Lovin’ the Spin They’re In : Round and Round They Go, Cyclists Preparing for Seoul

Four bicyclists sped in single file around the Olympic Velodrome at Cal State Dominguez Hills, pedaling in precise unison, straining in the hazy, humid noontime heat.

Another rider, doing sprints by himself, pulled off the concrete track for a rest. Doubled over trying to catch his breath and monitor his pulse, he said with a weak grin: “You may be seeing what I had for breakfast.”

Later, taking another spin on the track, he slowed down, saying: “Intermuscular fatigue has set in.”

The four-pack pacing each other finally pulled over for a rest. “This is one of those deceptive days,” Connie Paraskevin-Young said. “You don’t see it, but that sun is pretty hot.”

Her coach--and husband--Roger Young described the workout: “It’s like getting hit with a rubber hose instead of a baseball bat.”

All in a day’s work when you’re shooting for a spot in the coming Seoul Olympics. No pain, no gain.

Twice a week they come to Cal State Dominguez Hills to push themselves in preparation for Seoul. The group includes veterans Mark Gorski, defending Olympic gold medalist in the sprint, Paraskevin-Young, three-time women’s world champion, and Curt Harnett, the rising 23-year-old star of Canada who won the gold medal in the kilometer in last year’s Pan American Games.

Young, a two-time U.S. Olympian in the 1970s, is the coach, working especially with his wife and Gorski. Women will be riding track events for the first time in Olympic competition, so Paraskevin-Young, who will turn 27 before the Olympic trials, is gearing up. Gorski is trying to regain his 1984 dominance at age 28, in his 10th year as an internationally ranked rider.

They ride together every day, but the velodrome workouts are the focus of their training, leading up to U.S. Olympic Trials in August. The sprinters specialize in the tactics and all-out bursts of track riding and the 333-meter, steeply banked oval at Dominguez Hills combines a world-class facility with favorable outdoor climate.

Gorski mopped his head as the group prepared to do a last set of sprints.

“We’ve been here pretty much since January. It’s been really good--the weather’s been great,” he said. “This is our hardest workout. . . . As a pure sprinter, this is what I hate.”

Gorski and the Youngs train out of Newport Beach, where they do most of their roadwork--about 200 miles per week--and weight training. Twice a week, they make their way to Dominguez Hills, sometimes by bike, for strenuous two-hour workouts.

Gorski, who trained with the U.S. national team the last two years, said he can already see a difference. “Now I’m back with Roger, who I trained with before ‘84, and we’re doing what we did in 1983 and ‘84,” Gorski said. “And healthwise, I’m finally back to 100%.

“With Roger I’m getting back to more emphasis on weight training, strength and power. This is the hardest endurance workout we do. The last couple years, the national team did a lot more distance training and repeated sprints, which is not really what I need. It didn’t bring about the best results. What I have naturally is a long sprint--I’m like a 200-meter runner running the 100 in track. My weakness is my takeoff and explosiveness, so I thought that’s what I should be concentrating on, working on my power and quick acceleration.”

Gorski also finds that he is better motivated when he is not training with people he will have to compete against in U.S. trials. When Gorski left the track one day last week, Scott Berryman--the top young American sprinter and the Pan Am gold medal winner--began his workout. They used to train together and Gorski had problems psyching himself to beat cyclists who were, in effect, teammates.

“There are mental and psychological aspects as well,” Gorski said.

“Last year all of us (U.S. sprinters) trained together. At the Pan Ams, I didn’t have the motivation and aggressiveness to compete with them. There’s no room for timid behavior. But if you’ve got to hang out with these guys and get along with them, it’s tough,” he said.

“Last year I was second in the Pan Ams (to Berryman), so I wasn’t really happy. Since my goal was to win the gold medal and I didn’t, that means it wasn’t a very successful year. Then the world’s (world championships) were right after, and I had trouble getting motivated.”

Gorski, who was injured during much of 1986, fell to fifth in the world rankings and is no lock to make the Olympic team.

But he says he is more focused than he has been in several years, and Young said he is looking as sharp as he did in 1984.

The Americans--and the rest of the world--are fighting an uphill battle against the East Germans, led by dominating Lutz Hesslich. The target for Paraskevin-Young is women’s world champion Erika Salumyae of the Soviet Union.

The challenge for Gorski is evident even to a casual eye. Gorski is taller than most of his opponents, athletically built but not as immediately imposing as the muscular Berryman or the thickly muscled Harnett, whose linebacker build is highlighted by massive thighs.

“I realized before ’84 how much the Olympics means--the exposure, the visibility,” Gorski said. “It brings out the extra 10% in me. I’ve trained a little bit harder, with more intensity and enthusiasm. I’m already seeing that in my times on the track and my lifts in the gym. I’ve been at it long enough that it’s difficult to maintain that intensity year-in and year-out. And, unfortunately as in most amateur sports, the spotlight is only on one race every four years. That’s the bottom line.”

There’s another bottom line for the elite riders like Gorski: The ones who win world titles and Olympic medals get lucrative endorsements and sponsorships from bicycle and cycling equipment companies. Gorski said he and several other top American riders make six-figure salaries although they’re virtually unknown outside cycling circles.

“I never considered that cycling might be a career for me. When I was junior national champ, nobody made any money,” Gorski said. “My income is from people banking on me to win the Olympics or Pan Ams. It’s all based on the fact, for me, of winning the Olympic gold. If I don’t get the medal again, people aren’t going to be paying me money for wearing their products at that level.”

Gorski’s shining achievement came on the Olympic Velodrome in 1984, and cycling fans will get to see him in competition at Cal State Dominguez Hills again this summer.

The Sundance beverage company is sponsoring a race series around the country, with the finals at Dominguez Hills in August, just before Olympic Trials.

Gorski has been considered on the downside since 1984, but if he can dispel that at Seoul, he said he may continue to compete for several years.

“I never thought I’d go past ‘84, and now it’s ‘88,” he said. “I can’t really see myself stopping. I’m thinking two more years but that may turn into four years.

“If I can stay in the top three or four, get a medal . . . You can never say never.”