U.S. Team Shouldn’t Be Down, or Under

A year from today, assuming the International Olympic Committee doesn’t implode before then, the 2000 Summer Olympics will open in Sydney, Australia.

Scores of American athletes will look around but they won’t see Coke City, giant inflatable Bart Simpsons tethered to the parking lots or street vendors hawking “USA #1” T-shirts. The realization will suddenly hit them in the face.

We’re not in Atlanta anymore.

For those American athletes, this will qualify as the best of news and the worst of news. Aesthetically and organizationally, the Atlanta Games were a mess, but say this much for Atlanta: It’s in the United States.

That meant the home-field advantage for American Olympians in the 1996 Games, which might have been one of the reasons for a U.S. windfall of 101 medals won--44 of them gold.

Equaling those totals next year in Sydney won’t be easy, not with Australia’s aquatics teams already girding to defend the coastline with a fury. But, with the notable exception of women’s gymnastics, U.S. medal prospects one year out look as promising as they were in Atlanta.

As evidenced by last month’s World Championships in Seville, Spain, the United States still has the best track and field team in the world. Not the most popular at home, perhaps, but the results are irrefutable: 17 medals overall and 11 golds, more than any other nation. Russia was runner-up with 13 medals and six golds.

Maurice Greene, the world-record holder at 100 meters, won gold medals in the 100- and 200-meter sprints. Michael Johnson broke the 400-meter world record with a time of 43.18 seconds. Marion Jones won the gold in the women’s 100 meters and the bronze in the women’s long jump before hurting her back during the 200-meter competition, eventually won by fellow American Inger Miller.

Other American world champions included Gail Devers, who set an American record with her winning time of 12.37 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles; C.J. Hunter, who unseated U.S. rival John Godina for the men’s shotput title; Anthony Washington in the men’s discus and Stacy Dragila in the women’s pole vault.

Chris Huffins was third in the decathlon, but the United States has the reigning Olympic champion in the event--Dan O’Brien, who sat out the World Championships but expects to be fit for the Sydney Games.

Injuries have curtailed the 1999 seasons of Atlanta swimming stars Amy Van Dyken and Tom Dolan, but even without them, the United States won more medals than host Australia at last month’s Pan Pacific competition, 35 to 32. (The countries tied for most gold medals, 13 apiece).

Lenny Krayzelburg and Jenny Thompson turned the Pan Pacifics into the Lenny & Jenny Show, breaking three world records at the meet--Krayzelburg in the men’s 100- and 200-meter backstroke, Thompson in the women’s 100-meter butterfly. U.S. swimmers rank first in the world in nine individual events: Krayzelburg in the men’s 100- and 200-meter backstroke, Thompson in the women’s 100-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly, Brooke Bennett in the women’s 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle, Ed Moses in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, Tom Malchow in the men’s 200-meter butterfly, and Tom Wilkens in the men’s 200-meter individual medley.

Women’s gymnastics was the feel-good story of the Atlanta Games, but you won’t have Kerri Strug to stick and hop around anymore. The so-called “Magnificent Seven,” winners of the women’s team gold medal, have been reduced to the surgically repaired duo--Dominique Moceanu and Amy Chow, the last two ’96 veterans with designs on competing in 2000.

While Moceanu and Chow were rehabilitating injuries on the sidelines, the spotlight shifted to 17-year-old Vanessa Atler of Canyon Country, for better and worse. Atler is a dynamic vaulter--her degree of difficulty is among the highest in the world--and strong on the floor exercise, but a mental block about the uneven bars has denied her all-around success. Another slip on the bars cost Atler the all-around title at last month’s national championships, the title going instead to the steady but unspectacular Kristen Maloney.

Boxing was a bust for the United States in Atlanta, with only one American--light-middleweight David Reid--winning a gold medal. Prospects worsened a year later, with Team USA winning no medals of any kind at the 1997 World Championships.

But at the 1999 World Championships, held last month in Houston, American boxers won four gold medals and claimed the team title for the first time. Light-flyweight Brian Viloria, featherweight Ricardo Juarez, light-heavyweight Michael Simms Jr. and heavyweight Michael Bennett won world titles, with Viloria gaining a formidable reputation as a power puncher. At last week’s U.S. Olympic Cup competition in San Diego, Viloria broke an opponent’s ribs with a body blow.

Basketball? Same old same old: The United States will send an NBA Dream Team and a WNBA Dream Team to Sydney and that’s all that needs to be said about the basketball “competition.”

Baseball? The United States will be able to use professionals--probably triple-A minor leaguers--for the first time in Olympic competition, which should help close the gap with Cuba. At last month’s Pan American Games, using lesser minor league prospects, the United States split two games with Cuba and took the silver medal.

Softball? The reigning Olympic champions are ranked No. 1 in the world, with a 4-0 record in 1999 against No. 2 Australia. Eight members of the 1996 U.S. squad will be back for 2000, among them infielder Dot Richardson and pitchers Lisa Fernandez and Michele Smith.

Soccer? Assuming Michelle Akers delays retirement another 12 months, the 1999 Women’s World Cup champions will be back intact in Sydney, looking to defend the Olympic gold medal they won in 1996.

Volleyball and water polo, two longtime American staples that washed out in Atlanta, are hopeful of rebounds in Sydney. The U.S. men’s volleyball team, ninth in Atlanta, defeated Cuba last weekend to win the NORCECA (North America, Central America, Caribbean) zonal championship for the first time since 1985. In the last month, the United States has defeated three of the four top-ranked teams in the world--No. 1 Italy, No. 2 Cuba and No 4 Yugoslavia.

Later this month, the U.S. men’s water polo team will defend the FINA World Cup championship it won, in an upset, in 1997. A quarterfinalist in the Atlanta Games, the U.S. men qualified for Sydney by winning the gold medal at last month’s Pan Am Games.