SWIMMING / THERESA MUNOZ : Early Decisions Are Helpful at Olympic Games

The philosophy behind selecting the U.S. Olympic swim team four months before the Barcelona Games was to avoid a repeat of the U.S. team’s disappointing showing in 1988, when Matt Biondi of Castro Valley, Calif., and Janet Evans of Placentia were the only Americans to win individual gold medals.

By conducting the trials last spring instead of four weeks before the Games, U.S. Swimming leaders hoped team members would be able to recover physically and emotionally from the trials and concentrate on the Games.

Although the gold-medal count improved from eight (including relays) to 11 and the overall medal count grew from 18 to 27, 45% (28 of the 62 swims) were faster than those at the trials.

All but four of those faster swims yielded medals.

Eight swims that were slightly slower than trials times produced medals, including Nelson Diebel’s gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke and Melvin Stewart’s gold in the 200 butterfly.

Diebel’s 1-minute 1.50-second swim was only 0.10 seconds slower than his American record trials swim, and Stewart’s 1:56.26 was 0.54 slower than his trials time.

Dennis Pursley, the U.S. Swimming national team director, believes the early selection system worked because the improvement rate from the Seoul trials to the Seoul Olympics was 32%, and because many of the slower swims at those Games were significantly slower, as opposed to Barcelona, where 12 swims were only a few tenths of a second off the trials’ swims.

“I attribute a tenth or two to the facility,” said Pursley, calling the indoor pool in Indianapolis, site of the trials, the “fastest” pool in the world.

Another factor was the reduced rest period between preliminaries and finals at the Games.

“I’m not blaming those things on performance,” Pursley said, “but you gotta consider that those things are worth a tenth of a second or two. Generally, the performance in Barcelona was comparable to the performance in Indianapolis, and we haven’t had that in quite a while.

“It (early selection) did work, and to make sure I wasn’t being subjective I gave a survey to all the coaches and swimmers, and literally 100%--even those who were not as successful--indicated that early selection is the way to go.”

Pursley believes the disappointment expressed about some U.S. swims in Barcelona was because of a lack of understanding of the 1992 world rankings, which listed Americans first in almost every event, based on their trials’ swims.

“What I tried to point out before the Games, which was not picked up by the media, was that our world-ranked times were absolutely the best,” Pursley said. “Our major competitors didn’t need a peak performance to make their teams. That’s why the rankings were deceptive.

“It is a shame that Summer Sanders had five lifetime bests and two American records and won an individual gold and several other medals, and people say she didn’t have a successful Olympics. She had an outstanding Olympics!”

Perhaps the media and the public were swayed by pronouncements by the U.S. women’s coaching staff that Americans could win every event.

Regardless, there were several swims not given their due:

--Jeff Rouse’s world-record 53.86 seconds in the 100 backstroke while leading off the medley relay.

--Nicole Haislett’s 1:57.90 in the 200 freestyle, which smashed the oldest American record in swimming, Sippy Woodhead’s 1979 mark of 1:58.23.

--Sanders’ American records in the 200 individual medley (2:11.91) and 400 individual medley (4:37.58).

--Anita Nall’s American-record 1:08.17 in the 100 breaststroke.

--Lea Loveless’ American-record 1:00.82 in the 100 backstroke while leading off the medley relay.

The most surprising American swimming medalist was also the most overshadowed.

Greg Burgess’ silver medal in the 200 individual medley barely drew a mention from NBC because Burgess swam in the same race as Ron Karnaugh, who competed only six days after his father’s death.

Unlike the Seoul Games, in which the reputation of the U.S. swim team was marred when Troy Dalbey and Doug Gjertsen removed a ceremonial mask from a hotel lobby, the image of American swimming was enhanced by several Americans, including Biondi and Jon Olsen.

Biondi was quick to leave his lane and congratulate the winners after his defeats, and Olsen was extremely gracious after a touch pad malfunctioned in the 100 freestyle.

The scoreboard initially showed Olsen placing third, but while he was waiting to march to the victory stand he heard over the public address system that he had finished fourth.

The 23-year-old from Jonesboro, Ark., also withstood the pressure of swimming the anchor leg on the 400 freestyle relay with the Unified Team’s Alexander Popov breathing down his neck.

Two years ago, Popov was converted from a backstroker to a sprint freestyler and groomed specifically to defeat Biondi on the anchor leg of the 400 medley relay.

Ironically, Biondi, the 100 freestyle world record-holder, did not anchor the U.S. medley in Barcelona. He lost his spot to Olsen when he finished fifth to Olsen’s fourth in the 100 freestyle.

The winner of the 100? Popov, the relay swimmer.

Popov also won gold in the 50 freestyle, ending the reign of former UCLA swimmer Tom Jager and Biondi.

As Biondi put it, his cape fell off, but the real reason for his downfall was a lack of extensive training.

Swimming Notes

The U.S. Swimming National Championships begin today at Mission Viejo at 4 p.m. with timed final heats of the 800 freestyle. Preliminaries and finals, Tuesday through Friday, start at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., respectively. . . . Indiana University’s Jill Sterkel is the new Texas women’s coach, replacing Mark Schubert, who replaced Peter Daland at USC. . . . Terry Stoddard, who will leave Mission Viejo Aug. 31, is a candidate for the Indiana job and the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center coaching position vacated by Brian Murphy. Jack Simon (Olympian Joe Hudepohl’s coach), who is expected to leave the Cincinnati Marlins, is also being considered by the Rose Bowl. . . . Mission Viejo is pursuing CLASS Aquatics Coach Bud McAllister (one of Janet Evans’ former coaches). . . . Fresno State Coach Terri McKeever is the new California women’s coach, replacing Karen Moe Thornton, who took an athletic administrative position. . . . Don Wagner left Fullerton Aquatics Sports Team to become Schubert’s assistant at USC.