Gaines and Poll Swim to Victories on Second Day of L.A. Invitational

Remember Rowdy Gaines, one of the old, sentimental favorites when he finally won his gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games? Heard he was coming out of retirement? Well, he won the 100-meter freestyle Friday night at the USC Swim Stadium on the second day of competition in the Los Angeles Invitational. He’s 29 now, and hoping beyond hope to swim in the ’88 Olympics.

Remember Silvia Poll, the tall blonde from Costa Rica who took the Pan American Games by storm last summer? Came out of nowhere to win all those medals. Well, she won the women’s 100-meter freestyle Friday. She’s just 17, and she’s showing at this meet that her Pan Am performance was no fluke. She’ll be a factor at Seoul.

Poll’s winning time of 56.09 seconds was one of many meet records set, and it was the sixth-fastest time in the world this year. That’s unrested. That’s a bit faster than the 56.10 she swam to win the Pan Am gold medal when she was going all out last summer.

Poll also swam the 200-meter backstroke, finishing second to Kristen Linehan, who recorded an impressive swim of 2 minutes 12.33 seconds, the third-fastest time in the world this year. That time shattered the meet record of 2:20.83 set by Diane Graner in 1986. Linehan, who swims for the Etobicoke Pepsi Swim Club, also has the second-fastest time.

Poll didn’t expect to beat Linehan. She just wanted to see what her best effort would be. Rivas has already determined that Poll will swim the 100- and 200-meter freestyles and the 100-meter backstroke at the Olypics. Whether she swims the 200-meter backstroke or the 50-meter freestyle (events which will be held the same day) depends on how she does in both events at this meet. She’ll swim the 50 here today.

Gaines set a meet record with his time of 50.67 in the morning qualifying heats and won the final with a time of 51.16. “I feel wonderful about that time,” Gaines said. “We were hoping for 51-flat. We had splits for that. I had no idea I could go 50.6.” He once held the world record at 49.36, but that was seven years ago. After his final swim, Gaines said, “I’m really feeling my age tonight.”

Gaines, with the help of U.S. Swimming, has petitioned the international swimming federation (FINA) to reinstate his amateur status and make him eligible for the Olympics. He “unretired” by taking a sum of money equal to the amount of money he earned as a result of his swimming, and has put it in a trust fund. If he had been doing that all along, there would be no question of his eligibility. But he has done it in retrospect.

“I really don’t have a feeling on whether they’ll rule in my favor or not,” Gaines said. “All I know is that the members of the FINA committee voted by mail, and I should know by the end of next week.”

Janel Jorgensen won the women’s 200-meter butterfly in 2:13.51; Anthony Mosse of Canada set a meet record in winning the men’s 200-meter butterfly in 1:59.80; Sean Murphy of Canada set a meet record in winning the men’s 200-meter backstroke in 2:01.77; Kim Brown, who was is training with Mission Viejo but who is officially swimming unattached because she has recently left the Mission Bay Makos and there is a penalty period, won the women’s 400-meter freestyle in 4:17.34, and Marius Podkoscielny of Mission Viejo set a meet record in winning the men’s 400-meter freestyle in 3:53.77.