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University Daliv Kansan. April 22. 1983
Local group engineered Soviet visit to Relays
By BOB LUDER Sports Writer
Sports Writer
Although the project to bring a track and field team from the Soviet Union to the 1983 Kansas Relays has been in operation for only five months, the road to Lawrence for the Soviet contingent is long and full of obstacles to overcome.
But the local organization that initiated the project, Athletes United for Peace, behind the diligence of founder Bob Swan and Executive Director Mark Scott, overcame the barriers that stood in their way and the Soviet team is in Lawrence for the 88th edition of the Midwestern track classic.
THE PROJECT TO bring the Soviets to the Relays started in mid-November with the formation of Athletes United for Peace, Swan, a local insurance executive, had decided that he wanted to do something to promote peace and
arms control between Russia and the United States. He decided that a good means of accomplishing his task was to invite a team of track and field athletes from Kansas to Kansas Rivals. In a prepared
In a prepared statement at a
news conference on March 24, Swan said that Athletes United for Peace could play a "persuasive role in helping lead America and Russia away from the nuclear brink, away from the current wasteful and destabilizing policies of continued nuclear proliferation."
Wanse choke Scott as his assistant. Scott had spent several years in the Soviet Union on a work-study program and spoke fluent Soviet. He had also worked for the CIA as a Soviet analyst, "You cannot be believe how well he (Scott) knows the Soviet mind," Swan said.
ON JANUARY 13, Athletes United for Peace, just five weeks after its formation, sent a bound formal invitation to Soviet Ambassador Anatoliy Dobrynin, requesting that the Soviet Union send a team of 20 world-class track and field athletes to the Relsay. The invitation package included letters from Gov. John Carlin, Chancellor Gene A. Budig, Kud U Athletic Director
Monte Johnson, Head Track Coach and Relays Meet Director Bob Timmons and Jayhawk track great Jim Ryun.
Athletes United for Peace also forwarded thousands of letters from local grade school children, asking the Soviets to come to Lawrence. Scott said he thought those invitations were especially appealing to the Soviets.
THE
MAD
HATTER
Scott and Swan have also received support from such dignitaries as Assistant KU Basketball Coach Jo Ko White, Karl Menninger of the Menninger Foundation, Kansas City Chiefs running back Joe Delane and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. They also played with former Green Bay pressman Jim Slattery and Kansas Senators Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum.
BUT EVER WITH ALL of the support behind them, Scott and Swan were cautious about their chances for success. Scott said in early February that he thought they might hear word of the Soviets' decision on March 1. They did.
On the morning of March 1, Scott received word that the Soviet Sports Committee in Moscow had just declined the AUP's invitation due to "their very tight schedule of training and competitions." Scott and Swan were about to give up on the project when they received a call from Sergei Guskov, the New York correspondent of Sovietskiy Sport, one of the most influential periodicals in the Soviet Union. Guskov, who was to be in Moscow on March 10, said he would talk to Gramov, head of the Soviet Sports Committee, about the possibility of reconsideration.
During this time, Scott sent Guskow a detailed format for the visit and a KU
SWAN AND SCOTT then spent March 7-12 in Washington, D.C., visiting numerous individuals, such as Dole and Kennedy, and organizations that they felt were important in helping the AUP cause.
On March 14, the second major disappointment occurred. Scott learned that the Soviet Sports Committee had telexed a second decline of the invitation, this time to The Athletics Congress. At that point, Scott advised Swan they had done everything they could and that the project had ended in failure.
Scott immediately alerted the local media that there would be no Soviet athletes at this year's Relays.
BUT ON MARCH 22, Scott and Swan got a call from Anatoly Dyuzhev and Sergei Skachko of the Soviet Embassy saying that a team of 20 Soviet athletes, coaches and officials would be coming to the Relais after all.
"After many challenges and disappointments in our efforts to bring the Soviets to the Kansas Relays, today we are coming," the Soviets are coming." Swan said.
Swan added that it might not be ever why the Soviet government changed the policy.
The Soviet Sports Committee later announced that 13 athletes, led by world record holders Nadezhda Oli-zarenko in the women's 800-meter run, and Svetlana Ulmasova in the women's 3,000 run, would make the trip from Moscow to Mount Oread by way of Montreal. Also heading the Soviet contingent is Zamira Zaitseva, second in the world in the women's 1,500 run and Alexander Kruspey, fourth in the world in the pole vault.
THE SOVIETS HAVE also named a Soviet sporting legend to coach their delegation, Scott said. Coaching the men's squad is Igor Ter-Ozanesyan, a former Olympic long jump champion. Ter-Ozanesyan is famous for his duels in the 1960s with U.S. jumper Jim Kramer. During Malaga Games will coach the women's squad and Elena Tetushkova, deputy chairman of the national organizing committee for the Olympic Games, will head the entire Soviet delegation.
Timmons said he was thrilled at learning the names of the Soviet team, and gave all of the credit to Scott's and Duncan's efforts in bringing the Soviets to the meet.
"They're the ones that really got the ball rolling and who did all of the legwork involved in bringing the Soviets to the games," Timmons said. "They should be commended for their work...
"Right now, it looks like the pole's wault and the decathlon should both be given priority."
"THERE IS SOME great quality there. We have been spending a great deal of time trying to bring in the best quality products, and we are helping the Sovetski with some good competition.
This year's edition of the Relays will
be limited to collegiate athletes except for the Soviets, Timmons said. Timmons said that the Soviets would have to qualify through preliminary heats just like the collegiate, a process they probably wouldn't be used to. He added that the Soviets would be given commemorative Relays watches separately from the winners in the collegiate division.
THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE facing Scott and Swan since the Soviet's acceptance has been the raising of funds for the Soviets' travel and lodging. They have solicited private donations from people throughout the state and have not taken any from the Relays sponsorship. Scott said that all funds raised would be used for the Soviet visit.
"We need to raise anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000," Scott said. "The quality of our accommodations will depend on the size of our fund."
AUP has also been in contact with local radio and television stations and CBS-TV and Scott said that some of the events of the Relays may be broadcast live nationally. Sports Illustrated is also covering the event and a Soviet television crew is expected to film the meet for Soviet television viewing.
BUT, EVEN WITH ALL of the national and international attention that Scott and Swan have received in their fight against the Swan kept their immediate goal simple.
"We want to fill the stadium," he said.
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