BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS: DAY 3 : THEY ARE BEING TREATED LIKE HEELS

In the public relations department, the early loser at Barcelona is the giant Japanese sporting goods company, Mizuno.

It arranged a news conference last week for one of its star clients, Carl Lewis, then got him there 45 minutes late. Forced to wait in stifling heat and humidity, reporters were not in a forgiving mood when Lewis arrived. A Mizuno official greeted them, but when he began to deliver a pitch for the shoes, he was shouted down.

Sunday, the U.S. men’s volleyball team, two-time Olympic defending champion, barely survived its opening game against unheralded Japan, finally winning in the three-hour match in five sets (before having that result reversed by international volleyball officials Monday).

U.S. veteran Steve Timmons offered the following explanation of the team’s mediocre play against Japan:

“It was those lead Mizunos we were wearing,” he said.

This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant, all Times-Mirror newspapers.