Swimming An End to Domination

By MARGOT HORNBLOWER BARCELONA

Catch those Stars and Stripes fluttering through the crowd. Listen for the splash. Blink into the sun and -- whoops! In 22 seconds the race is over. But when the bubbles clear, it is not The Star Spangled Banner playing over the Bernat Picornell Pool but the strains of another anthem. And the man who lays claim to being the new Johnny Weissmuller, the new Mark Spitz, the new Matt Biondi, is a fellow from Volgograd named Popov, winner of the 50-m free and the fastest swimmer of the XXVth Olympiad.

In the dizzying array of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle -- 62 Olympic races in all -- the long-dominant Americans especially expected to excel in the individual free sprints, the glamour events, as if they were a birthright. The favorite: Biondi, the 1988 five-gold champion who earns six figures posing for Ray Ban sunglasses and drinking Evian water. And should the California torpedo fail, there would be ample backup on the U.S. team, including Tom Jager, the 1988 silver medalist who earns a living swimming against Biondi in exhibition races. Los tiburones yanqui -- the Yankee sharks -- the Spanish sportswriters dubbed them.

But as the strains of the Russian anthem faded, veterans Biondi with a silver medal and Jager with a bronze found themselves looking up at the 6-ft. 6-in., 192-lb. frame of Alexander Popov, a fresh-faced 20-year-old who was virtually unknown in swimming circles until last year. Popov's gold in the 50- m race followed his victory two days earlier in the 100-m freestyle, where Biondi holds the world record. At the postrace press conference, Popov was asked how it was possible to succeed amid the chaos of the former Soviet ( Union. "We were preparing in the worst conditions ever," agreed the curly- locked machinist's son. "But that did not do us any harm. On the contrary, it made us more aggressive." With a flash of bravado, he added, "If the American team wants to win more medals, we say to them, 'Come and train in Russia!' "

With the cold war allegedly over, U.S. Olympic officials tried to be magnanimous, all the while pointing out that the Unified Team, led by their forceful trainer Gennadi Turetsky, had profited handsomely from a wealth of new data published by American sports institutions. "Our team is doing as well as expected," said the U.S. head coach, Dennis Pursley. "But the days when one nation can dominate the world of swimming are past." Still, with 11 of 31 gold medals, the U.S. firmly outdistanced its closest competitors. The Unified Team captured six, Hungary five and China four. The conspicuous loser was united Germany, with only one gold. In 1988 the steroid-dependent East German women had sacked 10 golds, but that was before new doping controls.

If Biondi, 27, lost his Tarzan title to Popov, he nonetheless collected gold in a 4 X 100-m freestyle relay. That brought his career medal total to 11, tying him with the legendary Spitz. Meanwhile, the world's most famous woman swimmer, American Janet Evans, collected a silver in the 400-m freestyle, a race she was expected to win. Grinning bravely, she told the press, "It's not the end of the world: the sun will come up tomorrow." But within moments, the 1988 triple-gilded champion was in tears. "You don't understand the pressure that's placed on athletes here," she said. "I gave it everything I had." Two days later, however, the sun did come up for her as she roared to gold in the 800-m free. "Four years is a long time to train six hours a day," she reminisced. "The bad times make the good times feel so good."

Overall, the much touted U.S. women's team bagged five gold medals, fewer than expected. Strong competition came from Hungarian Krisztina Egerszegi, a coquettish 17-year-old whose iron discipline -- as well as her powerful backstroke and individual medley races -- won her three golds. Her long, blue- polished nails helped her "grab the water," she said. Two 14-year-old sensations, Japanese gold-medal breaststroker Kyoko Iwasaki and German silver and bronze freestyler Franziska Van Almsick showed mettle that belied their shy manners. The Chinese women also mounted a powerful challenge, with Li / Linh, a 20-year-old Jiangsu native, setting a new world record in the 200-m individual medley. Noticeably huskier than their Western or Japanese counterparts, the Chinese were repeatedly forced to deny doping rumors, many of them spread by U.S. officials. Midstream, in response to the grousing, authorities changed the random testing pattern to include each winner.

No longer overshadowed by the charismatic Biondi, with his Greek-god looks and unbeatable speed, other members of the U.S. men's team swept to victory with a swagger. Hopping, skipping and punching the air with his fist, Nelson Diebel made no effort to restrain his delight at winning the 100-m breaststroke. His shaved head wrapped in a Stars-and-Stripes scarf, the Princeton University undergrad cried, "It's like a drug! It's the best high you could ever get!" Diebel should know. Between ages 12 and 16 he was a heavy drinker and marijuana smoker; then he was rescued by a disciplinarian swimming coach. "I was hyper and self-destructive," Diebel said. "Swimming turned my life around."

Three remarkable comebacks also buoyed up the U.S. team. Pablo Morales, a 1984 silver medalist, had retired after failing to make the 1988 Olympic team. Enrolled in law school, he missed the thrill of competition. About a year ago, he began training again and at 27 won his first gold in the 100-m butterfly. "It was my time at last," he said, "a dream come true." The drive to recover from past disappointment also fired up Mike Barrowman, who placed fourth in the Seoul 200-m breaststroke. Last week he captured the gold, breaking his own world record. As for Melvin Stewart, who came in fifth in the 1988 Olympic 200-m butterfly, defeat "haunted me," he said, choking up at a press conference. "I had nightmares." Last week, after four hard years of training, he finally won the Olympic title.

Now that its quadrennial moment of glory has passed, swimming will fade to the back of the sports section. Biondi has plans to learn to ride a horse and find a job that will keep him outdoors. Jager is thinking of starting a fence- building company out of his New Mexico home. And Popov is free to go back to playing his beloved Gameboy. Will Olympic gold change his life? "I can't say, to be honest," he confesses. "The political situation of our country is such that no one knows what will happen next. All we can do is continue to live our life as sportsmen." And train on for the also changing Olympic swimming meet.