Fading Limelight : After Competing in 2 Olympics, Sandra de la Riva Is Giving Up Team Handball in Favor of a Job, an Apartment and a ‘Normal’ Life

Sandra de la Riva was standing on the White House lawn with the other members of the U.S. Olympic team last week. It was the standard-issue government reception for distinguished heads of state, returning astronauts and high-profile athletes and came with a short speech by the President of the United States.

When Ronald Reagan read the part about Olympians being heroes, de la Riva got the good-time feeling she had not felt since the Seoul Olympics ended a month earlier. For a brief moment, “We were someone special again,” said de la Riva, a member of the women’s team handball squad.

But de la Riva also sensed the poignancy of the moment, realizing that the White House tribute was “my last hurrah.” Maybe stars such as Florence Griffith Joyner will remain in the spotlight, but for Olympians like de la Riva, the cheering is over. And so is the action. At 26, she is retiring from world-class competition and marching into the real world. Like Reagan, she is in a state of transition.

“I’m happy about what I’ve done,” said de la Riva, a two-time Olympian, “but being on the national team is so demanding. I want to have a normal life.”

Since 1979, life has been “exciting and fun” but never normal for de la Riva. Team handball has practically been a full-time job, delaying her schooling and postponing her career as a civil servant. At 26, most bright, gregarious people are expected to be on their way up the ladder, not starting the long climb. And de la Riva knows that training for a third Olympics would put a serious hold on her future.

“Money is obviously becoming more important,” she said, adding with a laugh, “I’m very ambitious.”

For nearly 10 years, de la Riva has been sheltered and pampered by the U.S. Team Handball Federation, the national governing body for the sport. Like other Olympic teams, particularly in volleyball, women’s team handball has kept the same players together for years. The federation always provided room, board and transportation, although de la Riva did have to work as a maid and find sponsors to make expense money.

When the national team recessed, de la Riva, one of 7 children, either stayed with her parents in Chatsworth or went to college. It is only in the past few days that she has been able to declare her independence by finding a job and getting her own apartment. “I had offers to play in Europe,” she said, “but it’s time for other things.”

Not that giving up team handball will be easy. Although de la Riva excels at other sports, team handball is the only one she ever loved. It captured her heart the first time she picked up the melon-size ball and found out she was a natural. Years of basketball had given her court sense. From volleyball she got her jumping ability, and softball provided her with a powerful arm.

De la Riva, 5 feet, 7 inches and 145 pounds, was a 3-sport varsity athlete at Chatsworth High in 1979 when friends asked her to try team handball. Like most people, she thought it was played in an enclosed rectangular court with a hard rubber ball. But team handball, a combination of basketball and water polo, takes place on an indoor court slightly larger than a basketball court. There are 6 players, plus a goalie, on a team. Players are allowed 3 steps with the ball and the object of the game is to put the ball into a 10-foot-by-7-foot goal.

“It was fast and there was contact,” she said, recalling her first impressions of the game. “I liked that.”

After playing for only 3 months, she was invited to the National Sports Festival and then was selected for the U.S. Junior National team. Within a few months, she was training in Colorado Springs, Colo., with the senior team and playing international matches.

“I was naive about big-time competition,” she said. “One of my first international games, another girl tripped me from behind. I had always been a courteous player, but I learned I had to do anything to win. This is serious business.”

After high school, de la Riva followed an older sister to Cal State Northridge. Patricia (Pee-wee) de la Riva was on the CSUN women’s basketball team in the late ‘70s and is the third-leading scorer in school history. Sandra played softball, leading off and playing shortstop her freshman year. But even though she enjoyed softball, her heart was with team handball, forcing her to make a decision.

“The softball team was playing in the NCAAs the same time there was a big handball tournament,” she said. “I asked the coach if I could leave to play handball.” She was told that she would have to make a choice between the sports, so she quit softball and made a full-time commitment to handball.

When the national federation decided to train its team year-round, de la Riva was among a core group of 5 women who moved to New Brunswick, N.J. That gave her a chance to enroll at Rutgers University in political science. Training for the 1984 Olympics, however, took precedence over school, and she wasn’t able to complete her degree until 1986.

Although the United States dominates team handball in the Americas, it has trouble with teams from Europe--where the sport is second in popularity to soccer. But the U.S. team, with de la Riva scoring 13 goals in 4 games, including 5 against China, was the surprise of the ’84 Olympics, finishing fourth and missing the bronze because of a 1-goal loss to West Germany.

After the L. A. Games, de la Riva went back to Rutgers on a volleyball scholarship. She wrote a paper, “Sports as Diplomacy,” and got a summer internship in Washington, D.C., with the American Council on International Sports, which is affiliated with the State Department. In 1985, she traveled to El Salvador with the council and helped stage sports clinics.

“The philosophy of the council is that sports promotes peace through understanding,” she said. “That’s what I believe. All my experiences relate to that.”

The executive director of the council, Carl Troester, remembers de la Riva as “an exceptional lady who’s got initiative like mad.”

After graduating from Rutgers in 1986, de la Riva took a year off to play team handball for St. Fides, a club in Switzerland. Ever mindful of her desire to get into foreign service and become a diplomat, de la Riva made sure her contract with the club included a provision by which the club would pay for German lessons.

“I didn’t want to go over there and just play,” she said.

Last January, de la Riva moved to Colorado Springs, began training with the national team for the Seoul Games and was named most valuable player at the national championships. Based on their Olympic finish in ‘84, the players had high expectations this year. And those expectations increased when the team began winning international tournaments, even beating the Soviet Union, which had not lost a match in years.

An underdog won the Olympics, but it wasn’t the United States. South Korea got the gold and the United States finished a disappointing seventh. De la Riva did not play in 2 games and scored only 5 goals, but even worse, nobody got to see her on television. Team handball, she said, was on NBC for maybe 10 minutes, and she calls that “a shame.”

But sports is behind her now, and what lies ahead promises to be just as exciting. Still working on a master’s in public administration at USC, she landed a full-time job last week as a management assistant with the Community Development Department of the City of Los Angeles. She no longer worries about players tripping her from behind, but something even more sinister is on her mind.

“I’ve got to start dealing with freeway traffic,” she said.