Olympic Scene / Atlanta 1996 : Cuban Team Stranded by U.S. Stance

It is too early to tell whether the tension between the United States and Fidel Castro will have any implications on Cuba’s participation in the Atlanta Games, but the sanctions imposed last week by the Clinton administration have already affected athletes in one sport.

The Cuban women’s volleyball team, which took a 3-1 lead Sunday in a five-game exhibition series against the U.S. women, is supposed to return home Wednesday on a charter flight out of Miami. But now that all charter flights between the United States and Cuba have been suspended, the team is stranded.

Tour organizers said they appealed to the U.S. State Department but were told that the Cubans would have to fend for themselves. They are attempting to arrange a charter to Havana via Mexico City, Cancun or Merida, Mexico.

So far, the Cuban baseball team’s five-game series against the United States scheduled for June 29-July 4 in the United States has not been canceled. The U.S. team is looking forward to the games as indicators of how it might fare against the defending Olympic champions.

Mike Fiore, the U.S. general manager, is optimistic. The United States, using many players who figure to be selected for the Olympic team, beat the Cubans four consecutive times in an exhibition series last summer at Millington, Tenn. In addition, two more Cuban pitchers have defected to the United States since then. Four have left within the last two years, all of them gaining major league contracts.

The best, right-hander Livan Hernandez, received a $2.5-million bonus from the Florida Marlins to sign a four-year contract.

Fiore said he believes the Cubans should still be favored in Atlanta, but they are not the lock they have been while winning 128 consecutive tournament games over the last several years.

FACTOID

Among official sponsors of the Atlanta Olympics are two television game shows--”Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy.”

NEWSMAKER

Bela Karolyi, a master strategist in the world of gymnastics, made another ingenious move last week when he kept favored Dominique Moceanu out of the prestigious American Cup but accompanied his other student, Kerri Strug, who won the meet. Moceanu, the national champion who is ranked fifth in the world, stayed in Houston because of a slight heel injury, but in a meet of this magnitude, a slight injury wouldn’t normally keep a gymnast home.

Had Moceanu competed, there’s little doubt she would have won, but she didn’t need the victory to retain her favored position heading into Atlanta. Strug, who has floundered since competing in the 1992 Olympics, needed the victory to boost her confidence and alert international rivals that she is back and strong--and she showed that.

Meanwhile, Moceanu was in Karolyi’s gym in Houston and appeared live periodically on NBC’s Saturday telecast of the event via remote hookup. So while Moceanu wasn’t forgotten, Strug got some long overdue attention with her first victory in international competition.

Karoyli, aware that media pressure eventually got to his former star, Kim Zmeskal, might have kept Moceanu away because of the media circus she creates. It’s also possible that changes in Moceanu’s routines have not been perfected, but Karolyi has been planning this meet for months. Two of his former students won this meet in an Olympic year, then went on to star in the Games--Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci.

Karolyi also kept top-ranked Diane Durham and Retton out of the World Championships before the 1984 Olympics.

Injuries, Karolyi said.

Strategy, the gymnastics world knew.

LAUREL WREATH

To gymnast John Roethlisberger, whose commitment to men’s gymnastics in this country has inspired a struggling program. Roethlisberger, from Minnesota, won his second consecutive American Cup on Saturday.

THORN WREATH

Less than a month before the Olympic trials begin April 3 in Oakland, USA Boxing is in turmoil. Associate director Doug Morrison resigned last week, 11 days after executive director Bruce Mathis was fired for alleged financial mismanagement and low office morale.

THIS WEEK

The U.S. Olympic swimming team will be selected in trials scheduled for Wednesday through March 12 in Indianapolis.

Olympic Scene Notes

Chad Carvin, one of the United States’ most versatile swimmers, was cleared to continue his career after a 2 1/2-month ordeal in which he thought he might have to have a heart transplant because a virus damaged his heart wall. Carvin, from Laguna Hills, was so frustrated over his inability to swim fast last fall, he tried to overdose on sleeping pills. While recuperating in the hospital, physicians discovered he was suffering from cardiomyopathy. Carvin, 21, a University of Arizona student, is skipping this week’s U.S. Olympics trials where he would have entered four events. “My priorities are different now,” he said. After a favorable treadmill test, Carvin swam 2,000 yards last Thursday. “I felt pretty out of shape,” he said. He will petition the NCAA as a medical hardship to gain an extra year of eligibility. Doctors said he can do as much as he wants without further risk. “Even if I go real crazy, nothing will happen except I’ll get real tired,” he said.

Cornel Marculescu, director of FINA, swimming’s international governing body, suffered a stroke while visiting Uruguay last weekend, forcing officials to cancel an inspection visit to the Olympic facilities at Georgia Tech and perhaps delaying action against Jessica Foschi, the Long Island teenager who tested positive for an anabolic steroid. . . . Yuan Jiawei, deputy-secretary general of the China Swimming Assn., criticized the decision to give Australian world-record holder Samantha Riley a warning instead of a two-year sanction for testing positive for a banned painkiller. He said Chinese swimmers were targeted by Riley and Australian swimming officials as drug users.

Leroy Burrell, the former world-record holder in track and field’s 100 meters who has been hampered by injuries the last two years, pulled a hamstring in his fourth-place finish in the 60 meters at the U.S. Indoor Championships Saturday in Atlanta. He should learn this week whether the injury will affect his chances of competing in the Olympics.

Times staff writers Elliott Almond, Kevin Baxter and Randy Harvey contributed to this story.