THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 21, 1996 TAG: 9606200157
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 09 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 61 lines
Community heroes are not the only people who get to carry the torch as it makes its way toward Atlanta for the opening of the Olympic games.
Winners in Coca Cola's ``Share the Spirit'' campaign are among the runners; so are major fund-raisers and representatives of the media.
For some of the torch bearers, including two from Virginia Beach who will be running in the Richmond area, the act is certain to provoke some rare memories.
Jan Trombly, an athletic and fitness coordinator with the federal government and private personal trainer, and Tom Trethewey, a retired Navy commander who now works for a well drilling firm, are among 800 former American Olympians who were chosen to carry the flame on its 15,000-mile journey.
Trombly, a member of Old Dominion University women's basketball championship teams in the late 1970s, was slated to play in the 1980 Olympics when fate and politics intervened.
``First I injured my knee. That put an end to my basketball playing,'' Trombly said.
As it turned out, she wouldn't have been competing even if she hadn't been injured. Before anybody could go, the United States chose to boycott the Olympics because of the Soviet Union's incursion into Afghanistan.
Still dreaming of becoming an Olympic athlete, Trombly began training in team handball. ``It's not much known here, but it's actually the second most popular sport in the world,'' she said.
In 1984 her dream was realized. She went to Los Angeles as a member of the U.S. handball team. ``We lost to Germany, 18-17,'' Trombly said. ``If we'd tied, we'd have taken a bronze medal.''
Swimming was Tom Trethewey's sport, the 200 meter breast stroke his event. The NCAA, AAU and Student World Games champion was a member of the 1964 U.S. Olympic swim team which competed in Tokyo.
He came in a respectable ninth or 10th against tough competition but it was the experience, not the honors, that he remembers best.
``It's something you can't describe,'' the Indiana University graduate said of that time in his life. ``The camaraderie, the thrill of it, marching into the stadium . . . ''
After his 1990 retirement as a Navy aviator, the Pittsburgh native stayed in Virginia Beach where his wife is an elementary school counselor.
These days Trethewey works for a local well-drilling and pump firm. ``I enjoy the heck out of the job,'' he said good-naturedly.
He's hoping to be in Atlanta for at least some of this summer's games, especially since his college roommate, an Australian who will be working with the media team from that country, will be there.
``I'd love to see them bring the torch in,'' he said. MEMO: [For a related story, see page 8 of The Beacon for this date.] ILLUSTRATION: Jan Trombly, a member of the ODU women's basketball
champions in the late 1970s, was a member of the U.S. team handball
team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Tom Trethewey, above and left, competed in the 200-meter
breaststroke at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. by CNB