One Last Shot at OLD GLORY

So here we are again, on the opening day of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, and who should be the talk of the town, the track world really, but Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee?

There will be diversions later in the 10-day trials, especially as Michael Johnson approaches his goal of winning at 200 and 400 meters, but for now, the first weekend, the marquee outside the new 83,500-seat, $232-million Atlanta Centennial Olympic Stadium should be reserved for Lewis and Joyner-Kersee. How novel.

Lewis is trying to make his fifth Olympic team--the first did not compete in Moscow because of the 1980 boycott--Joyner-Kersee her fourth. If this were a sport that Las Vegas took seriously, odds would be in their favor.

Between them, they have won 14 medals since 1984.

Nine of those belong to Lewis. With two more golds, he would pass Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina and U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz as the all-time Olympic champion with 10. Not bad company.

With two more golds, Joyner-Kersee, who has three, would equal speedskater Bonnie Blair among U.S. women Olympians. Already, she has been compared to Babe Didriksen as history’s best female athlete. Not bad company.

Lewis, who turns 35 on July 1, has sometimes sought other challenges, designing athletic wear and managing the retail store that sells it, as well as singing and recording pop music.

But he is, literally and figuratively, back on track. He is leaner than in recent years but not meaner, finally seeming to enjoy the demands made upon his time by reporters and sponsors as he tries to duplicate his accomplishments of 1984 and ’88 by making the Olympic team in the 100, 200 and long jump.

Joyner-Kersee, who turned 34 on March 3, never left the track. It was impossible for her to become bored, considering the number of disciplines she has to master. Besides dominating the seven-event heptathlon, she has been world-class in the long jump and 100-meter high hurdles.

For the first time in more than a decade, Joyner-Kersee could find herself the challenger in the heptathlon instead of the favorite when she meets Syrian world champion Ghada Shouaa in the July 19-Aug. 4 Summer Olympics. But it should be apparent as early as today, when the two-day heptathlon begins, that no one in the United States, with the possible exception of multi-event athlete Kym Carter, is ready to contend with Joyner-Kersee in either the heptathlon or the long jump.

Lewis’ return trip to Atlanta for the Olympics is not guaranteed. He is the favorite in neither the 100, which starts with two rounds today, nor the 200, and has several peers in the long jump, including world-record holder Mike Powell. But recent performances, among them a wind-aided 9.94 seconds on the fast Mondo track in the Atlanta Grand Prix last month, indicate that he is a serious contender in all three events.

“Carl seems to be more focused and might find added energy in an Olympic year,” said Canadian world champion Donovan Bailey after finishing third behind Dennis Mitchell and Lewis here last month. “This is an Olympics in America, his last hurrah. You knew he’d be back.”

Lewis and Joyner-Kersee are not the only ones. There is still room at the elite level of the sport for young athletes, as evidenced by the presence of L.A.-area high school stars Michael Granville, Obea Moore and Angela Williams. But having largely completed the transition from amateur to professional, track and field is increasingly becoming a sport for the 30-somethings. Or at least the late 20-somethings.

Eighteen athletes are entered here who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, including several such as Lewis, Joyner-Kersee, Ruth Wysocki, Mike Conley and Sandra Farmer-Patrick who figure to make the team.

Some long for the days when the United States was represented primarily by fresh-faced youngsters. Asked how he would celebrate when he won the decathlon gold medal at 17 in 1948, Bob Mathias said, “I’ll start shaving.” But if Michael Jordan can still soar above the rest of the NBA in his mid-30s, then why shouldn’t Lewis and Joyner-Kersee have the same opportunity in their sport?

As recently as last summer, though, the only thing Lewis and Joyner-Kersee were soaring above was the Atlantic Ocean as they flew home in distress from the World Championships in Goteborg, Sweden.

Lewis, who failed to qualify for the U.S. team in the 100, went to Sweden with every intention of reclaiming the long-jump title that he had not won since 1987, but discovered upon arriving that he did not have the strength because of a lingering hamstring injury and withdrew. Joyner-Kersee, who also had struggled during the year with injuries, entered the long jump, finished a disappointing sixth and pulled out of the heptathlon.

For Joyner-Kersee, it could be dismissed as a rare off year. For Lewis, it was his fourth consecutive off year. Although he won gold medals in the long jump and the 400-meter relay in 1992 in Barcelona, he had not been truly satisfied with his performance since he set the world record in the 100 meters in 1991.

Lewis, however, warned the press not to write him off.

“I know that’s what you’ve been doing,” he said earlier this year. “My parents were teachers. They taught me how to read.”

He prepared to back up his words by lifting weights for the first time in his career, reducing his body fat from 6% to 3%. As soon as the outdoor season began, it was apparent that he is stronger than ever. And almost as fast.

“The times I’ve been running, they haven’t put me on the team,” he said. “They haven’t made me a medal favorite. But what they’ve done is restore my greatest asset, and that is my confidence. My confidence is back supreme again. I feel I can beat anybody in any race.”

Because she had so little experience with it, it was more difficult for Joyner-Kersee than Lewis to deal with disappointment. She said that she had to go through a period of “huffin’, puffin’, pouting and crying.” But when she did, she rededicated herself to being the world’s best.

“It helps to get thrown off the path to get yourself back on the right path,” she said.

Her coach-husband, Bob Kersee, learned the same lesson. Notorious as a no-nonsense, no-sympathy taskmaster, he softened last year. He even shaved off his beard.

This year, the beard is back.

“I let my athletes get away from me,” he said. “I didn’t have enough control. I was thinking, ‘If I cuss out this person, it’s going to reflect badly on Jackie.’ But I know now that I have to be me. I can’t live up to her image.”

Kersee said that he believes his wife has “one more great heptathlon and one more great long jump in her.”

Is that enough? Lewis and Joyner-Kersee have already indicated that this is their last year in track and field. Lewis said this week that he has not reconsidered. Joyner-Kersee, however, admitted that she cannot quit thinking about next summer’s World Championships in Greece.

“If I can win there,” she said, “maybe I can forget about Sweden.”

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* HURDLER WITHDRAWS

Danny Harris bows out of Olympic Trials after testing positive for cocaine. C4