For United States, Mixed Results Are the Writing on the Track

On the final day of track and field’s World Championships, the United States won five medals, three of them golds in the relays. But it will be remembered only as the best day of a bad week for the Americans.

They finished with nine gold medals, and while that is one more than they won in the first World Championships four years ago, their total medal count of 19 is five less than it was in Helsinki.

For a change, it is not the women’s fault.

While the women remain far behind the East Germans and the Soviets, they are at least keeping pace with themselves and perhaps even improving. They won three gold medals here, one more than in Helsinki, and equaled their medal total of six. If Mary Decker Slaney and Evelyn Ashford had been healthy, the U.S. women no doubt would have done better.

There are no such excuses for the U.S. men, whose decline is apparent.

When they won 18 medals, including six golds, in Helsinki, it was the worst they had ever done in a major international competition, meaning previous Olympic Games. They also won six golds here but had only seven other medals.

The U.S. men remain the world’s best, but they no longer are dominant. The Soviet men won 12 medals, the first time they have ever threatened the American men in the standings.

The lack of success here was a revelation only to those who have had their eyes closed.

Dr. Leroy Walker, president of The Athletics Congress (TAC), which governs track and field in the United States, predicted it in February.

“I’m not too proud to be in the position to say I told you so,” Walker said last week. “I’m disappointed, but it’s what I expected.

“I think this is a good warning. Now it’s incumbent on us to do something about it. Fortunately, we have time before the Seoul Olympics. “

It is life after the 1988 Olympic Games that concerns Walker.

The United States had five individual gold medalists here. Two of them, Edwin Moses in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles and Greg Foster in the 110-meter high hurdles, will be in their 30s at the next Olympics. Carl Lewis, who won the long jump and anchored the winning 400-meter relay team, and Calvin Smith, who won the 200 meters, both will be 27. Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who won the long jump and the heptathlon, will be 26.

Only Joyner-Kersee can realistically be expected to repeat in the third World Championships four years from now at Tokyo.

There will be a new nucleus by then.

Barring injuries or other unforeseen circumstances, it will be led by athletes such as Butch Reynolds, Danny Everett and Lillie Leatherwood-King in the 400, Henry Thomas in the 200, Danny Harris and Kevin Young in the intermediate hurdles, and Gail Devers and Gwen Torrence in the sprints.

But where are the young field event athletes? Where are the young middle-distance and distance runners?

The United States won three field-event medals here and only one individual medal at a distance over 400 meters.

Walker said he wonders if any athletes in those events will emerge. If so, from where?

Because of NCAA cuts in scholarships, the colleges are producing fewer track and field athletes than ever before. As a result, the United States has to rely more heavily on its non-collegians, most of whom compete for clubs. Three of the United States’ five individual gold medals here were won by Bob Kersee’s World Class Athletic Club.

But TAC has not made the transition, still weighting its selection process in favor of college athletes.

The most pertinent example is the date of the trials for international teams.

The trials this year were in June, three weeks after the NCAA championships. While the college athletes, for the most part, were at their peaks, the others also had to peak for that meet. Then everyone had to peak again three months later for the World Championships.

Most discovered that was an unrealistic expectation.

“This is the end of the season for us,” Lewis said. “I don’t think we’re at our best. Everyone’s tired.

“That’s not the only factor. The rest of the world is catching up to us. But the other factor is that we’re still stuck in a college mentality. We have all of our national championship meets in June and are still trying to run at our best in September.

“If we had our season late in the summer, when the Europeans do, you’d see a huge difference. I don’t believe we’re declining. It’s just that most of us are past our peaks for the year, myself included.”

Walker agreed that the trials should be later, using East Germany as an example. The East Germans peaked for their trials, which were the weekend before the World Championships, and obviously had no difficulty maintaining their form, winning 31 medals here. That is one more than they won in last year’s European Championships.

Foster said he and several other athletes will petition TAC at the December convention to move the 1988 trials closer to the Olympic track and field competition, which begins Sept. 23. The trials are scheduled for June 15-23 at Indianapolis.

Walker said he believes it is too late to change the dates but he will suggest that the trials be later in the future.

Some athletes might object because late summer is the height of the season in Europe, where they make most of their money in appearance fees and bonuses.

But TAC has created a program, “Operation Seoul,” which will pay $2,000 a month for seven months in 1988 to athletes who won medals here and to those who are believed to have potential to win medals in the Olympics. That is not a lot of money to Lewis or Moses, but it is a start in the right direction.

Walker also said he has meetings scheduled this week in the United States with potential sponsors of a U.S. summer track and field circuit to compete with the one in Europe.

“If we didn’t have to go to Europe in the summers to make a living, most of us wouldn’t,” Foster said.

Walker said he also will suggest at the convention that TAC create full-time positions for men’s and women’s national coaches. There are hundreds of college and club coaches in the United States, but no one is responsible for coordinating their athletes with regard to international championships.

“We’re trying to get athletes accustomed to three sets of coaches in three months,” Walker said. “They had one set at the Olympic Festival, another for the Pan Am Games and another here.”

If the United States is to reverse its fortunes in track and field, Walker said TAC has to accept responsibility.

“We can’t go back to shaking the trees and going with whatever falls out,” he said. “We have to do a better job of organizing, and we will.”