Speedskating Star Has A Hard Time Earning Acclaim For Achievements

The list of his accomplishments takes up two full pages in Dan Jansen’s resume. There have been 20 World Championship medals, 50 World Cup medals, a fistful of trophies topped off by the 1994 Sullivan Award as America’s top amateur athlete.

And yet, until somebody had the good sense to hand him his infant daughter for an Olympic victory lap at Lillehammer, the most enduring memory of Jansen was of him falling twice in Calgary.

That hardly seems appropriate. Here is a guy who was the nation’s very best speedskater for an awfully long time and is remembered more for a couple of falls and a leisurely skate with his daughter in his arms.

“It’s unfortunate and unfair that we’re remembered and recognized for those things,” Jansen said. “A lot of it has to do with television. In speedskating, we’re not visible except every four years. The press only sees the Olympics. That’s frustrating.”

Image, Andre Agassi has told us, is everything. And for a long time, the image of Jansen was one of sorrow, tears in his eyes after learning of the death of his sister, Jane, on the eve of his races at Calgary. He tried to compete and fell early in one race, late in another.

It was a terrific story, a compelling drama full of pathos and poignancy, the kind of story the imagemakers salivate over. It also caused people to forget what a terrific speedskater Dan Jansen was.

The World Sprint championship, the World Cup championships - all of that meant nothing. What counted was that Jansen had fallen and that tears were flowing. It was an image that clung like an albatross to him and clouded his accomplishments. All that anybody heard about in the days leading up to Lillehammer were his Olympic failures.

“In December before the Olympics, I broke the 36-second barrier,” Jansen said, recalling his 35.76 clocking for 500 meters. “Two years before that, people thought it would never be done. It was speedskating’s fourminute mile. In Europe, it was front page news.”

In the United States, it was an alsoran item. Win at the Olympics or forget about earning a place up front. So Jansen went out and won - not in his 500-meter speciality, but at 1,000 meters, in the final Olympic race of his career. Smart move.

He returned a hero, his image changed forever, the tears replaced by smiles. Now retired from his sport, Jansen works for CBS and does motivational speaking.

“I miss the competition,” he said. “I don’t miss the routine of getting up every morning and doing the workouts.”

Swimming to win

The swimmers were going to be housed in Soviet-style barracks, their every move monitored by coaches and trainers. They would eat, sleep, swim and lift weights - that’s all. No outside jobs, no visitors, just hard training.

This was the nightmare scenario created by the early critics of the Resident National Team, a bold experiment undertaken last year by U.S. Swimming.

The idea was to collect a dozen swimmers, college graduates mostly, who wanted to continue working toward the 1996 Olympics but who were financially and motivationally strapped. They would train and live together under an elite coaching staff at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

The whole purpose: more medals in Atlanta.

The first test: The Pan Am Games in Argentina.

“I think this will give a good look at how (the Resident Team) is going,” said Amy Van Dyken, 22, the American record-holder in the 50-meter freestyle and one of five Resident Team members at the Pan Ams.

“It’s much more relaxed than I thought it would be. The swimmers are allowed to leave the dorms; I even have my own apartment. I don’t think it’s like the Soviet system at all.”

Some of the team members get $200 a month, plus room, board and training expenses. Van Dyken’s food is paid for, but she receives no money. She survives on various grants, prize money and an endorsement deal with Arena swimwear.

“I think they should do it again (before the 2000 Olympics),” Van Dyken said of the Resident Team concept. “It’s great for swimmers who don’t have a place to go (after college). The club system works - and we shouldn’t get rid of that - but I think this is really going great.”

Briefly

Greenville, Texas, sprinter Henry Neal is fielding some endorsement offers these days, even though he injured a hip flexor and didn’t make the 60-meter final at the U.S. Indoor Championships. Neal’s job counseling students at Greenville High School pays him just $35 a day… . Bill Payne, the former All-America pole vaulter from Baylor, had a terrific indoor season. Except for a no-height at the Millrose Games and an injury that kept him out of the U.S. championships, Payne was first or second in every meet… . If you want to try out for the U.S. women’s ice hockey team, call Val Belmonte at 719-599-5500. Women’s hockey is being added to the Winter Olympic program beginning in 1998.