They’re Seoul Mates : Tippett, Havelka Overcome Troubles to Reach Olympics

A pair of remarkable rowers will be among more than 600 U.S. athletes taking part in the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics next month in Seoul, South Korea.

Cathy Tippett, who lives in Irvine, and Monica Havelka of Lomita have overcome rather odd circumstances to earn spots on the Olympic team. Winning a medal in the double sculls would be a bonus. Just getting to Seoul will be a victory.

In a Sports Illustrated article in June, Havelka said, “You might call us the adversity twins.”

Eight weeks before the start of the 1984 Summer Olympics, Tippett (then Cathy Thaxton) was in Switzerland to compete in the double sculls with Judy Geer at the Lucerne Regatta, rowing’s most prestigious event next to the Olympics. Tippett had planned to use the event as her final tuneup for the Olympics.

But before the competition, she became ill with what she thought was stomach flu. Despite her high fever, headaches and nausea, she and Geer rowed anyway, but performed poorly.

After returning to the United States, she was still sick, and her energy level had dropped. With Tippett showing all the symptoms of mononucleosis, doctors ran a series of tests including numerous spot and patch tests. All were negative. The doctors could not pinpoint her illness. She had no idea why she was so weary, and the Olympics were coming up fast.

“It was frustrating,” Tippett said last week. “I had so many doctors examining me, and none of them could tell me what I had.”

With rest and medication, she managed to compete at the Olympics and qualified for the six-boat final at Santa Barbara. But a week of rowing had used up her endurance. Tippett and Geer finished last.

It would be months before Tippett knew what was wrong. Dr. Mark Walsh, the U.S. canoe and kayak team doctor, thought Tippett had contracted a little-known disease called Epstein-Barr virus. The following spring, a vial of Tippett’s blood was analyzed, and it proved the diagnosis correct.

Tippett spent the better part of the next two years basically bedridden. Her illness, with symptoms similar to mononucleosis, made her too weak and tired to do much of anything.

Tippett said it became a constant test just to get out of bed. Finally, she started to show signs of recovery. The time between spells of sickness was increasing. She began to regain some strength.

“It was a long time before I got back to the level I’m at now,” Tippett said. “You have to crawl before you walk. There’s a lot of intermediary training and rehabilitation to get the smaller muscles in shape. It’s like starting over, except you’ve been there.”

Last fall, Tippett began training again with her husband, Russ, a Marine Corps major stationed at Tustin. Convinced her disease was under control, she began rowing for the first time since 1984. She wanted to prove she was all right, and get another shot at an Olympic medal.

In early January, Monica Havelka was running with her mother’s dogs near the Long Beach Airport trying to rehabilitate a leg injury that had sidelined her for all of December.

A licensed pilot, Havelka loved to watch the planes land. Doing that while running, she tripped over the dogs, fell to the concrete and landed on her elbows.

“All I know was my legs went out,” said Havelka. “I hit the ground and there was fur below me, so I knew what had happened. I knew I had done something to my elbows.”

She had fractures in both of them, as well as strained ligaments in her elbows and wrists. Because the bones were setting right, she said the doctors decided not to put her arms in casts.

It was two months before she could row again, three before she could resume full training.

“It wasn’t until April that I was able to go full pressure every day,” Havelka said.

“They still do bother me a little. I still don’t have full extension of the arms. I’ll probably have to get them scoped (arthroscopic surgery) later.

“My doctor, trainer and coach all told me, ‘You always overtrain. Every year you overtrain. This may be a blessing in disguise.’ ”

In the late 1970s, Havelka was a center at Cal State Long Beach, an All-American in 1978. “I started rowing for the college to stay in shape for basketball,” she said.

After playing basketball in France for a year, she returned to Southern California and took up sculling in 1981. She finished fourth in the world championships in double sculls in 1982. The next year, she teamed with Anne Marden for a gold medal at the Pan-American Games. In 1985, she placed second at Lucerne, Switzerland.

In a relatively short time, she had compiled a long list of rowing accomplishments. She needed only an Olympic berth.

The Olympic trials for single scullers were held in May on Lake Mercer near Princeton, N.J. Tippett and Havelka were beaten for the Olympic berth by Marden.

Tippett and Havelka then began training for the doubles trials in June near Cincinnati.

They seemed a natural pair, one competing for the first time in nearly four years after a mysterious illness, the other after a bizarre accident. Tippett, 31, lived in Irvine and trained in Newport Beach. Havelka, 32, lived in Lomita and trained in Long Beach.

Tippett and Havelka finished third in their semifinal to qualify for the six-boat, 2,000-meter final. In that race, they made their move at about midpoint, gaining on and then passing leaders Marden and Barb Kirch. They crossed the finish on Harsha Lake in 7 minutes 4.20 seconds, winning by more than 6 seconds.

They had made the Olympic team. It was a remarkable rowing upset, not just that they had won, but that they had competed at all.

“We knew it was no fluke,” Havelka said. “I knew we had a very good shot. I was surprised we won by that much, but I was not surprised that we won.”

Havelka is on the Olympic team for the first time. Tippett has made every Olympic team since rowing was added for the 1976 Games.

After her freshman year at Stanford, Tippett made the ’76 team as an alternate. Only 19 and “tickled to be there,” she did not row in Montreal.

She made the 1980 team in double sculls but again did not get a chance to row because of the U.S. boycott. That year at Lucerne, Tippett and partner Jean Flanagan finished second to East Germany.

“We found out we probably would have done very well at Moscow,” Tippett said.

In 1984, the Eastern-bloc countries boycotted. Without traditional rowing powers from the Soviet Union, East Germany and Bulgaria, Tippett and Flanagan were considered favorites for a medal--until Tippett’s illness.

“Those people that were close to what was going on said it was a good performance,” Tippett said. “I was not happy, not happy at all with my performance or what had happened. We were hoping we would have medaled. The way the boats were moving, we probably would have.

“Because of that, I’m still around. Because we’ve come so close in the past, it would be nice to medal, and I don’t consider that an unrealistic possibility.”

Added Havelka: “We both have the racing experience, and we both know what it takes. We’re both fighters. We won’t give up. And that’s what is going to make the boat go.”