SWIMMING : U.S. Could Make Splash as Europeans Take Dive

For the first time since 1978, the United States could win the men’s and women’s World Championship, Jan. 7-13 in Perth, Australia. The men have never lost, but the American women have been defeated by East Germany in the last three competitions.

“I don’t see any single nation challenging us, so our goal is to take on the rest of the world,” said Dennis Pursley, U.S. Swimming’s national team director.

“For obvious reasons, the Eastern Europeans, and not so obvious reasons the Western Europeans, were subpar this year. If they can’t rebound, we expect to do well.”

The most dominant of those Eastern Europeans, the East German women, lost their place as the dominant force in swimming when the Berlin Wall fell and the Germans reunited.

The times at their World Championship trials were slow and two of their stars, Heike Freidrich, the world record-holder in the 200-meter freestyle, and Astrid Strauss, the 1988 Olympic silver medalist in the 800 freestyle, did not make the team that will represent Germany in Perth.

The 37-member German team, which includes 21 former East Germans, is the first entirely unified German athletic team to compete since the country was divided in 1945.

In their place, the Chinese women have emerged as a major challenger. At the Asian Games last September, they produced six times that rank No. 1 or No. 2 in the world in 1990.

The Chinese have improved so quickly that U.S. Coach Richard Quick, Australia Coach Bill Sweetenham and former Hong Kong coach David Haller suspect them of using steroids, a charge Chinese Coach Yunpeng Chen denies.

It will be interesting to see how the U.S. women fare against the Chinese, who lack the depth of the American team, but have six outstanding individuals, including world record-holder Yang Wenji in the 50 freestyle.

Although the U.S. women may prove to be the world’s best, most have yet to come close to the times posted by their countrywomen eight to 10 years ago, with the exception of Janet Evans of Placentia.

“Those were prodigies back then, Mary T. (Meagher), Tracy (Caulkins) and Sippy (Woodhead),” Pursley said.

“We’re still not swimming those times, but as a whole team we’re as strong. The apparent demise of the GDR program puts our women in a position they’ve never been in.”

Unlike past World Championships in Cali, Colombia (1975); Guayaquil, Ecuador (1982), and Madrid (1986), the United States does not expect to have difficulties stomaching the food.

“The environment, the food, and the hotel work to our advantage for a change,” said Pursley, who accompanied the U.S. national team to Perth for a meet at this time last year.

“We got a lot of valuable information from that trip. The big thing we learned is that the weather can be unpredictable. It is an outdoor pool, and the perception is that it is sunny every day, it isn’t.”

Australia may have a home advantage in that the meet falls during its summer, an odd time of year for most of the world’s swimming powers.

U.S. swimmers usually point for top-speed racing in July or August and in March for the NCAA championships or the U.S. indoor nationals in the case of teen-agers, such as backstroker Janie Wagstaff, and post-collegians such as Matt Biondi and Tom Jager.

“I think we’ll have real good swims even though it is the so-called wrong time of the year,” said Summer Sanders, a freshman at Stanford. “We’ve worked real hard since September.”

A triple gold medalist in the U.S. Open in December, Sanders will be tested in the 200 butterfly by China’s Xiaohong Wang and in the 200 and 400 individual medleys by Li Lin.

Sanders and her U.S. teammates have been pointing toward the World Championships since August, when team selections were made. In the past, U.S. World Championship and Olympic trials were held several weeks before the meet, not several months.

The new strategy, a takeoff on the Australian and Canadian philosophy, will be used for the 1992 Olympic Games.

“It’s going to be tough to draw conclusions this time around unless everyone swims exceptionally well,” Pursley said.

“If we have just a solid meet, not exceptional, then it would be hard to draw conclusions because we’re not normally prepared at this time of year for peak performance. If we don’t swim well, we won’t know if it is due to the early selection or the time of the competition.”

A number of men’s world records could fall.

“In our sport, performances are not improving at the same rate of 10-20 years ago, but the sport is still young enough that any time you have a World Championship or an Olympics, world records will go,” Pursley said.

Stanford’s Jeff Rouse has a shot at the 100 backstroke mark of 54.51 seconds, Michigan’s Mike Barrowman could go under his world record of 2:11.53 in the 200 breaststroke and Australian Glen Housman will have his countrymen cheering him on when he attempts to break Vladimir Salnikov’s 1,500 freestyle mark.

Housman swam under the 1983 clocking of 17:50.64 last summer, but he was not credited with the record because of a clock malfunction.

The 200 individual medley record is also in jeopardy because its owner, USC senior Dave Wharton, has improved his weakest stroke, the backstroke.

“I’ve been working on it a lot and I can do it now without killing myself,” said Wharton, who also is strong in the 400 individual medley.

“I’m more efficient in the water and I can hold my stroke. I feel confident and strong. I’m getting excited. I’m hoping to set a world record.”

Among the others to watch:

--Germany’s Michael Gross, the world record-holder in the 200 butterfly, in his final meet before retirement.

--Australia’s Haley Lewis, a 16-year-old with uncommon versatility. She’s ranked second in the world in the 400 freestyle and the 1,500 freestyle, fourth in the 800 free and fifth in the 200 butterfly and the 400 individual medley.

--Evans, the world record-holder in the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles. She swam relatively slowly in the Goodwill Games and was bothered by flu at the U.S. Open. Can she return to her form of 1988 and ‘89?

--Great Britain’s Adrian Moorhouse in the 100 breaststroke. This might be the most tightly contested race with Kirk Stackle and Eric Wunderlich of the United States, James Parrack of Great Britain and Alexei Malveev of the Soviet Union among those contending. Only .83 seconds separate the third-best time in the world from the 27th.

Swimming Notes

Only seven members of the U.S. World Championship team are Californians, compared with 13 in 1988 and 18 in ’84. Several of the swimmers from ’88 and ’84 competed for Mission Viejo, but that is not the case for current team members Biondi, Evans, Sanders, Stackle, Tracey McFarlane, Keith Frostad and Dan Jorgensen. . . . “I don’t think Mission Viejo has the financial support of its heyday to attract the top swimmers from all around the country and to dominate,” Pursley said. “It is still an exceptional program and (Coach) Terry Stoddard is doing a great job. I don’t see a weakening of California programs as much as parity. There are outstanding coaches and good programs in a wider area across the country.”

Twenty-one states are represented, compared with 13 in 1984. . . . The average age of the women’s team is 18.95, the oldest team in history. At 24, McFarlane is the oldest woman on the team. Another breaststroker, Tori DiSilvia, at 16, is the youngest. The average age of the men is 21.82. The oldest is Jager, 26, who is coached by UCLA Coach Ron Ballatore although he lives in New Mexico. The youngest is backstroker Royce Sharp, 18.

ABC’s Wide World of Sports will devote three shows to the World Championships: 10 a.m.-noon PST on Sunday; 1:30-3:30 p.m. on Jan. 12, and 1-3 p.m. on Jan. 13. ESPN will also have a crew in Perth.

Water polo, diving and synchronized swimming will be contested, beginning Thursday. The racing schedule includes a first-time event, the 25-kilometer swim in the Swan River. Chad Hundeby of Irvine is among the entrants. The schedule: Monday: Men: 100 breaststroke, 200 freestyle; Women: 100 freestyle, 400 individual medley, 800 freestyle relay; Jan. 8: Men: 100 butterfly, 400 individual medley, 800 freestyle relay; Women: 200 freestyle, 200 breaststroke; Jan. 9: Men: 100 freestyle, 200 backstroke; Women: 400 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 400 freestyle relay; Jan. 10: 25-kilometer swim, Swan River; Jan. 11: Men: 400 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 400 freestyle relay; Women: 100 butterfly, 100 breaststroke, 800 freestyle (preliminaries only); Jan. 12: Men: 200 butterfly; 50 freestyle; 100 backstroke, 1,500 freestyle (preliminaries only); Women: 200 individual medley, 800 freestyle (finals only), 400 medley relay; Jan. 13: Men: 200 individual medley; 1,500 freestyle (finals only), 400 medley relay; Women: 200 butterfly; 200 backstroke; 50 freestyle.