ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603110100
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS, INC.
SOURCE: JERE LONGMAN NEW YORK TIMES
BYRON DAVIS is among several prospects for an unprecedented Olympic berth in U.S. swimming.
When Byron Davis lets his mind sprint along with his body, he dreams of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, his arm raised high after a good swim, water rolling off his body, tears of release streaming down his face.
``I've dreamed about this for the past eight years,'' Davis said. ``To be the first African-American to swim in the Olympics would be a badge of accomplishment. It will affirm the simple truth that, whatever we think we can do, we can do.''
Swimming historically has been a sport of white middle-class suburbia, while blacks have been bound in an undertow of prejudice and inopportunity. The inner cities lack facilities, properly trained coaches and aquatic role models. In 100 years of the modern Olympics, no black swimmer has represented the United States.
That could change tonight, when two of the favorites in the 100-meter butterfly at the Olympic trials will be Davis, 25, of Cleveland, and Sabir Muhammad, 19, of Stanford University. Muhammad, who lives in Atlanta, finished second in the 100 butterfly at last summer's national championships. Davis, a graduate of UCLA, recorded the sixth-fastest time by an American in 1995.
A finish among the top two today would mean qualification for the Summer Games in Atlanta, encouragement for other minority swimmers and affirmation of the potential for success of cash-strapped programs in inner cities.
Success by Davis or Muhammad also would offer a stinging rebuke to the racial myth - most blatantly espoused by Al Campanis, then an executive with the Los Angeles Dodgers - that blacks lack the buoyancy to be capable swimmers.
Danielle Strader, a 21-year-old butterfly swimmer from the University of Texas, said her family keeps a framed newspaper article containing Campanis' remarks on the fireplace at home in Lansdale, Pa.
``My parents tell me that there will always be people who try to hold you back, discourage you, but not to let that keep you down,'' Strader said. ``All the people who don't think it's possible, my goal is to show them that it is.''
There are seven blacks among the 455 swimmers competing at the Olympic trials, and two blacks among the more than 100 coaches - Chris Martin of the University of Florida and Jim Ellis of the Philadelphia department of recreation.
If the numbers seem small, they represent an increase over past Olympic trials, and reflect the growing number of black swimmers that parallels the rise of the black middle class.
``I'm astounded by the number of dark faces I see in age-group swimming,'' said Martin, an assistant coach on the 1992 Olympic team. ``You may see only seven people here, but in 1980, you saw three, and those were the only ones swimming. Now it's gone on to other levels, and I think there will be a rise in talent.''
For two years, the U.S. swimming federation has operated a development program, inviting 32 African-American, American Indian, Asian and Hispanic swimmers, along with 75 minority coaches, to a training camp and coaching clinic at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
But this is only a small first step on a long road to include American swimmers from various ethnic backgrounds in a sport that has remained lily-white at the Olympic level.
The swimming federation said it does not even know how many of its 220,000 registered swimmers are members of minority groups, and thus has yet to figure out where to best place its resources.
Programs for minority swimmers have succeeded in places like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, but constant battles are fought to keep pools open and coaches paid as parks and recreation departments face stiff budget cutbacks.
``It's almost kind of overwhelming,'' said Tom Avischious, who heads the swimming federation's minority outreach program.
The Washington program operated by Rodger McCoy has been trimmed from 200 to 80 or 90 swimmers, Avischious said. In Philadelphia, Ellis has built his recreation department swimming team to 100 members, but they train during the cold-weather months at a 25-yard high school pool, instead of an Olympic-sized 50-meter pool used at universities and many suburban swim clubs.
Several years ago, when the one 50-meter outdoor public pool in Philadelphia was closed temporarily, the PDR team, as it is known, traveled an hour each way to train at a YMCA.
``If I had a 50-meter facility, my numbers would quadruple,'' Ellis said.
The one black swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal was Anthony Nesty of Surinam, who competed at the University of Florida and defeated Matt Biondi in the 100-meter butterfly at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, Korea.
Nesty's victory compelled Jeff Commings to stay in the sport.
Commings, a 22-year-old breast stroke swimmer from St.Louis who swam at the University of Texas, said: ``Kids want to play basketball like Michael Jordan, and they know Emmitt Smith is the highest-paid football player. No black has made it in swimming in this country, so kids say, `I can never make that.' When I was young, I never thought I'd make it past city level. Anthony's victory was inspiring. I kept telling myself, if Anthony can do it, I can do it.''
Jason Webb, a 21-year-old backstroker from the University of Virginia, has competed for the PDR team in Philadelphia since he was 6. He keeps every swimming race from the past three Summer Olympics on videotape and watches them over and over, imagining himself victorious at the Games against great odds.
``I just want to be able to say I'm the best once,'' Webb said.
It is determination like this that gives Martin hope as a coach.
``Until 1968, people said blacks couldn't run distance races,'' Martin said. ``Now look. Inclusion of all people has come to all sports. I'm reminded of what George Kennan said, long before the wall came down, that communism is a mere inch on the yardstick that is Russian history. I sometimes think swimming is an inch on the yardstick of sports history. Soon, it will be practiced by many people all over the world.''
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Webbby CNB