Section B·Page 10
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, August 25, 2000
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Reynolds sets sail for the gold
Four-time Olympian confident
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — Mark Reynolds is as predictable as the tide.
For decades, no American sailor in the Star class made consecutive Olympic appearances. Then Reynolds came along, and no one else has been able to get in a jib edgewise.
Reynolds, one of the old men among the seagoing U.S. Olympians, will have his two-man Star on the starting line in Sydney next month. It will be his fourth straight Olympics, tying sailboarder Mike Gebhardt, who'll also be in Sydney, for the most
And it's no surprise that Reynolds goes in as America's best bet for a sailing gold medal, which would be his second.
appearances by a U.S. sailor.
"It's still special," said the 44-year-old Reynolds, a salmaker, second-generation Star sailor and a protégé of Dennis Conner, who also grew up in San Diego before going on to America's Cup fame.
"I just really enjoy sailing the Star boat," Reynolds said.
Reynolds won the silver medal in his first Olympics in 1988. He and crewman Hal Haenel saw their bid for gold undone in the final race when a control line failed and their mast came tumbling down.
Four years later, they won the gold medal in Barcelona, never finishing worse than third in any race and wrapping up the medal even before the final day of competition.
But they finished an uncharacteristic eighth at the Atlanta
"I just really enjoy sailing the Star boat."
Mark Reynolds
After his 1980 Olympic campaign, Reynolds needed a job so he began making saills for the Star, a sleek, 22-foot, 8-inch keelboat with a huge sail area. He continues to make saills for the Star, which are the same boats that he races.
Games in 1996.
"We expected to do well last time." Reynolds said. "We thought everything was pretty much on track, but it just didn't go well. So I guess that probably drives me a little harder this time to try to come back and improve on that."
Haenel retired after '96, and his spot went to Swede Magnus Liljedahl, who became a U.S. citizen in 1994.
Although they've been sailing together for just three years, Reynolds figures his experience will give them an edge. He knows what it takes to win a medal.
"I probably won't make some of the mistakes the younger guys
might make," he said. "In a way, there's not quite as much pressure on me, too. They're looking at it as their one chance to get an Olympic medal. I've gotten an Olympic medal and I'm there to do it again."
"So my business is essentially sailing the Star now," he said.
Although sailors face an exhausting range of variables, Liljedahl knows that hooking up with Reynolds is the closest he's going to come to a sure thing.
"He was the big favorite all along and has the best reputation," Liljedahl said. "If everything goes right, and we have a little ounce of fortune on our side, I think we can win the gold medal pretty handily."
Olympic officials unveil drug tests
The Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia — The competition won't be only at the track, pool and playing fields during the Summer Games. A fight for Olympic credibility will be won or lost at the training sites, labs and doping control stations.
The International Olympic Committee medical commission has approved a test to detect the use of the banned synthetic hormone erythropoietin, or EPO, considered the drug of choice for endurance athletes.
For the first time, Olympic officials are conducting unannounced, out-of-competition tests on athletes before and during the games. And independent observers will monitor the entire testing process in Sydney to remove any suspicions of cover-ups.
"I don't think we can stand up in front of the world and say, 'There will be nobody at the games in Sydney who has never used drugs,'" said Dick Pound, an IOC vice president and chairman of the new World Anti-Doping Agency. "But I think some of the people who have used them may not show up, and anyone who has done so is at a much
greater risk of being detected and exposed." Even Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director who has clashed with the IOC about its anti-doping efforts, believes important strides have been made.
"There's a lot of room for confidence certainly," he said from Washington. "The whole mental dynamic has fundamentally changed in the last 18 months."
McCaffrey will travel to Sydney to observe the testing system and meet with WADA delegates, athletes' groups and IOC president Juan Antonio Sanmaranch.
"We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go," McCaffrey said. "We've got to commit ourselves to keeping the IOC's feet to the fire.
"We'd be misguided to do anything but measure this by observed results as opposed to rhetoric," he said.
Critics remain unconvinced.
Charles Yesalis, a Pennsylvania State University professor and author of a book on performance-enhancing drugs, has dismissed the EPO test as a public relations move.
"These games are going to be as drug-laden as the rest." he said.
Even if the EPO test proves effective in catching or deterring users, there still is no method for detecting two other widely abused drugs, human growth hormone
(HGH) and insulin growth factor (IGF-1).
Many athletes are believed to have turned to artificial hemoglobin products, which can produce some of the benefits of EPO. These include Hemopure, a drug made in South Africa that researchers say can reduce the need for blood transfusions.
EPO, the drug at the heart of the Tour de France doping scandal in 1998, enhances endurance by boosting the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells.
The IOC has approved a combined blood and urine test to be conducted on 300 to 700 athletes in Sydney, on top of the 2,400 standard tests expected. It's the first time blood samples will be tested in the Olympics as part of the official doping control program.
While the blood test can detect EPO use dating back several weeks, the urine test only goes back three days. An athlete will be considered guilty of a doping offense only if both tests are positive.
Jacques Rogge, vice chairman of the IOC medical commission, played down complaints that the system is flawed because it wouldn't catch any athlete who uses EPO more than three days before the test.
"We know athletes have to take injections every three or four days," he said. "Since we are also doing out-of-competition testing, there's a good chance you can catch them."
Injuries keep Akers from Olympics
1
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — Michelle Akers, an original member of the U.S. women's national soccer team, retired from international competition yesterday, less than a month before the start of the Olympic tournament.
Akers, 34, a speedy, talented midfielder who battled injury through most of her career, said she was stepping down because of an injured shoulder and a lengthy battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
She said she still planned to play for the new WUSA franchise in Orlando, which starts play next April.
"After winning the gold medal in 1996, I promised myself to never again play in the condition I was in during those Olympic games," said Akers, who played in the first U.S. women's national team match in 1985 and was the top scorer with 10 goals at the inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991.
"Since then, retirement has been a big issue with me and the decision to continue on with the national team has always been a prayerful and careful one," she said.
Akers, one of four players in soccer history to score 100 goals, has had more than a dozen knee operations, and struggled to return from a shoulder injury and ensuing surgery in early April. That injury forced her to miss nearly all of the Olympic preparation matches. She returned to the team in July, but re-injured her shoulder against Russia Aug. 15.
"It's been a hard-fought year, and the decision to not go to Sydney was just as agonizing," she said. "But I have huge peace in knowing I fought to the very end and have nothing else to give."
The Olympics begin in Sydney Sept.15
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