PAN AMERICAN GAMES WRAP-UP : U.S. Out for One More Victory

The XII Pan American Games closed Sunday after 16 days in which a record number of U.S. athletes achieved record results, but the most important competition for the future of the U.S. Olympic Committee could not be measured in medals.

In the game within the Games, Olympic officials from the United States and Canada tried to impress others that their candidates, Salt Lake City and Quebec City, are the best to stage the 2002 Winter Olympics among the four finalists. Oestersund, Sweden, and Sion, Switzerland, are the other two.

Although the results will not be known until the election by 96 International Olympic Committee members in June, USOC officials leave here today believing Salt Lake City is comfortably ahead in the intra-regional competition with Quebec City for the 18 North, South and Central American and Caribbean votes.

But the USOC officials experienced some nervous moments during the fortnight, resulting primarily from the controversy over the fact that they brought 746 athletes, the most ever to represent the United States in any international sports event.

The U.S. won a record 424 medals, including 169 gold.

When it became apparent that the United States was going to top the previous record of 369 medals it won eight years ago in Indianapolis, the Pan American Sports Organization president, Mario Vasquez Rana of Mexico, complained of overkill.

“It’s craziness,” he told the Associated Press. “I don’t know why they brought so many. It’s a mistake. It’s not even good for them.”

Exasperated because Vasquez Rana had urged the United States to enter as many athletes as possible as a show of support for the Pan Am Games, USOC President LeRoy Walker was prepared to write him an angry letter, which might have escalated the issue.

Instead, the USOC’s director of international relations, former Vasquez Rana aide Alfredo Lamont, intervened. After their meeting, Vasquez Rana admitted that he had used the word “craziness” but said that he meant it as an expression of admiration, not criticism.

“The bigger the U.S. participation, the better for the Games,” he said.

USOC officials breathed a sigh of relief because a feud with Vasquez Rana, an IOC member who is president of the Association of National Olympic Committees as well as PASO, might have cost Salt Lake City votes.

A Salt Lake City victory would help the USOC avert a financial crisis. Because sponsors have been eager to contribute to the Olympic effort leading to the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, the USOC has a record $400-million budget for the four-year period ending next year. But USOC officials are concerned that they might have to cut by as much as $100 million for the next quadrennium unless Salt Lake City’s election keeps the sponsors interested.

Vasquez Rana might have been embarrassed in the aftermath of his comments about the U.S. team, but he could step boldly forward and accept credit for the success of the Pan Am Games. When others within PASO wanted to move the Games as recently as a year and a half ago because of the organizing committee’s financial problems, he stood behind the Argentines.

The result, Vasquez Rana said last week, was the best Pan Am Games ever, a statement that hardly anyone disputed.

There were organizational problems until the end, particularly in the area of transportation. Even when buses were available and on time, they sometimes broke down. When that happened to U.S. water polo players en route to a game, their Mexican opponents picked them up in their bus. Then, the United States beat them, 15-4. Perhaps that explained Vasquez Rana’s temporary rancor.

But the Games will be remembered fondly because of the enthusiasm of the Argentine fans. That was anticipated in soccer, but they were equally supportive of their teams in basketball, baseball, volleyball, field hockey and even roller skating.

Vasquez Rana complained that they were occasionally too rowdy, such as when their sentiments toward the judges in taekwondo caused them to walk out in protest, but most athletes thought the fans provided an electric atmosphere, making the Games seem more important than they are.

Envious of the songs that Argentine fans sing in support of their athletes, U.S. tennis players asked other Americans to come to their matches and sing something for them. When they got there, the only song they all knew was “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” So they sang it.

It hardly had the same impact, but it was a start on USOC delegation chief Sandra Baldwin’s plan to have a fight song for U.S. athletes in place before the Atlanta Olympics.