Those Griping Now Will Be Gripped in July

Only 200 griping days remain until the Summer Olympics.

Some Atlantans seem intent upon making every one of them count. Because of venue construction, there already is too much traffic. Tickets to the best events are not available, and, even if they were, they are too expensive. Apartment leases have been terminated to make room for big-spending visitors. It is impossible to pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio and television without being bombarded by Olympic hype. Izzy, the mascot, is more weird than Richard Simmons.

All of this and anticipation of worse to come has caused 18% of Atlantans, according to a Georgia State University poll, to make plans to get out of town during the July 19-Aug. 4 Games.

Our advice to them: Don’t go.

If the Atlanta experience is like the one in Los Angeles in 1984, there might never be a better time to be in the city. Angelenos had the same concerns, and many fled, but it is impossible to remember a summer since in Los Angeles when there was so little traffic, so little crime, so little pollution and so much peace.

As Billy Payne, president of Atlanta’s organizing committee, recently said: “There are enough irksome and troublesome things in life; aren’t things just as bad at the Olympics? Aren’t you crushed in the crowd? Isn’t it difficult to freshen yourself up? Doesn’t the rain soak you to the skin? Aren’t you bothered by the noise, the din and other nuisances?

“But it seems to me that you are well able to bear and indeed gladly endure all this, when you think of the gripping spectacles you will see.”

He was quoting Epictetus, who spoke in the first century of the ancient Olympics.

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FACTOID: The torch relay that begins on April 27 in Los Angeles will cover 15,000 miles and 42 states in 84 days before arriving in Atlanta on the day of the opening ceremony.

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NEWSMAKER: The wish of most track and field athletes this year is for a medal in Atlanta, but Mirsada Buric Adam has already been granted hers. NATO troops are in her native Bosnia, helping to prevent what she labels the massacre of her fellow Muslims by Serbs.

Adam, 25, became a symbol of perserverance by the Muslims when she was photographed by a wire-service photographer in the summer of 1992 running through the streets of Sarajevo even as it was being shelled. Adam, who was training for the Barcelona Olympics, explained that she had to make up for lost time because she had spent 13 days earlier that year in a Serb concentration camp. Her brother later died in a camp.

While she was in Barcelona, Eric Adam saw the story of her travails on television, struck up a relationship with her through letters and telephone calls and eventually brought her to his home in Prescott, Ariz. They were married in December, 1993.

Mirsada ran for Adams State last season, winning four Division II indoor and outdoor titles in the 1,500 and 5,000. But her agent, Don Franken, said last week that she is not running this indoor season and might retire. The weight of the world, he said, has finally worn her down.

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LAUREL WREATH: To the medical commission of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs track and field, for openly criticizing IAAF officials who have insisted that the men’s marathon at Atlanta begin in the heat and humidity of late afternoon.

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THORN WREATH: To the Russian media for not reporting the Dec. 18 death of platform diver Elena Mirochina, a silver medalist in the 1992 Summer Olympics, in a suspicious fall even after it was confirmed last week by Moscow police. What happened to glasnost?

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THIS WEEK: The women’s basketball team that will represent the United States in the Olympics resumes play Wednesday at Auburn after a break for the holidays. Don’t bet on Auburn.

The U.S. women won their first 16 games on a 20-game tour against NCAA teams by an average of 46.3 points. Opponents included all four of last year’s championship finalists and 12 teams ranked in the top 25 this year. Lisa Leslie, formerly of USC, leads the team in scoring (17.1) and is second in rebounding (6.3).

Olympic Scene Notes

FINA, swimming’s world governing body, set a Sunday deadline for countries to provide lists of potential Olympic swimmers so that it can target them for out-of-competition drug testing this year. FINA officials asked for names, addresses, telephone numbers and training schedules. The United States plans to provide names of national team members who compete on the A and B squads. The Washington Post reported that if a nation tries to send an athlete to the Olympics who is not on the list he or she will be disqualified. . . . Swimming World magazine named Russia’s Denis Pankratov and Hungary’s Kristina Egerszegi as its athletes of the year.

After winning, 10-8, on Saturday, the U.S. water polo team again meets defending Olympic and world champion Italy on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Corona del Mar High before traveling to Australia for a one-week tour. U.S. Coach Rich Corso said the young team has benefited from the return of Mike Evans at the two-meter position. Evans, a two-time Olympian, brings experience to a U.S. team trying to regain its status as one of the world’s best.

The world record-holder in the shotput, Randy Barnes, has agreed to compete in the Feb. 24 L.A. Invitational in the Sports Arena against world champion John Godina. Another possibility to compete there in the women’s mile is Mary Slaney, who is making another comeback. Her coach is three-time New York Marathon champion Alberto Salazar.

Times staff writer Elliott Almond contributed to this story.