SPORTS Fencing For Gold Stollman helps third-seeded team to upset in Olympic Festival. STINGS PASSBOOK • Security & High Interest Rate COMPARE YOUR BANK MANUFACTURERS COMERICA NBD MICR. NAT. 5.00°/0 4.75% 5.00% 4.75% RATES BASED ON $1,000 PASSBOOK MONEY FUND ACCOUNT BALANCE. • Instant Liquidity COMPARE YOUR BANK MANUFACTURERS COMERICA NBD 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 5.50% 5.65% 5.80% 5.75% HIGH INTEREST AND EASY ACCESS TO YOUR FUNDS 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