<i> Perestroika</i> Stops at the Medal Stand : Olympics: Soviet sport officials say political reforms won’t undercut their nation’s desire for the gold.

When asked last week whether elite sports in the Soviet Union will survive the country’s restructuring, known as perestroika , Alexander Kozlovsky, deputy chairman of the country’s state-controlled sports committee, Goskomsport, responded with a story.

He said he was touring Leningrad a few years ago, when a friend asked why the beautiful Summer Garden, built in 1720 by Peter the Great, was not destroyed during the Russian Revolution.

“Because the Summer Garden is part of the history and the culture of the country,” Kozlovsky said.

He paused to make certain his message had gotten through.

“We simply have to understand that elite sports is very important to our popular culture,” he said.

Since joining the Olympic movement in 1952, the Soviet Union has won more medals than any other country. In ice hockey, soccer, track and field, gymnastics and figure skating--sports once dominated by other countries--the Soviets have become a power. They have even won the Olympic gold medal twice in men’s basketball. Their latest challenge: baseball.

Although there might be significant reductions in the Olympic movements of nations such as East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland as they reconsider the role of sports, sports leaders here are intent upon maintaining the Soviet Union’s position at the top.

“We are working hard so that changes in the country do not affect us,” said Nikolai Rusak, chairman of Goskomsport. “We think it is very easy to destroy a system that has been successful for many, many years. But it would be very difficult to reconstruct.”

Said Vitaly Smirnov, one of two Soviet members of the International Olympic Committee: “I hope we will survive. You realize what is going on in other Eastern European countries, and it is a pity. Sports are an important part of Soviet life.

“People here don’t want to lose at big sports.”

But as the Soviet Union grapples with one crisis after another--independence movements among the republics, ethnic strife, political turmoil, an increase in crime, food shortages--the importance placed on elite sports is under siege.

Last year, in a speech at the Kremlin, a deputy prime minister said, “The brightness of gold medals is so strong that we are unable to see the problems in the country.”

Much of the criticism is directed toward Goskomsport for its emphasis on producing Olympic champions at the expense of mass sports. In a country that has the right to participate in sports written into its constitution, Goskomsport officials acknowledge that there are swimming pools for only 10% of the people and indoor gymnasiums for only 30%. Kozlovsky, a deputy chairman, said there are so few tennis courts that even his daughter is unable to play.

Even recreation that does not require expensive facilities, such as jogging, is difficult because sporting goods factories, like most factories in the Soviet Union, do not manufacture enough products. Quality running shoes, as did blue jeans in the past, bring a premium on the black market. Asked recently what she would most like to have from the West, one dedicated jogger said, “Socks.”

“We feel guilty because we have not worked out a system for mass sports,” Rusak said.

But Goskomsport officials said they cannot afford to finance recreational sports. They said they already pay more money in taxes than they receive from the government, managing to stay in the black through lotteries, the sale of publications and sponsorships.

“The health of the nation, this is an affair of the state,” said Marat Gramov, chairman of the national Olympic committee and an IOC member. “But the state has not taken this responsibility upon itself.”

Goskomsport officials have suggested a compromise. They said they will organize mass sports if the government will finance them. Even if that is approved, they expect to be frustrated. Of 600 small, prefabricated gymnasiums they sent to villages throughout the country last year, Kozlovsky said most were never assembled. Of those that were, he said, many were used for storage.

The responsibility for recreation, however, is only one problem confronting sports in the nation. As in virtually of all phases of Soviet life today, the situation is chaotic.

--As republics seek independence, so do their sports teams. All Lithuanian teams, including two first division basketball teams that have some of the best players in the country, have withdrawn from Soviet leagues. Georgian soccer teams have also withdrawn.

--Individual sports federations, confident they can support themselves through Western sponsorships, are threatening to divorce themselves from Goskomsport. Soccer declared its independence but included only its first three divisions, leaving its three lower divisions to fend for themselves. Goskomsport officials fear that independent federations will no longer take responsibility for the early development of athletes.

--Trade unions, which have sponsored schools and clubs for elite athletes, are withdrawing their funds because members, in a time of economic hardship, want to decrease their dues. Lokomotiv, the union for railroad workers, closed its sports center last November in Donetsk, a city in the Ukraine.

That school’s most famous alumnus, pole vaulter Sergei Bubka, was at Goskomsport offices in Moscow last week to sign papers for a loan that will enable him to re-open the center. Not always accommodating to the media in the past, he was gracious when he agreed to meet with U.S. reporters. He asked them to help him procure Western sponsors for his venture.

--Given their freedom by the government to sell their services abroad, athletes are turning professional and leaving the country. Although sports officials have devised a plan that allows athletes to retain 50% of their earnings if they give 30% to Goskomsport and 20% to the government, many athletes have bypassed the system.

Sometimes, it works in their favor. Sometimes, it does not. A women’s basketball team in the Soviet Union traded one of its players last year to an Italian team for a bus and several pairs of sneakers.

“The team needed the bus,” Kozlovsky said.

--Attendance has decreased dramatically in some sports. Two games earlier this month in Moscow to determine the Soviet league’s runner-up each drew fewer than 500 fans.

“We think what influences this is the social factors, the way of life,” Rusak said. “We have problems with food supplies. After working all day, people have to run around to shops looking for food. This takes a lot of time.”