Peak Performance Is Goal of Athletes’ Summits

No one told Bonny Warner what the Olympics would be like. No one told her the pressure could be stimulating or stifling, and no one told her how athletes in other sports trained for their big moments--and how she could adapt their methods to suit her needs.

Worst of all, no one made an effort to make her feel part of the U.S. Olympic team, not just the luge contingent, before she competed at the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Games.

“The one thing that was always missing until you got to the Olympics was rubbing shoulders with the other athletes,” she said. “You can learn a lot from the other athletes about things like training and nutrition. Once you find out about it at the Games, it’s too late to make good use of it.”

To help prepare athletes for the 2002 Games--and boost the medal count on home turf--the U.S. Olympic Committee scheduled three athletes’ summits for potential Olympians. The final 2002 summit, which included 70 athletes from every sport that will be contested in Salt Lake City, ends today at Deer Valley, Utah.

The idea is based on a plan devised by Norwegian sports officials to increase their country’s medal haul when it hosted the 1994 Lillehammer Games. Athletes were assigned roommates from different sports, and they participated in team-building activities such as hiking and analyzing tapes of their top performances.

The U.S. event’s steering committee, which included multi-medal winning speedskater Bonnie Blair, 1980 hockey gold medalist Jack O’Callahan, 1998 gold-medal women’s hockey team captain Cammi Granato and 1992 figure skating silver medalist Paul Wylie, offered encouragement and inspiration.

“It’s kind of a cross-fertilization among sports,” said Mary Cleaver, associate director of the USOC’s athlete services division. “There are no formal lectures, just Olympic medalists sharing what it took for them to be successful.”

Wylie, a speaker at today’s closing breakfast, heartily endorses the idea.

“We can expect a good amount of camaraderie to develop,” he said. “I think it will translate into enhanced performance and, we’re really hoping, more medals. For me, winning a medal made such a difference in my life. Whatever I can do to help another athlete reach his or her potential, I want to do, and other athletes feel the same way.”

Warner, 39, is trying to make the U.S. bobsled team at Salt Lake City. A United Airlines pilot living in the Bay Area, and mother of a 3-year-old, Warner juggled her schedule and took unpaid leave to attend the summit.

“I definitely wish they had done this before,” she said. “Each summit, new athletes come in, and as they learn, you learn. And there are veterans like Bonnie Blair, who share their knowledge. You can’t hear that stuff enough.

“We’re in the middle of the summer, so it’s sort of a pep rally to get us going in the homestretch. You exchange ideas, and anything you hear might give you a competitive advantage. In my sport, where hundredths of a second make a difference, any little bit of an advantage definitely helps.”

Warner has a long-standing friendship with Blair and copied the way Blair used her family as a support system. Warner also met Blair’s sister, Susie, who lives in Park City, Utah, and organized a network of helpers who videotape Warner’s training runs and otherwise help Warner prepare for the Games. Warner hopes similar networks will be born at this summit.

“A lot of these kids are 18 or 20, and while Salt Lake gives them a home-field advantage, they’re also going to have sisters, cousins and aunts calling them the night before to get tickets,” Warner said. “The point of this is to help them manage that. My husband knows he won’t see me for a while before the competition and until it’s over. That’s tough when you have a 3-year-old, but that’s part of being successful. I’m not going to be pulled in 27 directions, and that’s something I’m able to share with other athletes.”

Said Wylie: “What we’ve really tried to do at these summits is build a team feeling before the Olympics, so athletes can walk into the village [at the Games] and see familiar faces. They’ve also learned training secrets and developed a rapport with other athletes. . . . With eight months to go, we want everyone to be focused on final preparation and a sense of urgency.”

Jumping for Joy

Mike Powell, the world-record holder in the long jump, ended his retirement in November when he realized he was more stuffed than his Thanksgiving turkey.

“I was 217 pounds after a hearty meal, and that was the moment I decided that I was fat,” he said. “I got on a treadmill and began to change my diet.”

Seven months and 40 lost pounds later, Powell is preparing for the U.S. track and field championships this week at Eugene, Ore. Although he’s glad no one has broken his record of 29 feet 4 1/2 inches, set at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo, he hopes the event will regain the glamour it had when he and Carl Lewis battled for supremacy.

“I’m sad to see the long jump hasn’t come along further,” he said during a conference call. “I think we have some marquee names. We’re definitely in a better direction, dealing with USA Track and Field [the sport’s governing body]. I feel like I can call there and I know people there, and know what direction they’re heading.”

Powell, who was studying for his master’s degree and coaching part time at Cal State Fullerton, is looking ahead to the 2004 Athens Games. First, though, he’s focusing on making the U.S. team for this year’s world championships in Edmonton, Canada. Another 29-foot jump is not his primary goal.

“I wouldn’t say it’s impossible,” he said. “I’m very confident in what I can do right now. But I can hardly think about 29 feet. I’m starting to think a great jump is 28, but I definitely feel a 27-6 is within range.”

Volley for Serve

The restructured beach volleyball circuit is merely a quarter of the way into its first season, but Leonard Armato is happy with the early results.

“This year, we have to draw a blueprint for success and start to lay a strong foundation for the future,” said Armato, who bought the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals and combined it with Beach Volleyball America under the AVP name.

“It’s hard to implement such a tremendous change overnight, but we’re quite excited. Beach volleyball was the hottest sport at the Sydney Olympics. To be able to consolidate and unify the tour is tremendous, and we ensured our rules were uniform with international and domestic rules to eliminate the differences that had crippled the sport.”

This weekend’s men’s competition at Huntington Beach is the second of eight events. The prize money isn’t what it once was, and Armato--a player agent who represents Laker center Shaquille O’Neal--knows he must win back fans and sponsors who were disillusioned by the disarray of the old AVP.

“I tell players we’re nothing without the support of our fans and sponsors,” he said. “I imagine some people were disenchanted by things in the past, and we have a tremendous task ahead of us. But beach volleyball is a tremendous sport and combines athleticism, scenery and sex appeal. It’s a complete win-win situation if we’re all operating on the same page.”

Here and There

Five-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson, world-record holder in the 200 and 400, will run his last competitive race in the 1,600-meter relay at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia.

He won’t compete in the world championships or the U.S. championships because USA Track and Field’s executive board decided not to waive its rule requiring athletes to participate in the U.S. event to qualify for the world meet.

Johnson said he didn’t ask for a waiver, but said one should have been granted to defending world champions, such as Maurice Greene and Marion Jones.

“I think it’s ridiculous that USA Track and Field is asking these athletes to come out and run the U.S. championships, to even run one round in the U.S. championships, in order to be part of the world championships, when those athletes have already run and worked hard and secured a bye into the world championships,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair to those athletes. . . .

“I think there’s better ways to get athletes to the U.S. championships, and that’s making an event that is prestigious, making an event that has . . . significant prize money, and making it worth the while for athletes to go there. Making an event that’s hard for athletes to miss.”

Elite cycling events in Italy were suspended, at the recommendation of Italy’s Olympic committee, in the wake of a drug scandal during the Giro d’Italia event. Police have questioned about 90 people. Raids at hotels where riders were staying uncovered drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Janica Kostelic of Croatia, last season’s slalom and overall World Cup ski champion, had surgery on ligaments in her left knee Friday in Switzerland and is expected to miss two months of training. . . . A fifth World Cup ski race, in Aspen, Colo., was added to next season’s schedule. An extra men’s slalom race was tacked onto a program that already included women’s and men’s giant slaloms and men’s and women’s slaloms. The races will take place Nov. 22-26.

Only 236 days until the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.