WORLD SPORTS SCENE : Suddenly, Everything’s Going Swimmingly Again for Sanders

It’s Summer’s time again.

Summer Sanders, the American swim star of the 1992 Olympics, left Los Angeles on Sunday to join the U.S. national resident team that trains in Colorado Springs, Colo., headquarters of USA Swimming.

Two weeks ago, Sanders, 22, had no idea she would leave Brentwood for the arduous road toward Atlanta in ’96. The winner of four medals in Barcelona retired 16 months ago with no inclination of returning to the drudgery of swimming thousands of yards a day.

“Sometimes my brain isn’t connected to me all the way,” she said before leaving. “It does its own thing for a while, then it fills me in a little later. I guess it just decided on its own, ‘Summer, you’re going to it.’ ”

The decision to return came quickly. About 11 days ago, Sanders returned from her daily five-mile run on the Westside and walked into a bagel shop. Some customers marveled at her ability to run.

“If we were 22, we’d be able to do that,” they told her.

That did it. Sanders realized she was young enough to return to international competition.

“I could just never have a feeling like I have now and ignore it,” she said.

That is great for U.S. swimming, always in need of a world-class butterfly specialist. Sanders, a six-time NCAA champion at Stanford, will compete in the 200- and 100-meter butterfly and 200-individual medley. Her comeback meet is expected to be in May.

“It’s exciting to have a talent like Summer back in swimming,” said Richard Quick, U.S. national coach and Sanders’ coach at Stanford.

Still, Sanders is prepared for months of frustration.

“I’m going to go so slow, so I’m preparing you guys now,” she said. “It’s going to take a while to get that racing feeling back. I’m willing to be humbled. I think I’ll be able to laugh at it in the beginning because there are going to be tough times.”

Quick agreed, but added, “Talent never leaves people.”

Besides, Sanders stayed in great shape the last year and half while doing motivational speeches, working with sponsors and commentating for CBS Sports and MTV. She trained daily, either running, biking or working out on a Stairmaster machine.

Sanders left swimming because she dreaded the workouts after 1992. Now she is armed with a new attitude; although she has been in the pool for only a week, she is savoring the moments.

“I just needed time away from the sport--time to realize how much it meant to me and time (to see) if this was something that I really wanted to do again,” she said.

It turns out it is.

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From “WCA in Goteborg,” a monthly newspaper publicizing this summer’s track and field World Championships in Sweden:

“What does a national idol do when public appearances become so many and people gather at training sessions in such numbers that it nearly becomes impossible to concentrate? If you are Marie-Jose Perec, you escape to Los Angeles, where nobody cares about the world’s best female 400-meter runner.”

Well, there are some here who care, such as John Smith, who is coaching France’s Perec, the Olympic and world champion at 400 meters, for a second year in Westwood; and Dan Shrum, the Mt. SAC Relays promoter who is hoping that she will begin her much-anticipated experiment with the 400-meter hurdles in Saturday’s meet at Walnut.

She last ran the event in competition six years ago, winning the French national championships in 55.76 seconds, but she believes that with more experience she can challenge Great Britain’s Sally Gunnell, whose world record is 52.74.

World Scene Notes

Mt. SAC entries are tentative, but the meet could feature individual Olympic gold medalists in the men’s 100 (Mike Marsh), 200 (Joe DeLoach), 400 (Steve Lewis, Kevin Young), 800 (Joaquim Cruz), 5,000 (Said Aouita) and long jump (Carl Lewis) and in the women’s 200 (Jackie Joyner-Kersee), 100-meter hurdles (Gail Devers) and 400 hurdles (Marie-Jose Perec). . . . In a gesture of goodwill toward the Greeks, who are still bitter about Atlanta’s victory over Athens in bidding for the 1996 Summer Olympics, Billy Payne, president of Atlanta’s organizing committee, went to Greece on Thursday to display the new torch.

The International Olympic Committee’s lucrative international sponsorship program, shared by the organizing committee, the IOC and national Olympic Committees, will contribute in the future to summer sports federations, a victory for Assn. of Summer Olympic International Federations President Primo Nebiolo of Italy. Nebiolo, however, lost his bid to have Olympic athletes in his sport wear sponsors’ names on their bibs. . . . The president of the international basketball federation, George Killian of the United States, has been elected to ASOIF’s seven-member council. . . . The IOC has granted provisional recognition to a 197th nation, Africa’s Guinea-Bissau.

Times staff writer Randy Harvey contributed to this column.