U.S. Olympic Festival Roundup : Shirley Babashoff Back in Public Eye at Hall of Fame

Like the swimming speed that earned her eight Olympic medals, Shirley Babashoff’s celebrity has diminished in the years since the 1972 and ’76 Olympics.

It has dwindled enough that Babashoff, now 30 and the mother of a 17-month-old boy, has for six months worked as an assistant manager at a Santa Ana sporting goods store so unobtrusively that it has taken some fellow employees as much as several weeks to understand why she is the one chosen to give seminars on the proper fitting of a swimsuit.

While another generation of athletes presses toward the Olympics at the U.S. Olympic Festival here, attention turned briefly Thursday to four who had gone before and succeeded brilliantly, as Babashoff, Donna de Verona, Floyd Patterson and special contributor LeRoy T. Walker were inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.

Patterson and de Verona, of course, remained in the public eye after their Olympic heroism more so than Babashoff, Patterson as the world heavyweight champion and de Verona as a sportscaster and advocate of women’s athletics.

Babashoff remains one of the bigger names in Orange County sports, not only because of the accomplishments of Shirley, who grew up in Fountain Vally and swam for the Mission Viejo Nadadores, but also because of her brother Jack, also a ’76 Olympian, and her sister, Debbie, 17, a distance freestyler who is likely to make the 1988 Olympic team.

Although the days of being recognized in supermarkets are largely over, Babashoff, who won her first gold medal at 15 as a member of the ’72 U.S. 400-meter freestyle relay team, speaks plainly of life after Olympic stardom.

“It’s not like I was a millionaire and lost it all. I just swam fast. I just don’t swim as fast any more,” said Babashoff, who also won silver medals in the 100 and 200 meter freestyle in ’72. At the ’76 Olympics she helped the U.S. to another gold in the 400-meter freestyle relay and a silver in the 400-meter medley relay, and won individual silver medals in the 200, 400, and 800 meter freestyle, forcing the powerful East German swimmers to set world records in the process of beating her.

These days, Babashoff teaches swim lessons, some at the Golden West College, in addition to caring for her son, Adam, and working at the sporting goods store where her duties are not promotional but just like those of any other assistant manager.

Like Patterson, who called winning the gold medal when he was 17 at the 1952 Olympics his “proudest moment,” despite later defeating Archie Moore for the world heavyweight championship, Babashoff spoke of pride in her accomplishments.

“It’s good to be remembered as one of the strongest swimmers in American history,” she said.

De Verona, was a member of the ’60 Olympic swim team and won two gold medals at the ’64 Games. Walker, coach of the ’76 U.S. Olympic track and field team, also was honored.

Babashoff says she is happy these days, particularly, she says, “since Adam came along.”

But she will speak of recurring dreams in which she either is unable to leave the starting blocks, or in which she wins gold medals and adoration despite the fact that she--and only she--knows that she has cheated by swimming only half the length of the pool before turning around to fraudulently finish first.

Babashoff will muse about whether such dreams point to insecurities or other complex feelings about her early and extraordinary success. But she ends such thoughts with a solid statement: “I know I earned it.”

Celebrity, on the other hand, she views as simple by-product.

“It was not like I was thriving in the publicity then,” she said. “It was just there, and it’s not any more.”

Larry Nicholson of Fullerton was forced to withdraw in the gold-medal round of the 105.5-pound freestyle wrestling competition because he aggravated a neck injury . Nicholson, who was awarded the silver medal, did not require emergency medical attention. He defaulted to Tim Vanni, who had won an 8-0 decision over him in their first match of the day.

Vanni, as gold medalist, may choose to compete in either or both of two upcoming competitions--the Pan American Games and the World Championships. Should he choose to attend only one, Nicholson will represent the U.S. in the other.

Chad Hundeby of Woodbridge High School and the Irvine Novaquatics finished fourth in the 1,500-meters freestyle at Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill. Hundeby, who won a bronze medal in the 400-meter freestyle Tuesday, touched in 16:14.59, 14 seconds behind bronze medalist Jason Kral. Steve Herron of Kirkland, Wash. won the race in 15:52.25.

Melissa Skinner, who recently graduated from Capistrano Valley High and will attend UCLA, finished fourth in the 200-meter breaststroke at Koury Natatorium, but missed the bronze medal by more than two seconds. Laura Gandrud of Bloomington, Minn., won the gold medal, setting an Olympic Festival record with a time of 2:36.83.