Daland Took the Goodwill Games, and Herself, by Surprise in Pool

When Leslie Daland walked out of the Hotel Rossia in Moscow and boarded the U.S. swim team’s buski en route to the Olympic Pool during the Goodwill Games last Friday, she had no idea what was about to happen.

She sat back and soaked in the Soviet scenery. Oooh, there, clear as day, was the Bolshoi Theater. And over to the other side was the Kremlin and Red Square. Down the road were the facilities used in the 1980 Olympics.

The 17-year-old was on her way to her first competition in the Games, the 800 freestyle, but she felt little pressure because she knew she had no chance of winning. Or so she thought. She hadn’t even qualified for the event.

Daland was added to the field because her father, Peter, the U.S. swim coach, had negotiated a deal with the Russians allowing both American and Russian swimmers to cross over in different events. Daland had qualified to swim in the 400 freestyle only. Now, under the new agreement, she could compete in the 400, 800 and 1,500.

“We had a lot of kids over there who were going to swim just one event,” said Peter Daland, who returned with his daughter from Moscow on Wednesday night. “The Russians and us, we both agreed to expand the initial concept. Why not? The kids were over there. I thought it was a good idea. So did the Russians.”

If the Soviets didn’t mind, neither did Leslie.

After bouncing through the city streets with her teammates, Daland unloaded at the Olympic pool stadium, then unloaded on the competition.

With the Russians and East Germans watching in disbelief, Daland shaved nearly 15 seconds off her personal record time of 8:45.0, beating East Germany’s Anke Moering and American Kathy Hettche. Her winning time, 8:30.4, was the fastest 800 freestyle time in the world in 1986. All this-- ach, du Lieber-- and Daland wasn’t even ranked among the event’s top 25.

Searching for an explanation for what his daughter had done, Peter Daland said: “She was inspired. She just . . . she just did it.”

Which, translated, meant that the coach had no idea how it happened.

Viktor Judin, a Soviet swimming statistician, came over to Coach Daland and said, “We knew you had a daughter who swam, but we didn’t know she was so good.”

“Neither did I,” said Daland.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, when Leslie Daland’s mother, Ingrid, was told by a friend that her daughter had won the gold medal in the 800 freestyle, she said, “She isn’t even in the 800 freestyle.”

There were more surprises to come.

Two days later, Daland swam the 1,500 freestyle, a grueling 30-lap race. This time she won by shaving 16 seconds off her personal best. Her time, 16:15.8, was the world’s fastest in the 1,500 this year.

This time, the 5-8, 130-pound redhead from Westlake beat Moering by five seconds.

“I was shocked,” Daland said. “I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t expect to win. I never really even thought about it.”

The whole thing was getting to be confounding. People asked Daland, her father, her mother, her teammates, what she was doing to bring about such sudden improvement.

No one, not the least of whom was Leslie herself, could explain it.

Peter Daland, who has coached the USC swimming team for 29 years, and headed the U.S. women’s Olympic team in 1964 and the U.S. men’s Olympic team in 1972, said he’d never seen anything like it.

Ingrid Daland, who coaches a swim club in Simi Valley and who has coached Leslie since she was 4, was as shocked as anybody.

Daland had shown plenty of potential as a junior swimmer. She broke national marks in 1983 at the junior nationals in Milwaukee, winning three events and placing second in another.

But after that, strangely, Daland stopped improving. Despite keeping a rigorous training schedule, she made little progress.

Then, it was discovered that she had tendinitis in her shoulders. She took an anti-inflammatory drug to help stop the irritation. Before swimming, she applied heating pads. After workouts, she iced her shoulders for 20 minutes.

“Sometimes, I’d really get down because of it,” Daland said. “Twice, I’ve been out for a six-week period right in the middle of the season.”

A year ago, she went to Germantown Academy, a prep school in Ft. Washington, Pa., to train under Dick Shoulberg. Shoulberg has worked with a number of world-class swimmers, including Erika Hansen, who was ranked No. 1 in the world in the 400 individual medley last year.

As it turned out, Daland’s shoulder problem worsened and she was unable to swim. “Instead, I ran stairs, rode a stationary bike and lifted weights,” she said.

Eventually, she made her way back to the pool.

But Daland still feels the effects of the tendinitis. After winning the 1,500 freestyle in Moscow, she said, “I really started to hurt. My shoulders hurt, but, really, they didn’t hurt any more than the rest of my body.”

Last Sunday, in the final day of the swimming competition, Daland swam in the 400 freestyle. She started strong, but weakened midway through the race and finished fourth. “I was tired,” she said. “By then, it just wasn’t there.”

It was ironic that the single event for which Daland actually qualified at the Goodwill Games--the 400--was the only event she didn’t win.

Rules, schmules.

Daland said her most memorable moment in Russia came after she won the 800 freestyle. “When I won, I looked up and saw my time. I knew I’d been doing well--but, for some reason, seeing it up there on the board was really something.”

There’s nothing like winning the gold on the Fourth of July in Moscow.

“Seeing the Bolshoi Theater,” she said, “was kinda neat, too.”