Linda Goldstein

F

or Linda Goldstein and
Steve Robinson, the
week of Aug. 19-26 will
have an Olympian flavor.
For Seth Hoffman, it will
be a welcome — but
nonetheless challenging
—break from the usual
grind.
Although they are but
three of the more than 200
Jewish teenage athletes
competing on behalf of the
Detroit Maccabi Club team
in the Jewish Community
Centers — North American
Maccabi Youth Games next
week, their athletic achiev-
ements to date make Golds-
tein, Robinson and Hoffman
a trio worth watching.
Goldstein, 16, of Farm-
ington Hills, is among the
top high school swimmers in
in the country; Robinson, 16,
of East Detroit, was last
year's Michigan state Ama-
teur Athletic Union run-
nerup in freestyle wrestling;
and Hoffman, 15, of West
Bloomfield, is nationally
ranked No. 6 in age 15-16
junior tennis, although he
will be bypassing that sport
in favor of basketball in the
Maccabi.

M-4

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1990

The tall (5-foot, 8-inch),
slender Goldstein, who was
West Bloomfield High
School's state runnerup this
year in the 200-yard
freestyle and is the fifth-
ranked United States
Swimming (USS) 500
freestyler, is a veteran of
both the 1986 Toronto
Games and last year's re-
gional Games in Pittsburgh.
She won gold medals in the
200-meter freestyle (two
minutes, 2.40 seconds), the
100-meter backstroke
(1:06.24) and the 400-meter
freestyle (4:58.89) at Pitt-
sburgh.
Goldstein will be hitting
the North American Youth
Games right after her first
United States Junior Na-
tionals long-course meet at
Boca Raton, Fla., Aug. 6-12
and the Aug. 13 start of fall
swim practice at her new
school, Mercy High. She
won't get a break from
swimming until next March.
But that doesn't bother
her. She likes the Youth
Games, both for its athletic
and social aspects — it's
given her a unique oppor-
tunity to meet and compete

internationally. And
besides, she laughs, "I'll
probably be in nine events.
Coach (Herb) Bernstein puts
me wherever he needs me."
The daughter of Mary
Ellen Goldstein and the late
Ralph Goldstein, University
of Detroit basketball Hall of
Famer, Linda Goldstein first
learned swimming from
older sisters Barb and Suzie.
Suzie Goldstein swam in
the 1984 Detroit Games, but
little sister Linda has loftier
goals: she'd like to be in next
year's Olympic Trials. "That
would be a pretty good ac-
complishment for me," she
said.
In the meantime, Golds-
tein will be hunting for more
Maccabi golds. "I should be
in good shape, coming back
from the Nationals," she
said.
Wrestler Steve Robinson
has a number of goals: winn-
ing a gold medal in the
Detroit Games, getting into
the Junior Olympics and
earning a college mat schol-
arship.
Guided by his father, Jack,
who wrestled briefly in high
school and college and — at
age 45 — can still take care
of himself on a mat, young
Steve is giving grappling his
all this summer.
The elder Robinson has
put his son on a weight-
training regimen which has
seen Steve go from 119
pounds to 130. "He's only
gained a half-inch on his
waist — most of it is going
into his shoulders," said the

Three Detroiters are
expected to be in the
Games' spotlight.

RICHARD PEARL

Staff Writer

father, who wrestled at Clin-
tondale High School and at
Macomb County Community
College.
The younger Robinson,
who learned too late about
the regional Maccabi to
enter last year, spent last

summer in AAU freestyle
competition, finishing as
runner-up in the state AAU
meet with a 17-2 record for
the season. Fourteen of his
victories were by pins. He
lost the AAU championship
by one point.

AVI
DRISSMAN

Chess

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