Swimming / John Weyler : Best in U.S. Haven’t Been Floating on Their Olympic Laurels

Many of the biggest names in American swimming hung up their racing suits after the 1984 Summer Games, and the Olympians who decided to continue swimming are supposed to be suffering from post-Olympic blues or living on past glories.

It appears, however, that the best in the United States haven’t been lying around depressed or sitting by the pool telling Olympic tales. They have been too busy churning out laps. And, as is usually the case in this sport, the work is paying dividends--in the record books.

Five California swimmers--Matt Biondi, Tom Jager, Mike O’Brien, Pablo Morales and Jeff Kostoff--combined to break nine American records this spring, eight of them in the NCAA meet at Austin, Tex.

Biondi and Jager, both of whom swam only relays in the ’84 Olympics, battled in the freestyle sprints, Biondi winning the 100- and 200-yard events. The 6-6, 195-pound sophomore at Cal trimmed half a second off gold-medalist Rowdy Gaines’ mark in the 100 with a 41.87 and also set the record in the 200 with a time of 1:33.22.

Biondi also had a record in the 50-yard freestyle--for a few minutes, anyway. Jager, a junior at UCLA, then beat Biondi’s mark, which had been set in the preliminaries, with a 19.24 clocking in the final. Jager, the only one of the five not raised in California, also took three-tenths of a second off gold-medalist Rick Carey’s mark in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 48.21.

O’Brien, a USC freshman who won the gold medal in the Olympic 1,500-meter freestyle, didn’t lose any ground in his battle to remain the premier distance freestyle swimmer in the United States. He lowered the mark in the 500-yard freestyle by two seconds to 4:13.06 in the NCAA meet, then set a record in the 1,000-yard event, 8:47.38, a week later at the Phillips 66/United States Swimming short course national meet at East L.A. College.

Stanford sophomore Morales won both butterfly events, as predicted, but he also set two records. Morales, with his time of 46.52, became the first person to go under 47 seconds in the 100, and took a second off the mark in the 200 with a 1:42.85.

Cardinal sophomore Kostoff set a record in the 400-meter individual medley with a 3:46.54.

The women have not been nearly as impressive, though. The only U.S. gold-medal winners who remained active are Tiffany Cohen at Texas, and Mary T. Meagher at Cal. Cohen’s American record-setting 9:28.32 in the 1,000-yard freestyle was the only change in the women’s record book this spring.

A bill introduced by California State Senator Leroy Greene (D-Sacramento) designed to allow a high school athlete to train wherever he pleases and still compete for his school in CIF meets, will be reintroduced under a new form soon. The legislation (SB1351) was entitled “Pupil Participation in an Olympic Sport,” and it’s a good thing it didn’t make it out of committee, according to Mary Jo Swalley, the executive director of Southern California Swimming.

“We’ve been working toward a bill like this for a long time, but this one was worded in a way that it had little chance to pass,” Swalley said. “The education people would have fought it tooth and nail. Actually, it would have passed the committee, but one of the senators had to leave for a speaking engagement.”

The bill was drafted from an example piece of legislation at the instigation of a Northern California couple whose son was kicked off his high school team because he wanted to train with his United States swimming team.

“We’re going to rework it, and then Senator Greene will ask for reconsideration,” Swalley said.

Swimming Notes

If there was ever any argument about which U.S. pool is the fastest, this year’s NCAA men’s meet must have put an end to it. The Texas Swim Center, at the University of Texas in Austin, is only 7 years old, but a number of records have been established in the facility. . . . Rick Carey, who won the Olympic gold medal but pouted because he didn’t better his world-record time in the 200-meter backstroke, said there was “something left undone inside,” after winning both backstroke events at the short course national meet. He said he would make a more definitive announcement at the long course nationals Aug. 5-9 at Mission Viejo. Could Carey, who is fascinated with the martial arts, be considering making a bid for the 1988 U.S. Olympic judo team? . . . Coaches are raving about a new training aid that monitors pulse rates during workouts. The swimmer wears a device that looks like a wristwatch. It sends the information via radio waves to a unit on the pool deck. . . . Fourteen swimmers have been named to represent the United States in an international meet May 25-26 at Monaco. Kim Brown, Tiffany Cohen, Dan Jorgensen and Mike O’Brien of Mission Viejo; Matt Biondi of Moraga, Tami Bruce of San Diego, Jenna Johnson of La Habra, Jeff Kostoff of Upland, Betsy Mitchell of Marietta, Ohio; Mary Wayte of Mercer Island, Wash.; Erika Hansen of King of Prussia, Pa.; Tom Jager of Collinsville, Ill.; Matt Rankin of Portland, Ore., and Doug Gjertsen of Houston were selected on the basis of their performances in the short course meet.