TRUE GLORY : In L.A. Games, Athletes Prove Success Isn’t Limited to Winners

On the surface, the L.A. Games, a 12-sport extravaganza for 5,000 Southern California high school students at El Camino College Saturday, were simply athletic endeavors.

But beneath the surface, beyond the competition and the championships, there was much more than slam dunks and 100-yard sprints.

First, there is Yumi-Kalu Fain, a bright 17-year-old from University High School in West Los Angeles. Fain, who was born in Australia, wouldn’t look out of place anywhere else on the El Camino campus, but she has entered a gym containing 300 sweaty boys. And she has done it wearing wrestling tights.

Fain, the first girl in the 22-year history of the L.A. Games to wrestle, signs up for the 112-pound division. And, by now, she is feeling about 112 pounds worth of stares.

Despite the fact that Fain is suffering from the flu, it takes a last-second score by her opponent, Chris Akau from La Canada High School, for Fain to lose her three-round match, 7-6.

“Her opponents usually underestimate her,” her father, William Fain, says from the bleachers.

William Fain was about the only one in the gym to remain seated during his daughter’s match. In fact, the matches on the other three mats stopped so that the wrestlers (and referees) could watch.

A few people outside the gym entered when they heard the noise and joined the crowd surrounding Fain’s mat. Nearly everyone rooted for Fain and, when it was over, they gave her a standing ovation.

“I always get a lot of stares and attention, but I’ve never had everyone gather around my mat,” said Fain, whose two older brothers are wrestlers.

“I guess it helped me inspirationally. Considering the circumstances, I think I did all right, but I would have liked to have won.”

Not everyone, however, has always accepted Fain, who wrestled nationally in 1983 but hadn’t since because her high school doesn’t have a team.

“I think my opponents are slightly intimidated because they don’t want to lose to a girl,” Fain said.

“The male ego must have something to do with it. I’ve had some opposing coaches tell me to get out of wrestling, that it isn’t a woman’s place. I just tell them, ‘Thanks for your opinion, but I don’t happen to share it.’ ”

On the adjacent El Camino track, meanwhile, Cheri-Lee Segal of Birmingham High was running in the 1,500-meter race.

A 17-year-old from South Africa, Segal started her stretching exercises a little late because she didn’t hear the announcement that the race was to begin shortly.

Segal didn’t hear the announcement because she is deaf. During the race she aggravated a calf muscle injury sustained earlier this year. She was the favorite, but finished third.

After the race, friends who finished far behind her came over and asked her how she did.

Reading their lips, she replied that she had finished third.

“Why?” they asked, astonished that she hadn’t won.

“Without pain, I could have pushed myself hard and probably won,” said Segal, 17, who speaks with a slight impediment because of her deafness.

“She’s one of the most amazing people I have ever dealt with,” said her coach, Scott King, adding that she has a 4.0 grade-point average.

No, Fain and Segal didn’t win, but no one could say they aren’t champions.