SPORTS
Fencing For Gold
Stollman helps third-seeded team to upset
in Olympic Festival.
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MICH. NAT.
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
B
irmingham's David
Stollman got a mea-
sure of revenge at the
recent Olympic Festival in
Minneapolis.
Stollman, ranked sixth
among United States
fencers, cruised through the
the highly touted New York
Fencers Club to lead his
North squad to the Fes-
tival's gold medal.
He was one of two Jewish
athletes from Michigan to
compete in the Festival. The
other, weightlifter Kathie
Nichol of Southfield, didn't
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four bouts against the
powerful New York team
and only lost two bouts —
both to the Penn State Club
— the entire day.
However, a knee injury
kept him from the Festival's
individual competition.
Stollman's North team,
third-seeded in the competi-
tion, opened by defeating
Penn State 10-6 and the ju-
nior (under age 20) team
13-3, setting up the
showdown with the New
Yorkers, who had two
former Olympians on the
squad.
Stollman defeated Steve
Mormando, who represented
the U.S. in the 1984 and '88
Olympics, 5-1, and then
downed Michael Lofton, an
'88 Olympian and four-time
National Collegiate Athletic
Association champion, 5-3.
That pitted him against
Jerry Rodriguez, who had
beaten Stollman in the na-
tional championship finals
in June. But Stollman rolled
over Rodriguez, 5-1.
Special Athlete Efforts
Test Volunteers' Mettle
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
David Stollman:
Only two losses.
fare well, missing three
snatch lifts and suffering a
disqualification.
"I was in good company,
though," said Nichol, noting
five other female lifters also
were disqualified for misses.
Nichol, a Southfield High
School physical education
teacher, recently repeated as
Michigan state 48-kilo wo-
men's weightlifting cham-
pion. However, she said she
is taking time off from corn-
petition, concentrating in-
stead on officiating men's
meets.
Indicating she was a bit
burned out on competitive
lifting, Nichol said she
wouldn't resume as an en-
trant in meets "until I get
real hungry."
Stollman, whose goal is to
make the U.S. fencing team
for the 1992 Olympics in
Barcelona, Spain, won all
54
FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1990
The New Yorkers' strategy
was to put all their big guns
against Stollman's team
from the beginning, instead
of substituting their fifth
man and saving something
for the end, just in case.
Instead, all New York had
left against Stollman was
the fifth man, whom
Stollman defeated, 5-1, as
his team clinched the gold
medal.
The Michigan fencer, who
works under Yuri
Rabinovich in Detroit, has
transferred from the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania,
where he completed his
NCAA eligibility, to Colum-
bia University in New York,
where he is training under
veteran Columbia fencing
coach Aladar Kogler.
Stollman said his knee has
healed and he is aiming to
qualify for the Pan Ameri-
can Games, the World Uni-
versity Games and the world
fencing championships next
summer. ❑
W
hatever problems
you come in here
with," says Eunice
Swaab, "if you still have
them when you leave, I feel
sorry for you."
Swaab, of Farmington
Hills, is describing the expe-
rience of being a volunteer
worker for the Michigan
Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
Games for the developmen-
tally disabled. She and her
husband Jerry have done
this since the Games began
four years ago.
For the Swaabs and most
of the other 73 volunteers,
one Sunday a year at the
Maple-Drake Jewish Com-
munity Center is a powerful
emotional experience. The
Games, styled after the Spe-
cial Olympics and based on
the Hall's goals of promoting
sports and Jewish identity,
puts the volunteers face-to-
face with the struggles of
fellow Detroit-area Jews
—mostly adults — fighting
against mental and/or
physical handicaps which
most have had since birth.
The fourth annual Games
last Sunday offered a case in
point: the struggle of 20-
year-old Amy Krome of Bir-
mingham, a victim of
cerebral palsy, to navigate
the perimeter of the JCC
gymnasium with her
walker.
Krome, a 1988 honors
graduate of Farmington
Harrison High School who
was the football team's
mascot, virtually lives in her
electric wheelchair. The ex-
ception, before Sunday, was
when she promised her
classmates she would walk
across the Ford Auditorium
stage to receive her diploma
at graduation. After work-
ing with her walker for a
year, she did it — and earned
a standing ovation for her
effort.
Krome has an older
brother who is a triathalon
competitor. She entered the
Games last year too late to
prepare for the races, com-
peting instead in tennis ball
throws.
This year, she recruited