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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Olympics Find An Angel U.S. Swimmer Gives Bronze To Friend Battling Cancer

Jody Meacham San Jose Mercury News

Which was the biggest surprise in the Olympic pool Saturday?

Was it the fearsome and allegedly steroid-propelled Chinese women stalling in the preliminaries? Was it Ireland, a land with no 50-meter pools and only one world-class swimmer, winning its first Olympic medal in the sport with Michelle Smith’s gold in the 400-meter individual medley?

Or was it Angel Martino of Americus, Ga., who once served a drug suspension of her own, winning a bronze in the 100 freestyle and then giving her medal to an Olympic volunteer who is battling cancer?

The most surprised award certainly goes to Trisha Henry, who was moving equipment on the pool deck after the 100 freestyle award ceremony when co-workers grabbed her by the arms and led her to a room out of sight. There Martino took her medal and draped it around Henry’s neck.

“I want to give this to you,” Henry recalled Martino saying. “I think you are a hero. I want you to keep fighting.”

Martino, 29, and Henry, 20, who is from nearby Marietta, Ga., have known each other for some time and have competed in meets together. Henry spent a summer at Martino’s father’s swim camp as a young girl and earned a swimming scholarship to Illinois.

Last winter, two weeks before the Big Ten meet, she was diagnosed with urinary tract cancer and had to leave school for surgery and to begin chemotherapy. She fell ill at Wednesday’s Opening Ceremonies rehearsal after a five-day hospital stay for chemo and had to return to the hospital. She got out Saturday morning in time to work at the Olympic pool at Georgia Tech.

“I’ve always loved swimming,” said Henry, who will redshirt the coming season but expects to recover and exercise her remaining two years of eligibility in 1997 and ‘98. “I wanted to volunteer to be a part of something as special as the Olympics, and now I have a medal.”

Martino, who has a gold and a bronze from the 1992 Barcelona Games, accounted for the first swimming medal of the Games for the United States, which some had predicted might be shut out because of the rise of the powerful Chinese.

She hit the 50-meter wall first, but China’s Le Jingyi, the world record-holder in the event, overtook her on the final lap and won the gold in 54.50 seconds. Germany’s Sandra Volker took the silver.

“I thought I was out fast,” said Martino, whose positive drug test at the 1988 Olympic trials knocked her out of the Seoul Games. “But I died at the end.”

Amy Van Dyken of Denver was fourth in the 100 in a personal best 55.11, but collapsed on the pool deck afterward with severe cramps in the hamstrings and quadriceps of both legs. U.S. team physician Craig Ferrell said later that she would be all right.

The 100 was the only moment of Chinese superiority and the first of two medals won Saturday by U.S. women.

The other U.S. medal was the surprise silver won by Allison Wagner of Gainesville, Fla., in the 400 individual medley. Southern Cal’s Kristine Quance, considered the world’s best in the event, was disqualified for an illegal turn at the U.S. Olympic trials last March, an infraction coaches feared would cost the U.S. team any medal hopes in the race.

But although Wagner was only sixth-fastest in the prelims, she trailed winner Smith’s time of 4:39.18 by 2.85 seconds. Hungary’s Krisztina Egerszegi took the bronze.

Smith, with no training facilities in her home country, she lives near Amsterdam and trains with her husband/coach, Erik de Bruin, who competed for Holland in the ‘84 and ‘88 Games as a track athlete.

Two weeks ago during a training camp in Florida, Smith swam the fastest 400 freestyle of the last two years in 4:08. It was 14 seconds better than the Irish national record.

“It feels great,” she said of the medal. “I’m actually still a little bit in shock.”

No doubt in part due to Irish radio reporters who mobbed her with cellular telephones to interview her live on the air in Gaelic.

China’s Chen Yan and Wu Yanyan, pre-race favorites in the 400, qualified only 17th and 18th, respectively, in the morning preliminaries.

Zhou Ming, one of China’s national coaches, blamed their performances and that of Shan Ying, who failed to make the championship final in the 100 with a ninth in the prelims, on inexperience.

All of them emerged at China’s Olympic trials earlier this year, and Shan upset Le in a time of 54.59, at that point the fastest 100 in the world this year.