THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260520
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DENVER LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
A year from the start of the 1996 Olympics, Mike Thornberry of Suffolk has perhaps the best chance of any athlete from South Hampton Roads to go to the Atlanta Games.
Thornberry, 22, has been on the national squad in team handball - the misnamed sport that mixes the more physical elements of basketball and hockey - for a year and will be one of 19 players who will continue to train with the national team in Atlanta after the Olympic Festival. From that 19, 16 will make the Olympic team next June.
Thornberry, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound defensive specialist who has played the game only four years, thinks Atlanta will be just the first of his Olympic appearances.
``I have a very clear mind about going to the Olympics in 1996, then 2000 and 2004,'' Thornberry said. ``I'm the second-youngest guy on the team. I'm a young 'un in this sport.''
Thornberry, a Nansemond-Suffolk Academy graduate who picked up team handball at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, is an air defense artillery officer stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta. As part of the Army's World Class Athlete program, Thornberry, a second lieutenant who has four years left on a five-year military commitment, was assigned to Atlanta, where the national team trains.
The division of his energies, Thornberry said, means ``I won't be a general now.'' But his pursuit of team handball glory is worth it, he said, particularly because he plays a valuable role.
``I hit and hurt guys,'' Thornberry said. ``Defense is pure heart and hustle. I help out on offense when needed.''
``Mike's a very strong defensive player who I expect to get better,'' said national team coach Rick Oleksyk. ``He's a strong candidate to make the Olympic team if he continues to progress. He's still so young.''
Thornberry agrees that his chances are good, but he knows not to guarantee anything.
``Nothing's a lock till the final cut day,'' he said. ``With the injuries in this sport, that's a very true statement.''
BID AFTERMATH: Richmond will still get a new track and soccer field out of the deal, and it gained status from a year of discussion within the U.S. Olympic Committee. But, hey, what about that $25,000?
John Lugbill wants to know. As executive director of the Metropolitan Richmond Sports Backers, the group that wanted to bring the 1997 Olympic Festival to Virginia, Lugbill saw a check for $25,000 accompany Richmond's bid to become the host city.
Now that the '97 Festival has been canceled, and about $150,000 that went into the bid process is down the tubes, Lugbill would at least like to see the 25 grand again. An explanation as to where Richmond stands should future Olympic Festivals be held, in whatever form, would be nice, too.
``I'll wait till they're done with the Festival, then get on the phone and start calling them up and say, `What's going on?' '' Lugbill said. ``There are some issues they need to fill us in on.''
Lugbill, 34, said he was hardly floored by last week's announcement that the '97 Festival would be scrapped. He suspected, however, that the day's news would instead be a clarification of when a bid would be awarded rather than an obituary.
Planning for the Festival, though, resulted in approval for a track and soccer field that still will be built near Virginia Commonwealth University.
A bit more planning, money and interest would have served this Festival well. It is a bloated, scattered affair held in three cities that has been met with apathy by the residents of Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder. Attendance is expected to improve when basketball starts today and gymnastics and track and field begin later in the week.
If it doesn't, Lugbill said blame it on the decision to make this Festival a lame duck almost before it started.
``There weren't a lot of PR skills used,'' he said.
ILLY MOVES UP: The Olympic Festival was Virginia Beach rhythmic gymnast Lauri Illy's final competition as a junior. She will turn 15 by the end of the 1996 calendar year. That will make her eligible to compete in the '96 Olympics, should she earn a berth.
Illy will be 14 in August and could continue to compete as a junior (14 and under), but has elected to move up. She will receive her first ranking as a senior in February in Colorado Springs at the Rhythmic Challenge meet.
Illy can only go to the Atlanta Games as an individual. Unlike artistic gymnastics, team competition in rhythmic gymnastics is not part of the Olympics. by CNB