SWIMMING / THERESA MUNOZ : Hard Training Might Be Best, Medals Attest

In the late 1970s, U.S. swimming coaches were accused of overtraining their athletes. Now, Dennis Pursley, national team director, is preaching an enhanced work ethic and pointing to Melvin Stewart and Mike Barrowman, and to Evgeni Sadovyi and Alexander Popov of the former Soviet Union, as prime examples of what it takes to be the best in the world.

Popov trains three times per day, and Stewart swims an extraordinary amount of his specialty, butterfly.

Most American butterfliers swim a significant amount of freestyle to establish a conditioning base, because the butterfly is viewed as too taxing. In contrast, one of Stewart’s common drills is 10 400-meter butterfly swims with six-minute intervals.

“I’d go one lap of perfect ‘fly, then build up to two laps,” Stewart said. “Then 200 meters, then 400, then 800 to 1,000, holding my stroke technically sound.”

Although American swimmers are viewed as hard working, Stewart--as does Pursley--believes there is room for improvement.

“We’re not tough enough,” he said. “We’re getting our butts kicked because we are always looking for a shortcut.

“The typical swimmer trains two hours in the morning and 2 1/2 hours at night, plus (on) dry land, but how much of that time is socializing and loafing? We could tack on another hour and do road work (running) or taekwondo. That might give you that mental edge.

“Let’s face it. There’s 18 (non-sleeping) hours in a day. People sleep too much. Some are training once a day because they think their body can’t recover. The fact is our bodies are amazing. There’s no telling what they’re capable of.”

Barrowman’s training is more sprint-oriented. Roughly 75% of his program is breaststroke, his specialty, and he thrives on pushing himself to exhaustion.

“He swims to the point he dies,” Stewart said. “You keep doing that and you die later and later in the race. That’s why Mike can put them all away on the last 50 and set another world record in Barcelona.”

Former USC coach Peter Daland, who was elected president of the American Swim Coaches Assn. during its convention in Anaheim last month, blames “the sports medicine people” for the lighter training loads.

“They set us back 10 years,” he said. “The word got out that quality swimming is where it is. The message was false and our (U.S.) distance program paid for it.”

With the exception of four-time gold medalist Janet Evans, the United States has won no Olympic medals in events beyond the 200 freestyle since 1984.

Daland suggests that all swimmers--regardless of specialty--establish a distance swimming conditioning base. Mark Spitz, for example, set a world record in the 400 freestyle before he became the world record-holder in the 100 freestyle, and at the age of 14 Spitz was ranked fourth internationally in the 1,500 freestyle.

Daland says that the 1,500 should be given the status of track’s marathon.

“We’ve glorified the 50 and ignored the 1,500,” he said.

In light of the status of the 50 and 100 freestyles as the glamour events, and the emphasis among college coaches to recruit freestyle sprinters because of their versatility on relays, the lack of success in Barcelona in the shorter distance men’s freestyle events is another sign that the U.S. is slipping.

For the first time since 1956--not counting 1980, when the United States boycotted the Olympics--the U.S. men did not win a medal in the 100 freestyle or the 200 freestyle.

Matt Biondi and Tom Jager took the silver and bronze, respectively, in the 50 freestyle, and while they are the first swimmers to make a living from their sport, it is questionable that they can remain in medal contention for the ’96 Olympic Games. Biondi will be almost 31 and Jager will be almost 32.

“Jager and Biondi are still in their own class, but four more years will be tough for them,” said Todd Pace, who won his first 50 freestyle national championship--in the absence of Jager and Biondi--in August at Mission Viejo.

Pace, 24, added: “I can definitely go four more.”

At last month’s convention, Pursley made a proposal to continue the early selection of the U.S. Olympic team, but the steering committee tabled the action until the 1993 convention next September.

Early selection for the 1996 Atlanta Games (tentative swim dates are July 21-26) means another conflict with the NCAA men’s and women’s championships. Such a conflict, some college coaches believe, cost several collegians berths on the 1992 U.S. Olympic team.

Pursley’s solution is to have the NCAA switch to a long course format (50-meter pool instead of 25-yard pool) so that all swimmers would be preparing for the same distance.

Even though a few Division I coaching leaders are leaning toward the idea, Pursley fears the majority of NCAA programs would not favor it.

“I’m not sure it’s a realistic hope, but if we really look at what is in the best interest of the athlete, there’s a chance it’ll happen,” he said.

Detractors believe that the excitement of short course NCAA swimming should not be forsaken for 100 potential Olympic swimmers.

Pursley’s plan is more plausible in non-Olympic years when the Pan Pacific, World Championship and Goodwill Games teams are selected.

In those years, the times from a long course NCAA meet could be compared to U.S. Swimming’s indoor nationals, and the fastest swimmers would qualify for the top international meets.

“This way, the NCAA athlete does not have to compete again (at U.S. indoor nationals) after NCAAs, miss more school and overextend himself,” Pursley said. “Those swimmers have been caught between a rock and a hard place.”

Another advantage of the 50-meter format is that world records could be set, creating more public and media interest in the NCAA championships. World records cannot be set in 25-yard pools because the United States is the only nation that competes at that distance.

Swimming Notes

The No. 1 recruit in the nation, Kristine Quance of Northridge has visited Texas, Arizona and Brigham Young (unofficially) and has visits planned to Stanford and USC (unofficially). . . . FINA, the international governing body of the sport, abolished its nine-year-old trust fund program. In the past, money earned by swimmers had to be placed in a fund and administered by the national governing body.