WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : The Pen Proves Even Mightier When Used as a Political Sword

The executive director of USA Track & Field, Ollan Cassell, is accustomed to being criticized in print, but not by the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s official mouthpiece.

He reacted testily to an article in the most recent IAAF Quarterly Review that appeared under the headline, “USA Track And Field: Apocalypse Now?”

The conclusion of the author, French sports journalist Robert Pariente was, in a word, yes.

Cassell, a vice president of the IAAF, the international governing body for track and field, was stunned by the attack.

“I wonder who came up with the idea to have a story that is critical of the most successful federation in the IAAF, and why was it written?” Cassell said in a recent letter to the IAAF’s general secretary, Istvan Gyulai.

One hardly had to read between the lines to know that Cassell was pointing a finger at the IAAF’s president, Primo Nebiolo. He is not an unreasonable suspect; Cassell might run against him in 1995. But the Review’s editor, Matthew Brown, said the article was neither politically motivated nor planted by Nebiolo.

“We have in the last two years tried to explore more issues within the sport,” Brown said.

In that case, Cassell’s letter to Gyulai included additional ideas.

The first one addressed “the Italian federation’s annual outlay of $25 million to $30 million during the last Olympiad, which produced only one Olympic medal.” Did we mention that Nebiolo is Italian?

Another of Cassell’s story ideas: “The plight of the German federation, which failed to win as many medals as the former East Germany produced in the last Olympics before reunification.”

An author assigned to that one probably would find that the situation in Germany lends little cause for optimism. Persistent rumors of widespread anabolic steroid use, most recently surfacing in reports about the death of former East German discus champion Uwe Beyer of a heart attack at 48, have contributed in causing parents to steer their children away from track and field.

According to the German federation for the sport, participation by teen-agers has fallen by 20% in the last five years. Also on the decline is the money the federation receives from the government and sponsors.

Because of the high cost of reunification, opponents of Berlin’s bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, calling upon the “bread, not circuses” argument, contend that there will be no money left over for the Games. Proponents counter that the Olympics will generate so much bread that everyone will prosper.

Both sides make good cases, but the opponents make theirs louder. During an inspection by a group of International Olympic Committee members last week, 10,000 demonstrators marched on the Berlin bid committee’s headquarters while carrying signs that read, “Olympics monster,” “NOlympics,” and “Attack Olympic bosses.” Some instigated a riot when they set off fireworks and threw stones at police.

After adding three gold medals in the recent World Championships at Birmingham, England, to the six he won in last summer’s Olympics, gymnast Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus said that he does not compete only for the glory.

“I do it so that my family can live,” he said.

But that became increasingly difficult in Belarus. The medals he won at Barcelona had not had time to gather dust before his apartment was looted of $25,000 and stereo and computer equipment.

When the police summoned him to retrieve the equipment, but not the money, they informed him they had caught the burglar. It was his best friend, who now is in prison.

Adding insult to insult, the financially strapped government took five months to deliver on its promise of a larger, more modern and presumably safer apartment for Scherbo, his wife and infant daughter.

He was still waiting for the car that was supposed to be part of the package when he recently decided to move to Louisiana.

Norwegian shotputter Georg Andersen is taking his suspension well after testing positive for a steroid. Refusing to return the silver medal he won during the 1991 World Championships, he told Reuters: “If someone wants to take it, they have to come and get it by force.”

How times have changed. With his sights set on breaking American Matt Biondi’s world record in the 100 meters, a Russian swimmer, double gold-medalist Alexander Popov, is taking advantage of the U.S. Swimming Federation’s technology to train at Colorado Springs, Colo. . . . Carlo Fassi, who coached Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill to Olympic gold medals, is contemplating a return to the United States after spending the last two years in his native Italy. He plans to coach this summer at Lake Arrowhead, where one of his pupils will be U.S. runner-up Mark Mitchell. . . . Golf officials from 43 countries are meeting this week at St. Andrews, Scotland, to discuss strategy for getting their sport in the Olympics.

The 1991 world champion in the intermediate hurdles, Samuel Matete, was suspended by Zambia’s track and field federation for not reporting all of the money he has earned from European promoters. He is supposed to give the federation a cut. But less than 24 hours later, Zambia’s National Sports Council, aware of Matete’s status as the country’s No. 1 athletic hero, overturned the ban. . . . The New York Games, one of only two U.S. track and field meets on the Mobil Grand Prix circuit, are scheduled for May 22, but will be canceled unless a sponsor is found. . . . You think the Italians appreciated the defensive intensity of Europe’s new basketball champions from Limoges, France, in their victory over Treviso in the title game? “Only knives weren’t used,” sniffed Gazetta dello Sport.