SUMMER GAMES SPOTLIGHT : BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : FLUORIDE ENHANCES HIS PERFORMANCE

We’ve all heard about swimmers shaving to get an extra edge. There’s nothing strange or different about that.

Then there’s Canadian freestyle wrestler Jeff Thue’s method of motivation.

“I brush my teeth just before every match because it makes me feel clean and fast,” said the 23-year-old, who attends Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. “It’s psychological. You know, you wake up in the morning feeling groggy. You brush your teeth and you feel well.”

OK, is this guy going for a Crest ad, or what?

Thue is his own man, through and through. He’s 6 feet 6 and 259 pounds and has turned down offers from the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League because they play on Sundays. For him, Sunday means only religion, not sport.

Wednesday, Thue won his fifth-round match against Turkey’s Mahmut Demir, 1-0, in the 286-pound division. Thue has another theory for the secret of his success: His job at West Coast Granite, wielding a sledgehammer against rocks all day.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “It’s a little exciting and a little dangerous. It’s physical work. And working outside with rocks really helps your mental toughness.”

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