Olympic Athletes Look for a Movable Feast

Charlie Francis, coach of world record-holder Ben Johnson, had a simple explanation when asked why the Canadian sprinter is not taking his meals at the Olympic Village.

“The food is horrible,” he said.

Janet Evans didn’t go that far, but the U.S. swimmer said, “Much of the food is rice and noodles, and there’s just so much of that I can take. So I’ve gone over to the NBC booth near the pool, and they give me steak and candy bars.”

Said U.S. swimming Coach Richard Quick: “She gets by on junk food, and I don’t want to try to change her at this stage. If I was going to coach her for a lifetime, I might try to change her habits. But right now I want her to be happy and to swim fast.”

Add Games: Said Frank Mill, West German soccer star, after his team’s 3-0 victory over China: “The Chinese were very cheeky to us and were poor losers. They made lots of blind-side fouls and were up to all kinds of other tricks.”

Wrote Baltimore Sun columnist Mike Littwin, after a tour of Seoul: “Oh, the smell. Seoul, in a word, stinks. When the wind blows, it smells like raw sewage. In this rapidly expanding industrial nation, which is home to one of the economic miracles of Asia, ecological concerns are usually overlooked. The Han River, which splits the city, is a big sewage tank. You can smell the air, taste it, feel it.”

Add Littwin: Of his introduction to his tour guide, he said, “I told him my name was Mike. He bowed and said I could call him Mr. Lee.”

Trivia Time: What do Don Strock of the Cleveland Browns, Franklin Stubbs of the Dodgers and Vernell (Bimbo) Coles of the U.S. Olympic basketball team have in common? (Answer to follow.)

Add Trivia: The first competitor in the Seoul Games? It was Maria Alcala of Mexico, a diver. She executed a forward, 1 1/2 somersault, pike position in the women’s preliminary platform diving.

For What It’s Worth: The last time the Dodgers were victims of a no-hitter, they went on to win the World Series. In 1981, Houston’s Nolan Ryan beat them, 5-0, with his fifth career no-hitter. The Dodgers won the World Series, beating the New York Yankees in six games.

When Montreal unveiled the tallest player in major league history, 6-foot 10-inch pitcher Randy Johnson, Expo publicist Richard Griffin wrote in the game notes: “Johnson is the tallest left-hander to pitch for the Expos, but not the highest. Bill Lee was the highest.”

From Reggie Ho, 5-5, 135-pound Notre Dame kicker from Hawaii, who has kicked six field goals for the 2-0 Irish: “I started football to be well-rounded. I didn’t want to be an academic geek.”

Ho is carrying six courses. They are human musculo-skeletal anatomy, biochemistry, medical anthropology, philosophy of science, computers and Western literature. His grade-point average is 3.77.

Here was the headline in the New York Post after Claudell Washington of the Yankees hit a home run to beat the Detroit Tigers in that 18-inning game: “Claude Reigns.”

Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News, on hunting: “I could never understand how come a guy sitting on a tree platform--with high-powered rifle, telescopic sight, tripod gun-rest, catered Thermos, backup gun-bearers and bush-beaters--who shoots a dumb, old mangy lion is called a sportsman.”

When Houston was threatened by Hurricane Gilbert, Oiler family members were advised to move out of town.

Says Coach Jerry Glanville: “It’s one of the few times we recommended someone to go to Dallas.”

Trivia Answer: All three went to Virginia Tech.

Quotebook

Pitcher Dave LaPoint of the Pittburgh Pirates, explaining a loss: “I made some dumb pitches when I had to.”