OLYMPIC NOTES

Yugoslavia, the United States water polo team’s archrival, was eliminated by Thursday’s U.N. decision.

“It’s really a bummer,” team captain Terry Schroeder said after ’84 and ’88 Olympic champion Yugoslavia was banned. “It’s too bad. I feel for (the Yugoslav players). I think all the teams in the world have a lot of respect for them, what they put in. We know what it takes to get there.

“We were really looking forward to have the opportunity to play them and beat them.”

Four Yugoslav teams have been banned: men’s team handball, women’s team handball, women’s basketball and water polo.

The United States and Yugoslavia played for the gold medal in both of the last two Olympics and were tied, both times, after regulation play. In 1984, Yugoslavia was awarded the gold medal by virtue of goal differential. In 1988, an overtime period was played, resulting in a 9-7 Yugoslav victory.

“I’m disappointed they’re not here,” U.S. Coach Bill Barnett said. “In the Olympics, you always want the best teams. They are the defending world champions and European champions. That’s why I’m disappointed, because I’d like to play the best.”

Added Schroeder: “Obviously, sport and politics definitely don’t mix. Just like in ’80 (when the United States boycotted the Moscow Games), we had no choice in the matter. We couldn’t do anything about it. I think those guys feel the same way. They feel helpless and they have trained for this and now it has been taken away from them.

“What is going on in Yugoslavia is terrible, but I really disagree with (the sanctions). I still think they should be here.”

Going underground . . . and almost staying there: Two American journalists came close to spending Wednesday night in a subway station when their train dropped them off behind locked gates.

Bob Kenney of the Cherry Hill Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Tom Kubat of the Lafayette Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind., stepped off the train at their appointed stop in north Barcelona, at 11:10 p.m., 50 minutes before the metro was supposed to shut down.

But closing time had come early, and Kenney and Kubat found themselves trapped underground, along with three other travelers.

One among the group was small enough to crawl over the locked gate and into the ticket booth, where he attempted to phone an operator. Hearing a frantic, English-speaking voice, the operator quickly hung up, apparently thinking it a crank call.

Another call was placed and this time the phone was handed through the gate to another passenger, a woman familiar with the local language.

Eventually, another train was dispatched to unlock the gates.