Swimming / Tracy Dodds : U.S. Coach Is Ready to Take On the World

Richard Quick, U.S. national swim team coach through the ’88 Olympics in Seoul, is feeling very confident about his team’s chances this summer at the world championships in Madrid.

After working with a group of 56 elite swimmers in Honolulu, Quick said: “I don’t see going into the world championships in Madrid next summer and conceding any medals to anyone. The United States has enough talent and enough world-class athletes to totally dominate the meet, and that is the attitude that I intend to carry for the next three years.”

U.S. swimmers made a disappointing showing at the 1982 world championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador. That is part of the reason for a much greater emphasis on developing and training swimmers as a national team at all times rather than gathering the best swimmers from the various colleges and clubs right before international competitions.

Quick said: “We have a national approach to international competition now that we didn’t have before 1984. One reason is that we realize we no longer can just show up at the Olympics and dominate as we once did.

“When we gather this elite group to train together, the way we did in Hawaii, we give them the opportunity to improve by training with the best and, second, we have the opportunity to do some sports medicine testing that will benefit not only these athletes but will provide a data base for others to use.”

The swimmers were also given some media training and nutrition classes.

Quick said: “We want to put an emphasis on the fact that these swimmers are part of the national team, to shift the total emphasis from short-course training for their school competition. One of the things we have to get over is the idea that long-course training will, in any way, detract from their club or school competition.

“I’m hoping that these training camps will help convince everyone that these programs will only enhance their training.”

Quick said that the U.S. team for the world championships at Madrid starting Aug. 14 would be chosen in Orlando, Fla., June 22-27. The U.S. team suffered at the last World Championships because it was chosen about 10 days before the competition.

While the elite group was training in Hawaii, a group of younger swimmers got together to train at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. The sports medicine experts were at work there, too, studying the effect of altitude training--an area in which the East Germans have recently made great strides.

Greg Louganis, who won two gold medals for diving at the ’84 Olympics, will be joining his coach, Ron O’Brien, in Boca Raton, Fla., to compete for the Makos.

That’s not exactly surprising. The Boca Raton Makos are sponsored by a huge housing developer, just as the Mission Viejo Nadadores. The Boca Raton swimming and diving program is modeled after the Mission Viejo program. Both Coach Mark Schubert and O’Brien were hired away from Mission Viejo and took with them most of their top athletes.

On the college swimming front, Stanford is looking good to defend its NCAA men’s title, with a strong challenge from Florida. In women’s competition, Stanford will be a factor, too, along with Florida and Texas. The Florida women recently scored a stunning 67-45 victory over the Texas women at Austin.