Clark Dives Over Fears, Into Games

Climbing the stairs to the 10-meter platform for her last dive, Mary Ellen Clark’s only thought was to attack the tower that has alternately scared and thrilled her for 26 years.

If she was going to fail to make a second straight Olympic team, Clark wasn’t going to chicken out trying.

Already in the last eight months she had overcome another case of vertigo, a terrifying and mysterious condition that causes dizziness and could have ended her diving career.

So one last plunge off a platform that is equivalent to a three-story building was much less worrisome.

Trailing 18-year-old leader Becky Ruehl by seven points, Clark pulled off a solid backward 1-1/2 somersault with 2-1/2 twists to win the platform title in the U.S. Olympic diving trials Saturday in Indianapolis.

“I just wanted to go after it because if I was going to be tentative, I would be kicking myself for the rest of my life,” she said.

Clark, 33, qualified for next month’s Atlanta Games, where she is the defending bronze medalist. She missed most of last year with vertigo.

Ruehl, of Lakeside Park, Ky., finished second to earn the other Olympic berth in her first trials.

In the men’s 10-meter platform, Patrick Jeffrey led after the preliminary round in his bid to make his second Olympic team eight years after competing in the Seoul Games.

Jeffrey of Madison, N.J., had 455.46 points heading into today’s final two rounds.

No-show makes dressage team

The big winner in the Olympic Dressage Trials in Gladstone, N.J., was the rider who didn’t show.

Michelle Gibson and Peron were named to the team based on their commanding scores from the first two trials last weekend. They were given a bye for this weekend’s final two trials since Peron has been slow to adjust to the heat and humidity of New Jersey.

Gibson, of Roswell, Ga., and Peron arrived in the United States just 10 days before the start of the trials after three years training and competing in Germany. Scores from qualifying competition in Europe will be figured in with their scores in these trials to determine their final standing.

Saturday’s Grand Prix test solidified team chances for Guenter Seidel of Encinitas, Calif., on Graf George, who won with 71.08 percent.

Speed thrills

The Bosnian Olympic team, which is training in Pell City, Ala., visited nearby Talladega Superspeedway Friday and took turns riding in a NASCAR Pontiac Trans Am pace car with speedway Public Relations Director Jim Freeman.

The 100 mph-plus taste of Southern sports culture was a hoot for the athletes.

“Awesome,” Bosnia head coach Dorde Najsteter said through an interpreter. “I had driven an Audi before the war in Bosnia, but 150 kilometers was the highest speed I reached. This time, we hit 200 kilometers, which is something else.

“You get the feeling someone is still pressing the gas even after you leave the automobile.”

U.S. soccer team tied

Claudio Reyna scored on a first-half penalty kick to give the United States an early lead, but South Africa scored twice in the second half of a 2-2 tie in a pre-Olympic exhibition soccer game in Richmond, Va.

Foreigners to pay early for health care

Atlanta-area hospitals will ask international visitors to the Summer Olympics to pay up front for any health care they might need, according to officials at hospitals designated by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to serve spectators.

No visitor will be refused care. But the hospitals believe that if people can afford to come to the Olympics, they can afford medical expenses.

U.S. baseball lineup almost set

U.S. Olympic baseball coach Skip Bertman said much of his starting lineup is pretty much set, barring injury.

Stanford senior A.J. Hinch should start at catcher; San Diego State’s Travis Lee, the second player taken in the recent major league draft, first base; LSU’s College World Series hero Warren Morris, second base; Cal State Fullerton and 1995 Golden Spikes Award winner Mark Kotsay, left field; and Southern California’s Jacque Jones, center field.

Competition at shortstop is between Jason Williams of LSU and Kip Harkrider of Texas. Troy Glaus of UCLA and Casey Blake of Wichita State are contenders for third base. The biggest race is for right field between J.D. Drew of Florida State, Chad Green of Kentucky and Chad Allen of Texas A&M.

More woes for U.S. boxers

USA Boxing, in the midst of reorganizing its front office after reported mismanagement, continues to make the wrong kind of news with its Olympic boxing team.

On the heels of six U.S. alternates and sparring partners being sent home for numerous team violations, Olympian David Reid’s arrest for allegedly beating up his girlfriend; and Nate Jones reportedly challenging several Russian fighters in a drunken stupor in a Miami, Fla., hotel, comes word that super heavyweight Lawrence Clay-Bey was arrested 16 months ago on a sexual assault charge.

The woman he was accused of assaulting agreed to a reduction of charges to third-degree sexual assault if Clay-Bey, a corrections officer in Hartford, Conn., enrolled in a rehabilitation program.

Swimwear style changes

Some U.S. and foreign swimmers will be wearing Speedo’s new knee-length swimsuit this summer at the Games. Speedo International spent $1.5 million perfecting Aquablade, which has 23 percent less surface resistance than regular suits.

The alternating stripes of resin-coated polyester help swimmers glide through the water with greater ease.