Los Angeles Invitational Swim Meet : Canadian Record-Holders to Compete

Victor Davis, the world record-holder in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke and Allison Higson, the world record-holder in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke, will be among the Canadian Olympians who will compete at USC today through Sunday in the Los Angeles Invitational swim meet. Artur Wojdat of Mission Viejo, the world record-holder in the 400-meter freestyle, will also compete.

Silvia Poll, star of last summer’s Pan Am Games, will be among five Costa Rican women also competing. And USC swimmers Dan and Lars Jorgensen will compete.

Despite all the high-profile names, the overall list of competitors does not compare to the kind the Los Angeles Invitational used to draw.

The meet, which dates back to 1958, was once one of the premier events of the season. Santa Clara’s international meet would be held after the Fourth of July, and the top swimmers would compete there and then come to Los Angeles for the Invitational two weeks later. This year, most of the top swimmers chose a meet in Santa Clara over this one.

According to Darrell Fick, USC women’s swim coach and meet director, the Los Angeles Invitational will be one of the top meets again in the near future. By next summer, he hopes to have sponsorship. Major improvements will be completed at the site of the 1984 Olympics. And the schedule will be much more attractive than it is in this Olympic year, when the top swimmers are carefully picking their spots.

“Next year we’re expecting a tremendous field because we (at USC) are hosting the long course national three weeks later, and a lot of swimmers will want the warmup meet in the same pool,” Fick said. “The national meet will serve as the selection meet for the Pan Pacific team. So we might even have to put a limit on entries.” That’s not the case this time, though. Even USC’s own stars, such as Steve Bentley and Dave Wharton, are off with their personal coaches preparing for the Olympics. Janet Evans of the Fullerton Aquatic Sports Team, holder of three world records, is also skipping the meet so as not to interrupt her training.

The Los Angeles Invitational flourished when it was held at the Coliseum pool, site of the 1932 Olympic Games. The meet was later moved to Mission Viejo, where it became a women’s meet sponsored by Seventeen magazine. The meet was then moved to Industry Hills before returning to USC two years ago to be held in the pool built for the 1984 Olympics.

Swimming World magazine helps to sponsor the meet now, taking responsibility for advertising the meet. But Fick said that the meet was seeking out major sponsorship to help get the meet back to big league status. “We’re working on sponsorship now,” Fick said. “If they (sponsors) can do it for bowl games and marathons, I don’t see why they can’t do it for swimming. That’s our goal for next year.”

Also by next year a lot of the physical improvements will be completed at the 1984 Olympic site. There will be 1,000 permanent seats and enough deck space to bring in another 5,000 temporary seats. There will also be administrative offices and locker rooms on one side, and on the north side there will be permanent seats, weight rooms and a gymnasium. As Fick put it, “All the things you need to make this the premier facility on the West Coast.”

Competition in the 800-meter freestyle will begin today at 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday finals will begin at 5 p.m., and Sunday’s finals will be at 4 p.m.