at the 2013 World Championships.  (Getty Images)

Becca Mann found out last July she would have to make major revisions in the script that would have her swimming in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Part of that task is easy, given that no U.S. Olympic swimming hopeful could be more qualified than Mann to do such rewriting.

After all, she was a published author by age 16. Mann’s young adult fantasy novel, the 322-page “The Stolen Dragon of Quanx,” came out in October 2014. It is the first installment of her planned Eyes Trilogy.

And she has been accepted into the writing for screen and television program at the University of Southern California’s renowned School of Cinematic Arts, whose alums include Hollywood superstar writers like Melissa Rosenberg (“The Twilight Saga”), Shonda Rhimes (“Scandal”) and Matthew Weiner (“Mad Men”).

The tough part is while Mann still has complete control over how “The Eyes Trilogy” will end, the plot line of her Olympic story became far less certain after she failed to make the U.S. team in open water swimming.

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The Time Has Come To Make Allyson Felix The Toast Of The Sports World

Allyson Felix after winning the 400 meters at the 2015 World Championships

Bob Kersee does what he calls the bar test to assess name recognition.

Walk into a moderately crowded bar, the celebrated track and field coach says, and toss out the names Mickey Mantle, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Carl Lewis. Someone in the crowd will be able to fill you in on each of those sports superstars.

“Even if it’s only one person who knows,” Kersee said.

Now put Allyson Felix into that mix.

Kersee knows the result almost certainly will be blank stares, and that is enough to drive a man to drink.

“It’s time for Allyson to be recognized in the same way as some of the great American athletes, if not world athletes, of all time,” Kersee said.

Why should she be?

Since winning a senior national indoor title three months before her graduation from Los Angeles Baptist High School in 2003, Felix has been one of the world’s top sprinters. No woman in history has won as many world outdoor championship gold medals as her nine. No track and field athlete in the last three Olympics has won more medals than her six – four golds, two silvers.

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Ibtihaj Muhammad’s Olympic Qualification A Ray Of Hope For Muslim-American Women

Ibtihaj Muhammad poses for a portrait at the 2016 Team U.S. Media Summit on March 9, 2016 in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES - Ibtihaj Muhammad was not making a fashion statement. What she wore at the Team USA Media Summit last month in Los Angeles spoke of something much more significant.

She was dressed in blue jeans, a white jacket with a red U.S. Olympic team logo and a charcoal scarf covering her head, ears and neck, lining the oval of her copper-colored face.

It was the scarf that had drawn all the attention. There is an irony in having that dark, monochrome scarf be the attraction, given that Muhammad has such a sense of style she has launched a clothing line full of distinctive apparel in bright colors and intricate patterns.

The scarf, known now as hijab although referred to in the Quran as khimar, is plenty eye-catching in one of Muhammad’s worlds, the world of Olympic sports, where few wear it.

For Muhammad and many Muslim women, hijab is a symbol of both their identity and their spiritual connection to God. And she is soon to be the first U.S. athlete who competes in hijab at the Olympics.

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