South Africa Tour May Lead to Suspensions

A group of U.S. athletes, including 11 American record-holders, face almost certain international suspension if, as planned, they compete in a series of South African track meets after the Seoul Olympics.

The tour would mark the first time since 1962 that U.S. track and field athletes have defied international bans and competed in South Africa.

Most of the athletes involved, however, are likely on the verge of ending their careers and have little to lose if they are suspended. Many have been attracted by the promise of big paydays--a minimum of $10,000 a meet and double that if the athlete is suspended. Some athletes are being promised as much as $75,000.

Organizers of the tour stress the humanitarian aspects of such an undertaking, but the worldwide sports community--including the International Olympic Committee--has long excluded South Africa from participation in the world sports arena. Because of South Africa’s official policy of apartheid, or racial separation, the country has not competed in the Olympics since 1960 and was expelled from the IOC in 1970.

South Africa’s isolation from international sport is almost total. The International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs track and field, prohibits its members from competing in South Africa or with South Africans anywhere in the world. South Africa was suspended from the IAAF in 1976. As the organization made clear last April in the case of Zola Budd, any athlete who participates in South Africa will be suspended. Budd, who merely watched a cross-country race, was suspended.

Dick Tomlinson, the U.S. organizer of the three-meet tour, said he would like the tour to help expand athletic opportunities for all South Africans, not just whites.

“I feel that, just like in the Soviet Union and Red China, positive cultural exchange can bring about more pressure on the powers that be than all the sanctions,” he said.

Tomlinson, 52, of Yuba City, is a longtime field event coach. He coached South African discus thrower Jan Van Reenen and said he has conducted coaching clinics in South Africa. He said his South African co-promoter has guaranteed that the meets will not be segregated.

A great deal of secrecy has surrounded the tour and neither Tomlinson nor any athletes contacted by The Times would provide details or names of athletes involved. It is believed that the tour will consist of three meets in different cities, to begin 10 days after the conclusion of the Olympics on Oct. 2.

Whatever Tomlinson’s intent, the athletes who go will almost surely lose their eligibility, they will likely face a great deal of international criticism, and they probably will make a lot of money.

Tom Petranoff, 30, a former world record-holder in the javelin and a U.S. Olympian in 1984 and 1988, is the athlete coordinator for the tour. He said the decision to go is a matter of athletes’ rights.

“Athletes shouldn’t be manipulated by the decisions of the big boys with the big guns,” Petranoff said. “I’m just tired of being told that I can’t go outside tonight.”

Petranoff said the original plan called for an American-only team, but when athletes were reluctant to commit, a few other countries were included. “There are 11 American record-holders and about 16 or 17 national record-holders (from other countries),” Petranoff said.

He acknowledged that to some it may appear as if the athletes are mercenaries, participating only for the money. “That’s what will stir this crap up,” he said. “The media will make it look that way.”

Petranoff would not say which athletes had committed to the tour. He did say, however, that several big names had considered it, then decided against it.

“The bottom line is everyone is paranoid, everyone is backing out,” he said. “We have kept a pretty low profile. Everyone I talked to said, ‘I’ll think about it.’ I’d say about 20% backed out. People told me I was barking up Devil’s Alley.”

Tomlinson said that athletes under contract can lose their appearance money if there is a leak to the news media and that leak is traced to the athletes.

Tomlinson said that he has set up a corporation on the Isle of Man, a British possession in the Irish Sea, as a tax haven. All the athletes work for the corporation, although their duties are not specified.

“We have very good deniability,” he said.

Tomlinson said that advanced publicity might cause the entire tour to be cancelled.

Apparently, scores of U.S. athletes were contacted. Tomlinson and South African athlete Jopi Loops were in Indianapolis at the U.S. Olympic trials, recruiting athletes. Athletes said the tour was discussed at meets in Europe this summer.

Olympian Steve Scott said he had been asked to go but refused. “You’ve got to live with yourself,” he said. “It’s put on by the government. It gives the appearence of supporting apartheid.”

Said Ruth Wysocki, a 1984 Olympian at 1,500 meters: “I guess people were talking about it but I didn’t know. They have contacted me but I haven’t made a decision. Those athletes (South Africans) have about as much chance of changing their government as we have of changing ours. They have no opportunity to compete.”

When rebel rugby or cricket teams have toured South Africa, those tours have been viewed as propaganda coups for the Pretoria government. Asked what assurances he had that the track tour would not be used in a similar fashion, Tomlinson said, “We will have control over the press. We will not make any political statements. We will only answer questions about sport.”

Sam Ramsamy, the executive director of the London-based International Campaign Against Apartheid Sport, disagrees.

“It will be a fairly large propaganda coup for them, there is no doubt about that,” he said. “That is fairly common for rebel tours. But what happens after is that South Africa sinks even lower in the sports world. There is a backlash. This will boomerang on these athletes.”

Some athletes who are active in amateur sports administration backed out because they believed the publicity would jeopardize their careers. Petranoff said he is concerned that an endorsement deal he just signed may be canceled. And if the athletes are ruled ineligible, their lucrative shoe contracts will be voided.

Tomlinson said that all the athletes are aware of the risk of ineligibility.

“They must acknowledge that they are undertaking a trip that they could lose their eligibility,” he said.

The organizers have established a legal fund to assist the athletes if they chose to fight the suspensions. An attorney at one large international law firm told The Times that tour organizers had offered his firm a million-dollar retainer, which was declined. “You want to help people with their battles, but this wasn’t the right one,” he said.

It is not unusual for promoters in South Africa to deal in huge sums of money. It is one way to lure athletes to the country. International golf and tennis tournaments have million-dollar purses.

In addition, if a sports or cultural event brings foreigners into the country, the South African government refunds 90% of the organizer’s costs.

Tomlinson said the tour has the sanction of the South African Athletic Union, but Gert Le Roux, the director of the SAAU, said he had not heard of the meets.

“I am very friendly with Dick Tomlinson,” Le Roux said Friday from his office in Pretoria. “However, any people who propose to come here must know they are in jeopardy. We would welcome anyone from any part of the world who would like to come to South Africa.

“We are a very sports-minded country. South Africa has been so long out in the cold. It’s so ridiculous and unbelievable that it has reached the extent that it has.”

Because the meets in October would occur at the end of the track season, Tomlinson said the SAAU had designated them as part of a mini-Grand Prix, as a financial incentive for South African athletes to stay in shape and perform well.

Tomlinson said that if the athletes are banned, “We’ll go down there three times a year. I feel positive that the people there will support us with their pocketbooks.”