Now, Panic Gets O’Brien Up and Over

Perhaps some day Dan O’Brien will want to forget the 1992 U.S. Olympic track and field trials. But not now.

In a mini-decathlon last week at Azusa Pacific, a sports psychologist followed the three-time world decathlon champion around merely to remind him of that disastrous summer day in New Orleans when his failure to clear a height in the pole vault cost him a place on the U.S. team in Barcelona and probably a gold medal.

“He was trying to create some anxiety, and he definitely did,” O’Brien said of James Reardon, who works with athletes for USA Track & Field and the Visa decathlon program.

O’Brien was criticized in 1992 for not joining the pole vault competition, the eighth of 10 events, until the bar was raised to 15 feet 9 inches. Enjoying a comfortable lead after finishing the first day on a world-record pace, he would have made the team even by clearing the ridiculously low height of 9-1 3/4. With no points for the pole vault, he finished 11th.

But O’Brien has argued since that the height he chose was no problem for him. The problem was his reaction after missing on the first of three tries allowed. He panicked.

Reardon’s job is to induce panic so that O’Brien will know how to cope. “If I don’t deal with it, odds are pretty good I would panic in that situation again,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien coped well Friday.

“By the time I got to the pole vault, I was pretty shaky,” he said. “But on the first jump, I boomed it.” He cleared 16-10.

FACTOID

The torch relay for the 1996 Summer Olympics, which begins its 15,000-mile, 42-state journey across the United States on Saturday at the Coliseum, will come within a two-hour drive of 90% of the country’s population.

NEWSMAKER

After a car accident seriously injured his wife last December, Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus considered quitting gymnastics so he could remain at her side during her rehabilitation.

But his wife, Irina, persuaded him that she would recover faster when their lives returned to normal, which meant he had to return to the gym where he trains in State College, Pa.

On Friday, Scherbo, 24, became history’s most decorated gymnast by winning his third consecutive world championship in the floor exercise. That gave him his 26th Olympic or world championship medal and 18th gold. Before the weekend ended at the world championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he added a silver on the parallel bars and a bronze on the high bar.

Scherbo, whose all-around gold medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona was among six he won there, said he will quit after the Atlanta Olympics to spend more time with his wife, who is healthy again, and son.

“I want to retire while I’m still kicking butt, not when my butt is being kicked,” he said.

LAUREL WREATH

O’Brien and Jackie Joyner-Kersee took time out from training to instruct schoolchildren Saturday in Inglewood in Nike’s P.L.A.Y. (Participate in the Lives of America’s Youth) Day. “Success comes in a can,” O’Brien told the children. “Failure comes in a can’t.”

THORN WREATH

The international gymnastic federation’s judgment in scheduling the world championships for individual events for last week was questionable to say the least. Many top gymnasts, particularly among the women, did not participate, fearing injury this close to the Olympics.

THIS WEEK

The U.S. Olympic weightlifting trials are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in St. Joseph, Mo.

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Olympic Scene Notes

Mary Slaney has qualified for the 5,000 meters in the June 14-23 U.S. Olympic trials. She is 37. Her first world ranking, fourth in the 800 meters, came in 1973 when she was 15. . . . The 9.69 seconds in the 100 meters run by Barbados’ Obadele Thompson in El Paso nine days ago was the fastest ever recorded. It does not count for record purposes because the wind gauge broke. Witnesses said the tail wind was in excess of 5.0 meters per second, well over the legal limit of 2.0. The previous-fastest time under all conditions was Carl Lewis’ 9.78 in the 1988 Olympic trials. He was aided by a 5.2 meters-per-second gust.

On the announced intention of her sister-in-law, Florence Griffith-Joyner, to try to make the U.S. Olympic team in the 400 meters, Jackie Joyner-Kersee said she will never ask about it again. “When I mention it, Florence says, ‘What are you, a reporter?’ ” . . . The purchase of the Dallas Mavericks by Ross Perot Jr. is not his first foray into sports. He sponsors sprinter Henry Neal. . . . Gea Johnson qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials heptathlon last week at Mt. SAC, but congratulations were not in order from the International Amateur Athletic Federation. She was banned for four years after testing positive for a banned substance in a random test by the IAAF in 1994, but a judge granted her a 10-day preliminary injunction last Monday that allowed her a chance to qualify for the trials. IAAF officials said they were “disappointed and dismayed” and threatened to suspend anyone who competed against her.

On his fifth-place finish Saturday in the horizontal bar at the gymnastics world championships, UCLA alumnus Chainey Umphrey said: “I wanted to win a world championship, but I also wanted to make sure everything was in order for the U.S. trials. So I took that approach. I feel like I’m in the hunt. I’m in good position for the Olympics.” . . . Attempting to regain her status as one of the gymnasts to watch in Atlanta, Dominique Dawes of Silver Spring, Md., entered three events at the world championships. She failed to qualify for the semifinals in the floor exercise and the final in the uneven bars, but won a bronze medal on the beam. . . . Tom Dolan, the best U.S. hope for a swimming gold medal in Atlanta, will skip his senior year at Michigan because he wants to capitalize on promotional tie-ins with the Olympics.

Canada’s chances to duplicate its 400-meter relay victory from the 1995 world championships in the Olympics might have suffered Sunday at Mt. SAC when Bruny Surin injured his thigh when he fell on the curve in the 200. He was carried off the track. Surin finished second to teammate Donovan Bailey in the world championships 100 meters. . . . Three Southern California divers qualified for the Olympic trials last weekend--Kim Stanfield of Long Beach in women’s platform and Troy Dumais of Glendale and Brian Earley of Mission Viejo in men’s platform. Earley qualified earlier in springboard. . . . The U.S. men’s volleyball team won the Four Nations tournament in Germany on Sunday with a victory over Greece. . . . Christopher Reeve has been named master of ceremonies for the Aug. 15-25 Paralympic Games in Atlanta. . . . Guard Mitch Richmond will be making his second Olympic appearance. He played for the 1988 team that finished third in Seoul. His medal is in storage. “It doesn’t mean that much because I felt we should have won the gold,” he said. . . . The U.S. water polo team is training again in Long Beach after finishing fourth in a six-team tournament in France. Chris Humbert was the team’s leading scorer with 11 goals.