ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: NOTES
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
Maybe the Zaire women's Olympic basketball team could have used defense as well as dollars from its gracious benefactor.
The African nation lost 107-47 to the U.S. women Thursday at the Atlanta Games, but at least Zaire was able to play.
It in no small part is crediting a native of the nation and one of Atlanta's newest residents, Dikembe Mutombo, for helping them get here.
Mutombo, who last week signed a $56 million NBA free-agent contract to leave the Denver Nuggets for the Atlanta Hawks, has given the women's team about $15,000 in aid. The former Georgetown center also has been among his nation's most vocal fans at the Olympic games.
Mongamaluku Mozingo, the Zaire women's coach, was Mutombo's first youth coach back in Kinshasa. His team has gotten adidas shoes, two sets of uniforms and clothing for the Opening Ceremonies from the NBA pivotman.
``For my players, Dikembe's gift is a pride thing,'' Mozingo said. ``It's very patriotic. He's helped our country immensely.''
REAL COOL: A nadir for these Games was reached Thursday, and it didn't even involve a bus or computer terminal.
The high temperature, a morning-rain lowered 85, was the first below 90 during the Atlanta Games. A similar cool-down is forecast for today, too.
EVERYWHERE: Today is the busiest day of the XXVIth Olympiad. There are 22 sports on the schedule today, including the last day of swimming and the first day of track and field and diving, some of the Games' most venerable sports.
FAIRNESS: These have been labeled the ``women's Games'' for the marked increased participation by females, and U.S. badminton has an appropriate story.
Guaranteed two Olympic berths as the host nation, the U.S. Badminton Association decided to put most of its money into developing players for the future in a nation where the sport ranks far down the pecking order.
Then, Linda French and Erika von Heiland, while trying to qualify as an Olympic doubles team with money from their own pockets, learned the doubles team of Kevin Han and Tom Reidy were being reimbursed for half of their expenses.
What the men were getting, the women wanted, too. They wrote the USBA in protest, and also complained about former national team coach Goran Sterner, saying he was so concerned about the men's team that he all but ignored them.
The result: French and von Heiland made the Olympic team, because they were ranked higher in doubles than the men's duo. They were reimbursed $5,000 each, and Sterner was replaced as the U.S. coach by Steve Butler. Han made the field in singles. Reidy didn't.
IN STATES: Among the contingent of U.S. athletes, 47 states and the District of Columbia are represented. Can you name the three states without competitors in the Atlanta Games? (Answer below).
WATCHING: Ticket sales for the Atlanta Games were approaching 8.5 million on Thursday, already a record for any Olympics. About 10.5 million seats were available for the Games.
The large venues are one reason Atlanta has struggled with the crush of visitors. Only 3.7 million tickets were available for the 1992 Barcelona Games, and 6.9 million 12 years ago in Los Angeles.
The next Summer Games in Sydney will have a ticket inventory of only 5.5 million.
OUTDOORS: The swift rise of beach volleyball has team handball considering a move outdoors. The International Handball Federation is working on rules for a sand-based version of the sport being contested in these Games at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Beach handball has a smaller court and fewer players than the indoor game (seven on the court per team). U.S. handball executives love the beach idea, saying it's a perfect way to make the sport, long the bastion of European nations, more attractive.
UNEVEN BARS: Although the buzz about American Kerri Strug's painful vault that secured her gymnastics team a gold-medal first Tuesday was still the buzz Thursday, some facts of life don't change.
The breakup of the Soviet Union and its sports machine apparently hasn't diminished the power of the former USSR's men's gymnastics domination.
Former Soviet republics got silver and bronze medals in Wednesday's all-around competition. Since first competing in the sport at the Helsinki Games in 1952, the Soviets or their former nations have won 108 medals, including 45 gold. Next is Japan, with 75, including 27 gold.
THREE OUT: The three states with no resident athletes on the U.S. Olympic team are North and South Dakota and Wyoming.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Dikembe Mutombo (right) and Dream Team guard Garyby CNBPayton watch Mutombo's native Zaire fall to the U.S. women 107-47 on
Thursday afternoon in Olympic basketball.