BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS: DAY 3 : Runners Trying to Run Team, Too : Track: U.S. sprinters arguing with coaches over spots on relay teams.

You are the coach of a team. The world’s best athlete in the event you are coaching wants to compete for your team. There are no rules to prevent it. Would you welcome him?

If it’s such a simple answer, then why is Mel Rosen, coach of the U.S. men’s track and field team at the Summer Olympics, taking so much heat because of his selection of Michael Johnson to the 1,600-meter relay team?

“It’s a war of egos,” Rosen said Monday, less than 24 hours after four of the other relay members were involved in a confrontation with an assistant coach during practice.

“I knew this was going to happen. I’ve been saying to people that maybe we shouldn’t have the relays. That seems to be our only controversy.”

This one began almost a year ago, during last year’s World Championships at Tokyo.

The U.S. team had a rule that allowed only the first four finishers in the trials of the 100 meters and the 400 meters, barring injuries, to compete in the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relays. Johnson, ranked No. 1 in the world in the 200 and the 400, was ineligible for the 1,600 relay because he ran only the 200 in the trials.

When the United States finished second to the British in an event that almost certainly would have been won with Johnson, many coaches, officials and even some athletes began clamoring for change.

So The Athletics Congress, which governs track and field in the United States, changed the rule last December for the Olympics, allowing coaches the discretion to select their relay teams from among athletes in all events.

The impact became apparent Sunday when Rosen announced that Johnson, of Waco, Tex., would be one of the four members of the 1,600-meter relay team if it reaches the final.

That upset Andrew Valmon of New York, who finished fourth in the 400 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials and is now relegated to running here only in the two rounds leading to the final; and Chip Jenkins of Villanova, Pa., an alternate who won’t run at all after being dropped from the team to make room for Johnson.

Also upset were the first two finishers in the trials, Danny Everett of Santa Monica and Steve Lewis of Fremont, Calif., who were under the impression that they would have to run in the rounds, but that Johnson would not.

“It was a knock-down, drag-out,” sprinter Dennis Mitchell of Gainesville, Fla., said of the argument during Sunday’s practice between the 400-meter runners and the men’s relay coach, Bill Moultrie.

Johnson might have defused the situation as far as Everett and Lewis were concerned later Sunday, when he said he would agree to run at least in one round before the final. But that did not appease Valmon and Jenkins.

“They were being very vocal,” Rosen confirmed. “The issue, to be honest, was Michael Johnson. You feel sorry for the kids because they’d all like to run. But in the last 12 to 16 years, we haven’t had anyone who could run the 200 and the 400 like he can.

“The others tell me they can beat him in the 400. I say, ‘He’s beaten you eight straight times.’ They say, ‘I got a bad start.’ ”

Asked if he ever felt like telling the complainers where to go, the retired coach from Auburn said: “You’d like to, but if you told kids to go to hell every time you had a problem with one of them, you’d end up in a different profession.”

As for the 400-meter relay, Rosen is either in the eye of the storm or has weathered it. Either way, he was feeling less turbulence Monday than last week, when he was wondering whether he would be able to put together a competitive team.

Because of a financial dispute with the promoter, three members of the team, all from the Santa Monica Track Club, failed to appear in a meet at Nice, France, where the relay team was scheduled to gather. Then, the other member of the team, Mitchell, delayed a decision on whether to run with the Santa Monica runners at Sestriere, Italy, until it was too late.

But after all the runners finally got together here for practice, Rosen announced that the first four finishers in the 100 meters from the Olympic trials--Mitchell, Mark Witherspoon of Houston, Leroy Burrell of Houston and Mike Marsh of Los Angeles--would run in all three rounds of the 400-meter relay if they prove their fitness before the race.

That would seem to eliminate the chance of Carl Lewis running on the relay team. He became one of two alternates after finishing sixth in the 100 meters at the trials, and although he said at the time that he would give his berth to someone else, he changed his mind three days later.

He has been practicing with the team this week, running the third or fourth legs, and Rosen said his behavior has been exemplary. But he added that if he had to name one alternate to the team, it would be James Jett of Shenandoah Junction, W.Va., who finished fifth at the trials.

Mitchell, who won the 100 in the trials, wasn’t convinced, telling reporters he believes Carl Lewis will run in at least one of the rounds. Mitchell didn’t sound happy about the prospect.

“The coach selected me to be the (relay) team captain, and I think these things should be discussed with me,” Mitchell said. “But he doesn’t see it that way. If he wants to put Carl on the relay, he has the right to do that.”