Swimming : It So Happens That U.S. Will Be Sending Its B Team to Pan Am Games

The U.S. swimming coach for the Pan American Games in Indianapolis this summer, Skip Kenney, can’t help but cringe when he hears the term B team.

But he’s going to hear it a lot.

Just as the United States sent its B team to Moscow last summer for the Goodwill Games, saving its A team for the World Championships in Madrid, the plan this year is to send the B team to Indianapolis to compete Aug. 9-23. The top American swimmers are going to the Pan Pacific meet in Brisbane, Australia, Aug. 13-16.

Why would the United States not keep its best swimmers home when it is the host country for the Pan Am Games?

Well, timing is everything.

When the United States, Canada and Australia got together after the ’84 Olympics and came up with the idea of the Pan Pacific Games, the next Pan Am competition was scheduled for Ecuador, with talk of possibly moving it to Chile.

In 1983, however, when the Pan Am Games were in Venezuela, conditions were horrible. No one was too keen on going back down there.

So, in October of ‘84, the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan signed contracts agreeing to send their top teams to the newly conceived Pan Pacific games.

Then in December, the 1987 Pan Am Games were awarded to Indianapolis. Of course, Indianapolis officials were not pleased to learn that the big-name swimmers were passing their big show.

There is some talk now of staging the 1989 Pan Pacific Games in Los Angeles. So maybe the contract will look better then.

In the meantime, it’s up to Kenney to quiet this B team talk. “That’s what everyone said about the team that we sent to the Goodwill Games, and they did very well,” he said. “You watch what we do. There are plenty of great swimmers in this country. And who knows what’s going to happen at Clovis?”

The makeup of the A and B teams will be determined at the Phillips 66-U.S. Swimming Long Course national meet in Clovis, N.M., July 27-31, with the top two finishers in each event going to the Pan Pacifics, and the third and fourth finishers (fifth through eighth in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle events because of relays) going to the Pan Am competition.

The last major tune-up and qualifying meet before the national long course meet will be the Los Angeles Invitational July 9-12 at the McDonald’s Olympic Swim Stadium on the USC campus.

Teams from Canada and Mexico will join several West Coast teams for the 17th annual meet, co-sponsored by Swimming World Magazine and USC.

Earlier this month, when Mark Spitz was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Santa Clara swim club, his fond memories included several stories of world records he set at the Santa Clara International meet, at one time one of the major meets.

Noting that the Santa Clara club has produced more Olympic swimmers, 34, than any other club and has accounted for 35 gold medals, 14 silver and 9 bronze, Coach Jay Fitzgerald admitted that he’s talking about history, Olympic Games of 1960 through 1976, well before his time. Santa Clara didn’t have an Olympian in ’84.

“We’re hoping that Mark’s involvement here will help us ‘wake up the echoes’ as they say at Notre Dame,” Fitzgerald said.

The 20th Santa Clara meet will be held July 3-5.

Swimming Notes Mary T. Meagher has decided to take the summer off, passing up the Pan Pacific Games so as not to burn out before the Olympics. Meagher, who has dominated the butterfly events, winning both gold medals in ’84 and losing only three races since then, has promised to compete in the ’88 Olympics even though her eligibility at Cal was completed last spring. . . . Seven of the synchronized swimmers who made the U.S. national team for the Pan Am Games in competition in Tucson over the Memorial Day weekend are from the eight-time national team champion in Walnut Creek. Included in that group are identical twins Karen and Sarah Josephson, silver medalists at the ’86 World Aquatic Championships, and Kristen Babb, ’87 Moscow Invitational solo gold medalist. Back to compete, too, will be Tracie Ruiz, double gold medalist in the ’83 Pan Am Games and the ’84 Olympics.

The U.S. water polo team that will defend its gold medal Aug. 16-23 at the Pan Am Games includes seven past Olympians. Team captains Kevin Robertson and Terry Schroeder were on the ’80 and ’84 teams and already have been named to the ’88 squad. Other Olympians on the team are Greg Boyer, Jeff Campbell, Shaun Cleary, Mike Evans, Michael Grier and Alan Mouchawar. All team members are from California, and they work out together in Long Beach nine months of the year. . . . The Amateur Athletic Foundation, a legacy of the ’84 Games, is sponsoring a program called Summer Swim ’87 in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation. Besides providing scholarships for boys and girls 6-17 to swim in the city program, Summer Swim ’87 also is providing extra stroke instruction as well as coaching in the racing start, racing turns and relay techniques.