Swimmers Will Try to Make a Name for Themselves : National Short Course Meet This Week Should Help to Identify America’s Stars of Future

It’s true that most of the young women competing this week in the national short course swimming meet at the East Los Angeles College pool are still being identified by their first and last name. Gone are those who are known by simply a first name, such as Tracy, or a nickname, such as Sippy.

It’s true that this is a time of rebuilding for the American swimmers. But Amy is making no apologies.

Amy is Amy White, a 16-year-old from Mission Viejo who won the silver medal in the women’s 200-meter backstroke last summer in the Olympic Games.

She said Tuesday: “We are kind of on a low point right now because so many of the household names are gone. The swimmers here are pretty young, but by 1986, you’ll know the names. The potential is there.”

Ray Essick, executive director of U.S. Swimming, agreed, saying: “This is the generation I think will solidify the women’s program.”

From the point of view of U.S. Swimming, this meet will help identify that young talent.

This is the third of three major short course meets--the women’s National Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet was two weeks ago and the men’s NCAA meet was just last week. So the collegiate swimmers have already shown where they stand. Yet to be heard from this year are the up-and-comers.

“This meet will show a great deal more about the depth and the potential of the women’s program,” Essick said.

It will serve the same purpose for the men’s program, but the men’s program has never really been suspect. There has been cause for alarm over the women’s program, however, since the women came home from the 1976 Olympics with just one gold medal.

Then came the emergence of a handful of superstars who carried the program year after year--and who now are gone.

Essick said: “There is a theory that says whenever someone dominates an event, it’s bad for that event. It eliminates the competition. Right now, competition is wide open. We have almost 200,000 kids registered with U.S. Swimming, and that doesn’t count Ys (YMCAs) or colleges.

“What we have to do now is identify the young talent that is out there and make sure that we develop it. We have to keep the cream coming to the top.”

And be prepared to make household names of the youngsters who emerge. Jenna Johnson, for example, is fast becoming a celebrity at pool side. Johnson, a senior at Whittier Christian High School, upset Mary T. Meagher in the 100-meter butterfly at the Olympic trials last summer and went on to win the silver medal.

She’ll be swimming against Meagher this week.

And who knows who else might come splashing up?

“Laugh at me if you will,” said Essick, who was jabbed a little last week for talking up this meet. “I still say it’s an exciting time for U.S. Swimming.”

Tiffany Cohen and Mike O’Brien, both gold medal winners at the Olympics, swam to American records in 1,000-yard races Tuesday, the first day of the short course meet.

Cohen, 18, swam the 1,000 in 9 minutes, 28.32 seconds. She bettered the meet and American records of 9:29.97 set in 1981 by Kim Lineham.

O’Brien, 19, of Costa Mesa, was clocked in 8:47.38. That bettered the 8:48.57 by Jeff Kostoff in 1983.

The times cannot be recognized as world record because those must be set in 50-meter pools, and U. S. short course championships are raced in yards.

The meet will continue through Saturday, with preliminary heats starting at 9:30 a.m. and final heats beginning at 6 p.m. each day.