U.S. Athletes Are Wary of Being Targets of Terrorism Overseas

John Slaughter, who is just starting out on the European golf tour, isn’t sure he wants to stay there if Americans overseas are going to become targets for terrorism.

Unlike Chicago Bears Coach Mike Ditka, who says he would like to carry a machine gun on the plane that carries his team to its exhibition game in London with the Dallas Cowboys, Slaughter is worried about the possible response to the U.S. bombing of Libya.

“If it gets too bad, I’ll have to think about quitting and returning home,” he said. “I have to think of my parents and grandparents back home. With these reports coming out of Europe, they’ll be worried sick.”

For the most part, the reaction of U.S. athletes to travel tensions lies between Slaughter’s reticence and Ditka’s Rambo-like aggressiveness. If U.S. athletes and teams are not canceling their trips abroad this summer, there is a new wariness about them.

The most direct effect of the Middle East tension is on trips to the Arab world as reflected by the decision Thursday by an American gymnastics delegation to call off a trip to Algeria.

“They were flying via the Rome airport,” said John Arends, a spokesman for the United States Gymnastics Federation, who said the trip was called off despite good relations between American and Algerian gymnasts.

“Given the cautions given us by the State Department as well as the instability in the region, we felt it was prudent to cancel the trip for safety reasons.”

Other athletes agreed with that decision.

“It’s hard for me or anyone to go over and enjoy anything right now because of the risk,” said race driver Mario Andretti, who used to commute between Europe and the United States but is staying put this year. “We’re absolute targets as Americans anywhere outside the U.S. I’m just glad I don’t have to go there every week like I was doing for so many years.”

Not only athletes were affected.

ESPN, a cable television network, decided that two people who were to go to Monaco for the Volvo-Monte Carlo Grand Prix tennis tournament April 26-27, producer Geoffrey Mason of Ohlmeyer Communications Companies and color commentator Cliff Drysdale, instead will work from the network’s studio in Bristol, Conn. The feed, as originally planned, will come from a local television outlet.

“It is a direct result of the situation in Europe,” said Chris LaPlaca, an ESPN spokesman.

The reaction of top American golfers, many of whom will fly over for the British Open this summer, was mixed.

“It’s definitely a consideration. I might not go,” said Hale Irwin. “Put yourself in their position. The British Open, Wimbledon, the French Open. You want to make a splash. Those places aren’t protected like embassies. Anybody can buy a ticket and walk in, carrying anything. It’s something you think about.”

“I’ll probably play the British unless something crazy happens in the next few weeks,” said Tom Kite. “But I don’t think I’ll be playing anything else in Europe. It’s a kind of scary time.”

Other golfers were less reticent.

“I’m going over on a charter, but even if I was flying commercial it wouldn’t make any difference,” said Raymond Floyd. “But I sure wouldn’t want to be going to the Greek Islands.”

“My first reaction is, why advertise?” said Lanny Wadkins. “They don’t know anything about sports. Why tell them that here’s a bunch of American pros and this is where they’ll be? But I don’t think it’ll affect me. We’ll be flying out of an American airport and the hotel is sitting out there in the middle of nothing. It ought to have pretty good security.”

Those athletes who do the most international traveling seemed to be the least reluctant.

John Hewig, spokesman for the Men’s International Pro Tennis Assn., governing body of the Grand Prix tour, acknowledged there had been some discussions about the dangers of travel abroad. But George Pharr of the Assn. of Tennis Professionals said he had heard of no reluctance to travel among tennis players.

“A lot of them spend their entire year traveling all over the world and they’re more used to this,” Pharr said.

That was similar to the reaction of Peter Teravainen, an American regular on the European golf tour.

“If I’m going to get killed, I’m going to get killed,” he said. “I played in a tournament in the Phillipines during the revolution.”

St. John’s basketball coach Lou Carnesecca said he had delayed a trip to Italy, where he was going to seek documentation for the case of one of his players, Marco Baldi, who was suspended by the NCAA last month.

“Maybe in the name of sanity, we’re just going to let things quiet down,” said Carnesecca, who was in Bismarck, N.D., for a sports medicine seminar.

“With my name, they might not think I’m an American.”