U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : Different Sport, Still a Magic Name

When you look at her, you see the resemblance. When you see her talk to teammates and opponents, you see the same tenacity, humor and class.

Jennifer Johnson will always be Rafer Johnson’s little girl.

Yes, that Rafer Johnson. The Rafer Johnson who won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1960 Summer Olympics. The Rafer Johnson who ran the Olympic torch with grace, dignity and pride into the Coliseum at the start of the 1984 Summer Olympics.

“The questions don’t bother me--I’m proud he’s my dad,” Johnson said. “I was 12 years old when he [carried the torch], it was very emotional. It was amazing.”

It would be a stretch to say the torch has been passed, but Jennifer Johnson is on the path to reaching the Olympics too.

A senior at UCLA, she is here at the U.S. Olympic Festival, in which she won a bronze medal with the East team in volleyball.

Vocal but not loud, she was selected an honorable mention All-American as an outside hitter for UCLA last season. In less than a week with her teammates here, she was voted a team captain.

“She plays with so much composure,” said Jolene Nagel, the coach at Georgetown and Johnson’s coach for the East team at the Festival. “She is the one who holds the thing together.”

After the participants are selected for the Festival, the coaches for the regions have a draft. Nagel drafted Johnson for the East as a “very, very high” pick.

“I knew she was a great athlete. But she’s so smooth,” Nagel said. “She’s not the biggest player out there [5 feet 10], so her game is a little different than someone who is 6-2 and can pound the ball straight down. She hits the ball very well for her size and moves better than most players.

“She’s one of the most athletic players here, but she’s also very, very skilled and can put the ball where she wants to. And she can put some heat on it when she wants to. She doesn’t powder-puff it over by any means. It just might not go straight down. But against bigger blockers, you can’t have it go straight down anyway, unless you’re open on the net.”

The dominating aspects of Johnson’s game are not so obvious to the casual volleyball fan: defense and passing.

“She is one of the best passers here, and that possibly includes all the males,” Nagel said.

And it’s passing and defense that she has to rely on to get to the Olympics.

Even if it is on the beach.

Johnson thinks beach volleyball, which makes its debut as a medal sport in 1996, might be the best way to get to the Olympics, although in the year 2000 or later. She knows that volleyball players tend to peak in their upper 20s.

“I think the beach game is better suited to an all-around player,” she said. “I think that I’m a better all-around player. I’m not glaring in one skill. I’m not a power hitter or power blocker or anything. I think the national [indoor] team is looking for big bangers and blockers and I’m not that kind of player. So for right now, I think my game is better suited for the beach.”

Rafer Johnson said: “I can see in her eyes how much she wants it. I took my turn and did the best I could do at the time. Now it’s her turn to shine.”

Festival Notes

Nicole Haislett, who won three gold medals in swimming at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, announced her retirement Tuesday. “I just don’t have the emotional drive to put myself through what it takes to be one of the best,” Haislett said. . . . Rafer Johnson wasn’t the only famous father in the stands at Boulder. Former Boston Celtic great John Havlicek is here to watch his son Chris, who scored twice to help the East win the bronze in team handball Tuesday. . . . Hillary Wolf, who played Macaulay Caulkin’s sister in the two “Home Alone” movies and had the lead role in “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” is competing in judo. Sean Sultan of the East volleyball team is the nephew of actor Tom Bosley (“Happy Days” and “Father Dowling Mysteries.”).