The Games in Spain

The rapidly changing political landscape--the unification of Germany, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the on-again, off-again return of South Africa--renders impossible any predictions regarding the medal standings for the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona, Spain.

But of this we can be certain: With the “Dream Team”--Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, etc.,--U.S. athletes will lead the world in average income.

Let your Olympic planning begin:

Friday, July 24

Even before the opening ceremony, the Olympics kick off with a soccer game between the United States and tournament favorite Italy. The honor of appearing in the first soccer game usually is reserved for the host country, but the Spanish team is so disliked in Barcelona, the capital of the Catalonian region of the country, that the organizers did not want to subject the young players to jeers from the crowd.

Saturday, July 25

Hoping that the opening ceremony at Montjuic Stadium will become a burning memory for all who see it, the organizers have arranged for an archer to shoot a fiery arrow 115 feet to ignite the Olympic flame.

The Spanish, however, never have been particularly adept at archery, and it took more than a year to find someone who could hit the caldron built atop the stadium. Assuming they found the right man, the arrow will ignite a gas burner that fuels the flame for the 16 days of the Olympics. Police will cordon off an area below the caldron on the outside of the stadium in case the arrow misses.

Sunday, July 26

Now, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for ... drum roll, please

Two who led Stanford to the NCAA women’s championship this year are expected to make a big splash on the sport’s first day of competition: Jenny Thompson in the 100-meter freestyle and Summer Sanders in the 400-meter individual medley. Thompson has a chance to win five medals, Sanders four. If Sanders were a figure skater, would her name be Winter? Just asking.

Monday, July 27

Ever wonder whatever happened to all those Taiwanese kids who win the Little League World Series every year? Tune in to see them as young adults against the United States in the first Olympics in which baseball is an official sport.

After China’s Fu Mingxia won the world championship on the women’s platform last year at age 12, a rule was passed requiring divers to be at least 14 before they can compete internationally. Fu will be only 13 when she competes today at Barcelona, but she is eligible because she turns 14 in August. Her foremost challenger is expected to compatriot Xu Yanmei, the 1988 Olympic champion.

Another youngster, swimmer Anita Nall, 16, of Towson, Md., is favored to become the first U.S. gold medalist since 1968 in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke.

Remember Surinam’s Anthony Nesty, who became his country’s first Olympic medalist with a stunning victory in 1988 over American Matt Biondi in the 100-meter butterfly? When he returned home from Seoul, the government renamed the country’s main stadium after him. What will it do when he repeats? Mint gold and silver commemorative coins in his honor? No, it already did that. Put his face on a stamp? It did that, too.

Tuesday, July 28

The most decorated members of the United States’ 1988 swim team, Placentia’s Janet Evans and Biondi, are favored to add more medals to their collections.

Evans, who won three gold medals at Seoul at age 16, will compete in two events. Her best is today’s 400-meter freestyle, in which she has not lost since 1986. Biondi won seven medals, five gold, at Seoul and will swim in three events at Barcelona, including today’s 100-meter freestyle. If he wins, he will become the first repeat champion in the event since Johnny Weissmuller, who went on to become a well-known movie Tarzan, in 1928.

The second-richest group of Olympians, behind the U.S. men’s basketball team, takes time out from the pro tennis tour to play for medals.

Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and Michael Chang will represent the United States in men’s singles against a field that includes Sweden’s Stefan Edberg, the winner when tennis was an exhibition sport in 1984, and Germany’s Boris Becker and Michael Stich.

Three of the top four women in the world are not eligible--Monica Seles, Martina Navratilova and Gabriela Sabatini did not play for their countries in the 1991 Federation Cup, a requirement for the Olympics. But Germany’s Steffi Graf, the gold medalist in 1984 and ‘88, and local favorite Arantxa Sanchez Vicario figure to be too much for the U.S. trio of Jennifer Capriati, Mary Joe Fernandez and Zina Garrison.

Wednesday, July 29

For the first time since 1976, the United States will enter the men’s diving competition without Greg Louganis. Nevertheless, an American, world champion Kent Ferguson, is expected to contend in the three-meter springboard final.

If the United States were allowed to use its major leaguers, it might have an easy time in today’s baseball game against perennial international power Cuba. Then again, it might not. Scouts say the Cubans have three or four players who could step onto a major league diamond today, but Fidel Castro, said to have been a big league prospect at one point, keeps them at home for his own entertainment.

Thursday, July 30

Twenty years ago, Olga Korbut’s performance at Munich inspired Mary Lou Retton, who, in 1984 at Los Angeles, inspired Kim Zmeskal, who could become only the second U.S. woman gymnast to win the Olymic all-around title. Zmeskal, the reigning world champion, is coached by Bela Karolyi, whose former students include Nadia Comaneci and Retton.

Swimming’s most intense rivalry resumes when Americans Biondi and Tom Jager meet in the 50-meter freestyle. Of the best 25 times in history, they hold 24. Jager has won 15 of their 23 meetings, but Biondi took home the gold medal from Seoul.

Friday, July 31

Track and field competition begins with the women’s marathon, which initially was planned to end with a steep climb toward Montjuic Stadium. But after much protesting, the organizers remapped a kinder, gentler course that ends with a jog through a leafy park. Poland’s Wanda Panfil is favored.

Saturday, Aug. 1

After becoming the first track sprinter to win back-to-back gold medals in the men’s 100 meters in 1984 and ‘88, Carl Lewis’ quest for a three-peat ended when he failed to qualify for the U.S. sprint team.

But the winner might still be someone who trains on U.S. soil, Nigeria’s Davidson Ezinwa of Azusa Pacific or Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks of Brigham Young. Other contenders include the silver and bronze medalists from last year’s World Championships, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell of the United States, and Linford Christie and Jason Livingston of Great Britain.

Sunday, Aug. 2

Canoga Park’s Jackie Joyner-Kersee, considered the world’s greatest woman athlete, had her aura of invincibility shattered when she was injured at last year’s track and field World Championships. But she tries to rebound at Barcelona to win her second straight heptathlon gold medal.

In its second game, the U.S. water polo team is scheduled to play Yugoslavia. If so, pay attention because those two teams met in the finals in both 1984 and ’88. Yugoslavia won both times. But because of United Nations sanctions against Yugoslavia as a result of the civil war there, the Spanish government might not issue visas to that country’s athletes. Czechoslovakia is standing by as the potential substitute in water polo.

Monday, Aug. 3

Newport Beach’s Steve Timmons, he of the distinctive crew-cut, tries to become the first men’s volleyball player to win three gold medals after also playing with the victorious U.S. team in 1984 and ’88. But it will not be a day at the beach for the United States, which is expected to face its most strenuous first-round test in today’s match against Italy, the 1990 world champion.

China, rapidly replacing the United States as the world’s diving power, is expected to complete its sweep of the women’s events when Gao Min returns in an attempt to defend her Olympic title on the three-meter springboard.

Karen LeFace made the U.S. diving team only three months after surgery to repair muscles in her left arm following an accident in which she collided with a pickup truck while riding to practice on her bicycle.

Tuesday, Aug. 4

Although he is not favored to win a medal in men’s platform diving--two Chinese are expected to finish among the top three--you cannot help but like the story of American Matt Scoggin’s start in the sport. He was introduced to it by a blind coach, who graded his students’ dives by the bark of his dog, Debba. The bigger the splash, indicating a blown dive, the louder Debba barked.

Wednesday, Aug. 5

Not only because of his name has the United States’ John Smith remained anonymous. His sport of wrestling is not one that you see on television except during an Olympic year. But Smith deserves some attention as he opens defense of the title he won in 1988 in the 136 1/2-pound weight class. He was selected last year as the world’s best amateur wrestler, the first time a non-Soviet has ever been so honored.

Speaking of anonymous, the U.S. women’s basketball team has all but been forgotten amid all the hype surrounding the men’s “Dream Team.” But the women are professionals, too. Eleven of the 12 play for money in European or Japanese leagues. Led by guard Teresa Edwards, a member of the 1984 and ’88 teams that won gold medals, the United States is virtually certain to claim a spot in today’s semifinals.

Thursday, Aug. 6

The advertised question of who is the world’s greatest athlete, Dan or Dave, was prematurely answered when Dan failed to qualify for the U.S. team. Dave will have to go it alone on the second and final day of track and field’s decathlon. Perhaps by then we will have learned his last name.

In the main event at Montjuic Stadium, Carl Lewis and Mike Powell will face each other in the long jump for only the second time since last summer’s historic confrontation at Tokyo, where Powell ended Lewis’ 10-year winning streak and Bob Beamon’s 23-year-reign as the world record-holder.

Friday, Aug. 7

By the end of today’s semifinals, we will know the boxing finalists. Three Americans expected to be there, among a half-dozen or so Cubans, are Eric Griffin in the 106-pound division, Oscar De La Hoya of East Los Angeles in the 132-pound division and Larry Donald in the 201-pound and over division.

Donald, a world champion, calls himself the Cincinnati Lip. Remind you of anyone? He also writes poetry. This is the latest from the wannabe greatest:

There is no room to surrender/After I have beaten every contender

It may sound like slander/But one day I’m going to knock out Evander

Ukranian Sergei Bubka, who this summer broke Finn Paavo Nurmi’s record for breaking world records with his 30th, goes after his second straight pole vault gold medal.

Saturday, Aug. 8

The only mystery remaining in the men’s basketball tournament by now is which team will play the United States in today’s championship game. Will it be Lithuania with Golden State’s Sarunas Marciulionis and all-world center Arvydas Sabonis? Or Croatia with New Jersey’s Drazen Petrovic and the most coveted player in the world outside the NBA, Toni Kukoc? Or the Germans with Indiana Pacer Detlef Schrempf? Or will it be Yugoslavia with Vlade Divac (assuming that the Yugos are allowed into the country)? They all will be trying to prove that white men can too jump.

Sunday, Aug. 9

Runners in the men’s marathon will finish inside Montjuic Stadium, where a capacity crowd is expected to be gathered for the closing ceremony. The theme song was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who again is working on behalf of a J.C. Superstar. In this case, it is the show’s producer, Spanish tenor Jose Carreras. The song’s title is “Friends for Life,” which will sung by Carreras and Sarah Brightman, Webber’s ex-wife.