ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608050136
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The gold rush finally ended Saturday night for the U.S. track and field team at the Centennial Games, and Americans have been captured by what has been a spectacular soldout show at Olympic Stadium.
The U.S. should celebrate while it can.
Yes, Gail Devers is the world's fastest woman. U.S. men have won gold in the triple, long and high jumps.
Allen Johnson of Northern Virginia not only won the 110-meter hurdles, he did it while knocking most of them down. And he's not even the most celebrated person with that surname on the team.
Sitting high above the track in the stadium pressbox, however, gives one a different perspective on the sport in this nation. You need only check the roster to see the inevitable.
It isn't where on the medal stand the U.S. has been this week, it's where the program is going.
Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee are hardly dottering around in their mid-30s, but they're retiring. Mary Slaney came to Atlanta an old 37 and didn't qualify.
World-record long jumper Mike Powell is 33. Johnny Gray ran the 800 here at 36. Gwen Torrence is 31. Devers will turn 30 in November.
The Atlanta Games have been a hometown celebration for U.S. track, as were the Los Angeles Games, although watered down by the boycotting Soviets and their satellites.
The 12-year span between Summer Games in the U.S. defines an era led by Lewis, and one reason those of his track generation have been able to hang on is the sport has gone pro. It didn't used to be that way.
Except for solid performers in their mid-20s in a couple of events, there is little to suggest America has the depth of interest and talent to replace the aforementioned greatness.
``We don't promote our sport,'' said Lewis, the five-time Olympian. ``People pay attention every four years, for the Olympics. Kids don't know much about us.''
While the Atlanta Games' atmosphere for track and field has been impressive, the U.S. trials in the same venue - the stadium's coming out party - drew poorly in June.
A lack of support is only part of the problem. Remember the days of yore when you and the other kids on your block wanted to be the fastest in the neighborhood, or the first one to be able to jump the neighbors' hedges or backyard fence?
Now, the only connection with flying feet that interests many is what brand of shoes they're wearing.
Kids today want to be like Michael - Jordan, not Johnson.
Johnson will turn 32 before the next Summer Games in Sydney. Maybe by then, the U.S. will have another super sprinter, but don't count on it.
Running in the Olympics isn't much of a lure when kids see other kids going straight from high school to the NBA for millions.
Consider that when Canada's Donovan Bailey became the ``world's fastest human'' in winning the 100-meter dash Saturday night, the American duo of Dennis Mitchell and Mike Marsh finished fourth and fifth - the first time an American failed to medal in an Olympics this nation attended in 20 years.
``This may be a wake-up call,'' Marsh said afterward. ``Pretty soon, we're going to get tired of it.''
The budding stars of U.S. track and field's national program must be in college now, right? Check the rosters of the NCAA powers in the sport. They are populated with foreign athletes.
Consider that the three men who finished ahead of the U.S. pair in the 100 - Bailey, Frankie Fredericks and Ato Boldon - are foreigners who boosted their profiles and got faster on scholarships at U.S. colleges.
That's another problem. NCAA schools that want to compete at the championship level of the sport can't find enough quality talent - because it's playing football or basketball - and so they recruit overseas.
Some major colleges don't even have tracks, or ovals good enough on which to run a respectable meet. That undermines the national program, and in the next several years the U.S. could struggle.
At the 1995 World Championships, for example, Marsh was the only American to reach the finals. He finished fifth.
Until track and field promotes itself in non-Olympic years, until it finds a way to fill some hours in a telecast world dominated by football, basketball, baseball and now figure skating, the sport is going nowhere.
Johnson, who will turn 29 in September, is huge when he runs abroad. He gets $50,000 appearance fees in Europe, but he's only now starting to be recognized when he goes into restaurants in his hometown, Dallas.
This isn't to say the U.S. won't continue to win Olympic medals. It's just that most of the best talent is on its last legs.
The Atlanta Games have been a golden performance and could be a golden opportunity for track and field in America.
The sport's potential could be boosted simply by having the Olympics at home. Will the next generation take the baton? Will someone make the effort to hand it off?
LENGTH: Medium: 93 linesby CNB