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Parrish: Biathletes face call-up

Rockymountain Times 9/21/2001

Right now, they're hiking the hills and valleys around Soldier Hollow, the venue for biathlon at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.
Next week or next month or next year, they could be climbing and searching through the mountains of Afghanistan, hunting for reputed terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Four of the eight members of the U.S. biathlon national team are in the Army, participants in the Army's World Class Athlete program. Some of them are also members of the Army's elite mountain division. A fifth team member, Jill Krause, belongs to the National Guard. As biathletes, all are pretty good shots.

But, in a turn of events as surreal as anything that has happened, they could go from shooting at targets to shooting . . . at terrorists.

"They haven't been talking about it that I've noticed," U.S. biathlon coach Algis Shalna said. "I guess when they signed up, they were mature enough to understand that any time, for whatever reason, they can be called up."

Shalna, a former Soviet national coach from Lithuania, came to the United States in 1991 to become the U.S. biathlon coach. In biathlon, athletes ski a cross-country circuit as fast as possible, stopping to shoot at targets. Summer training includes roller skiing on grass.

If they are not recalled for duty, the United States could have as many as nine biathletes competing in Salt Lake, including U.S. Army specialist Jeremy Teela, who had a surprising ninth-place finish in the sprint at the 2001 World Championships. The United States has not won an Olympic medal in biathlon.

More than 70 athletes or coaches who are training for the Salt Lake Olympics belong to the Army's World Class Athlete Program.

Afghanistan and the Olympics

Of the 199 countries that are members of the International Olympic Committee, Afghanistan is the only country under suspension, unable to send its athletes to the Games. The country was suspended almost three years ago for several reasons:

Non-payment of dues.

No control over its sports.

Women are banned from athletic competition, an edict in direct conflict with the IOC charter.

The Taliban rulers tried to send some wrestlers and boxers to the 2000 Sydney Olympics but were rejected.

After 20 years of civil war, Afghanistan's only remaining major sports stadium, in Kandahar, is used for Friday prayers -- and as a public execution ground, where women accused of adultery are stoned.

We applauded . . . Afghanistan?

He was the last competitor in the last event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the men's marathon. And it was one of the most moving moments of those Games, according to Olympic historian David Wallechinsky.

Abdul Baser Wasigi was 21. From Kabul, Afghanistan, he had been training in the United States for several weeks but sustained a leg injury just before the Games. Nevertheless, he decided to run.

He instantly fell behind, trailing everyone by three-quarters of a mile only 2 miles into the race. But spectators along the course fell in love with him -- an underdog if ever there was one.

When the winner crossed the finish line, Wasigi was only halfway through the 26.4-mile course. A side note: Since the 1992 Barcelona Games, the IOC has placed a time limit on marathoners finishing the race on the track in the main stadium. After 2 1/2 hours, runners are routed to a finish line on a nearby warm-up track, mainly to give organizers time to prepare for the Closing Ceremony.

But for Wasigi, Atlanta volunteers reopened the stadium and put up a homemade finish-line tape inscribed "1996 Atlanta." Hundreds of volunteers lined the track to cheer him.

He crossed the finish line with the slowest time in Olympic history -- 4 hours, 24 minutes and 17 seconds, breaking the previous slowest time of 4:24.04 set in 1908 by a Canadian.

Afghanistan has not won an Olympic medal. Its highest finish? Fifth place, by a wrestler in 1964.

Women wrestlers in Athens?

This week, the IOC decided to add women's freestyle wrestling to the Olympics -- but they're taking a page from Title IV struggles in the United States to do so.

Men's collegiate wrestling programs have been cut or eliminated in recent years as colleges try to come into compliance with Title IV, the federal law mandating equal opportunity for women in sports.

To add women's wrestling to the Olympics, men's wrestling and boxing will be asked to cut some weight classes so the number of events (300) and athletes (10,500) participating in the Olympics doesn't grow.

To add four women's weight classes -- down from the six regular weight classes -- men will be asked to cut from eight to six.

This sounds all too familiar to the wrestling community. Women's wrestling was supposed to be on the program at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Back in the mid-1990s, the IOC asked men's freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling to cut from 10 to eight weight classes and for women's wrestling to cut from nine to six. Wrestling complied, but the IOC failed to act.

This latest proposal by the IOC still must be ratified by national federations before it's added to the 2004 Athens Olympics. Many are expected to protest the method, though not the intent, of the plan.

A better answer, according to U.S. women's national team coach Mike Duroe, would be to cut the number of qualifiers accepted for the Olympic tournament -- cutting the number of male athletes, thus allowing more women wrestlers while not increasing the overall number of wrestlers competing.

Women have had their own world wrestling championships since 1989, and many countries have elite training programs.

"I think it's wonderful," said U.S. wrestler Stephanie Murata of Lansing, Mich. She and other American wrestlers have been training in Colorado Springs for the 2001 World Wrestling Championships, originally scheduled for New York City next week but now postponed until at least late October.

"We were expecting to go to the Olympics in Atlanta, but it's better late than never," Murata said.

2012 -- New York AND Washington?

New York and Washington, D.C., are among the eight American cities vying to become the U.S. bid city for the 2012 Olympics.

Before the terrorist attacks, some believed there was little hope for any American city to play host to those Olympics, in part because the United States has been host site to so many Games recently -- four in the past 22 years.

However, sympathy might now move Olympic officials in the opposite direction.

Rome also is vying to bid for the 2012 Games. But its mayor, Walter Veltroni, suggested to the IOC this week that New York City should be given the Games, if it is selected as the U.S. bid city.

Washington also is trying to become the U.S. bid city, along with Cincinnati, San Francisco, Houston, Tampa, Dallas and Los Angeles. The U.S. Olympic Committee will pick one in late 2002. Some have suggested this week that Washington and New York "share" the 2012 Games -- a thoughtful proposal but a logistical nightmare, not to mention increased security risk.

They did what?

Some chuckles from the Olympic world:

No joke: The IOC this week gave formal recognition to the international tug-of-war federation. Body building, however, was rejected. Tug-of-war was contested at six Olympics between 1900 and 1920. This new recognition doesn't reinstate tug-of-war as an Olympic sport. It simply becomes one of two dozen sports -- including ballroom dancing and water skiing -- hoping one day to get into the Olympics.

Jamaican bobsled teams won the two-man and women's events earlier this month at the World Bobsled Push Championships. Americans Joe McDonald and Garret Hines were second.

A Utah farmer who plowed his cornfield in the shape of the five Olympic rings has been told by Olympic officials to plow the field under or cut the corn so the image of the rings is gone. The farmer did not have permission to "use" the rings, which are an official Olympic trademark.

Dropped Olympic events

Several sports have been dropped from the Olympics since the first modern Games were contested in 1896 at Athens. Among them:

Sport Year Site Gold medalist
Cricket 1900 Paris Great Britain
Croquet 1900 Paris France
Golf 1900 Paris (M) Charles Sands, U.S.
(W) Margaret Abbott, U.S.
1904 St. Louis (M) George Lyon, Canada
(Team) U.S.
Lacrosse 1904 Paris Canada
1908 London Canada
Motor boating 1908 London Great Britain
Speedskating 1924 Chamonix A. Clas Thunberg, Finland

Numbers . . .

329 -- Colorado runners entered in the New York City Marathon.

0 -- Colorado runners who have withdrawn from the race since the terrorist attacks.

10,508 and 299 -- Athletes and events at the 2004 Olympics, according to a plan approved this week by the IOC. For the first time in 50 years, the number of athletes and events in the Summer Olympics will not increase.

10,655 and 300 -- Athletes and events at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Notes . . .

IOC president Jacques Rogge on Thursday was granted emergency powers to make urgent decisions on the Salt Lake Winter Olympics, including the ability to cancel the Games. Though the Games are scheduled to go on, Rogge might need to act if a state of war exists in February. The Games previously have been canceled during the two World Wars. Rogge said he would consult with IOC members before making such a decision.

Rogge suggested, for the first time, that Dick Pound might not return as the IOC's marketing chief and television rights negotiator. Pound resigned from those jobs in July after losing to Rogge in the IOC's presidential election.

The U.S. bobsled, biathlon and speedskating teams are joining together to raise $250,000 to aid those directly affected by the terrorist attacks.

This season, U.S. bobsleds will sport decals inscribed, "Honoring those Americans who perished in the unprovoked attacks on the U.S., September 11, 2001. Gone, but not forgotten."

Athletes and coaches at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs conducted a candlelight vigil in remembrance and support of the Americans killed or injured in the terrorist attacks.

Doctors have told two-time Olympic champion Hermann Maier to wait until late December before putting on ski boots again, dimming hopes he might be able to compete at the Salt Lake Olympics. Maier broke his right leg in a motorcyle accident a month ago.

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Addition comes from subtraction

By Meri-Jo Borzilleri/The Gazette 9/21/2001

Men and women wrestlers trained side-by-side at the Olympic Training Center Thursday.

Typical practice. Not-so-typical day.

This week, the International Olympic Committee announced women's wrestling would become an Olympic sport for the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

It should have been some welcome good news for the sport in the midst of a grim two weeks, coming just nine days after terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., that horrified a nation.

Of lesser import, it also forced an indefinite postponement of wrestling's World Championships, set for New York City.

Still, no one was popping champagne bottles at the IOC's news. That's because it came with a qualifier that all but flattened the fizz.

In exchange for the women's sport being added, the IOC wants two weight classes cut from the men. That leaves both men and women wrestlers torn.

"I'm happy for them," said Rulon Gardner, Greco-Roman gold-medal hero from Sydney. "I'm really good friends with all the women ... But we're just losing more of the sport."

"As much as I'd like to be there, I don't want to take any spots away," said Stephanie Murata, four-time World Championships competitor. "I would say there's got to be alternatives."

At the heart of the matter is the IOC's resolve to whittle the unwieldy Summer Olympics, which had 10,655 athletes competing in 300 events at the 2000 Games in Sydney. In Athens, the IOC sees 10,508 athletes competing in 299 events.

The IOC's proposal to FILA, wrestling's international body: Let the women into the Games in four freestyle weight classes (two fewer then in typical international women's competition) and take away one weight class in each of the men's Greco-Roman and freestyle disciplines.

Women wrestlers have competed in the World Championships since 1989, but the United States has fielded a national team for only the past seven years.

Athletes in sports that don't have Olympic status often have to pay to stay at the training center. Sometimes the sport's federation helps with the $35 a day to house and feed non-Olympic athletes. Other times it comes out of the athlete's pocket.

The IOC's decision is a triumph for the women, certain this will lead to more exposure and more participation in wrestling.

But fewer weight classes mean fewer medals for the men, who already gave up two classes (going from 10 to eight) after the 1996 Atlanta Games with the understanding it would help the women's cause down the road.

The proposal, which must be accepted by FILA, is creating resentment among some male wrestlers toward women. On a day one group's dream was realized, another was jeopardized.

"Women have been wrestling a couple years," said one angry male wrestler who did not want to be identified. "I've been wrestling my whole life."

Yet for Iris Smith, 21, this has been a long time coming. Smith started wrestling as a middle-schooler in Albany, Georgia. She had to compete against boys. She had to stand up to her high school principal, who told her it wasn't proper for girls to wrestle. She feels she has paid her dues.

"I feel bad about the possibility of taking some of their weight classes," she said, confessing she was on Cloud Nine when she heard the news Wednesday. "But hey, I've been working my tail off for the last seven years. This is my goal."

Eliminating weight classes is problematic because the divisions are then reconfigured. That can make it harder for wrestlers to either lose or gain enough weight to compete.

Kerry McCoy, fifth at Sydney, is one who already got caught between weight classes once.

"You don't want it to be a competitive thing -- us versus them," he said. But McCoy is worried he "might have to lose 60 pounds if I want to have a chance to compete in the Olympics."

Gardner has a similar problem.

"What if they dropped it to 250?" said Gardner, who usually weighs between 278 and 282 pounds. "I weighed 250 my sophomore year in high school."

One suggestion is instead of dropping weight classes, let the top 10 or 15 wrestlers in each division qualify for the Olympics instead of the current 20.

Either way, someone's going to lose their chance at an Olympic medal. When you practice so close, dreams are inseparable too.

"It's not my idea to take anything away from you guys," Murata said of her U.S. male teammates. "It's your dream too."

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Northwest NEWS: Woodinville,

WashingtonJune 25, 2001

Writer would like to hear from fathers, boys
I was a spectator at a few wrestling matches this year and was very
surprised to see that girls were allowed to wrestle on a boys' team. As far
as I know, our school district does not promote their sports as being co-ed.
It was brought to my attention the reason for this was there are not
enough girls interested to form an all-girls' wrestling team. Understandably
there are more girls interested in sports such as softball, basketball,
track and soccer so they are able to have their separate teams. So where do
we draw the line?
I believe it is very simple. There are sports that are based more on a
competitive nature and then there are sports that are truly based on a
physical nature, such as wrestling, and it is absolutely not fair to our
children to expect them to compete fairly against the opposite sex when it
comes to such a physical sport.
You cannot tell me for one minute that the boys I watched lose every time
against the girls ‹ and most of the time they not only lost but were pinned
‹ were playing at the same level they would have been playing on if it were
another boy. That is so foolish!
You are asking those boys to physically attack a girl in ways that we
would otherwise tell them is absolutely not acceptable, and it ends up being
a lose-lose situation for the boy, who if he wins would most likely be
criticized but most of all has to face the humiliation of losing.
I do not understand why any parent would want their children in this
situation. I have a daughter and left there thinking to myself there would
be no way I would allow her to participate, not because I don't think girls
should be allowed to wrestle but because I truly felt bad for the few boys
who were matched up with the girls.
As a parent I am committed to encouraging our children in individual
choices they will make, and if my daughter told me she wanted to wrestle
next year it would be my responsibility to explain to her that unfortunately
there are not enough girls to have a team and because of the physical nature
of this sport, it is in her best interest and the boys' wrestling team to
choose not to do that sport.
It's not fair to our boys to place them in a competitive situation where
they cannot compete to their greatest ability. Wrestling should be no
different than any other sport that the schools offer our children ‹
separate teams. If the only reason we are allowing wrestling to be a co-ed
sport is there are not enough girls to form their own team, then as parents
and teachers we need to ask ourselves if making a decision based on equality
for both the sexes is more important than protecting the safety and
confidence of our children.
My argument here is not the competitive nature of this sport but the
physical. I believe if I came home and saw my daughter having a one-on-one
match of basketball with a guy friend my reaction would be much different
than if I came home to find them wrestling on the floor.
If wrestling is so important to these girls, then their parents should
show them how to fight to bring enough girls together, even if it is from
different districts, to form one team and encourage them to compete fairly.
I understand wrestling will now be available for girls in the Olympics
and I can guarantee you will not see men wrestling women! Instead there will
be a men's team and a women's team! I find it very interesting that all the
letters written on this subject have all been from mothers. I would love to
hear a father's point of view as well as the boys who have had to wrestle
against a girl.

Lisa Harris, Woodinville

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