OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : Summers May Not Be as Festive : Notebook: Officials cancel 1997 Olympic Festival, leave future of event in doubt.

DENVER —  If not already destined for the scrap heap, the Olympic Sports Festival is, at the very least, in for a major overhaul.

The 10-day, 37-sport event has provided a training ground for almost 70% of the summer Olympic athletes in the United States, but it has been a financial failure in the larger cities that have played host to the event.

Last weekend, the U.S. Olympic Committee Executive board canceled the 1997 Festival, saying it might--repeat, might--bring the competition back under a new format in 1999.

Several U.S. sports federations are said to be in favor of inviting international participation in the Festival or otherwise boosting the level of competition.

During its 17 years, the Festival generally has been considered a training ground for younger, developing athletes. For example, in swimming only competitors 18 and under are considered for the meet.

The USOC’s decision to temporarily scrap the games isn’t a popular one among athletes.

“I really feel sorry for the younger players because I gained a lot of experience at the Festival,” said softball player Karen Walker-Deegan, a veteran of national and international competition.

Walker-Deegan, a former El Camino Real High and UCLA standout, participated in her first Festival 10 years ago.

“I was 18, and when you’re that age you think that’s it, that you’re the greatest thing on Earth,” Walker-Deegan said. “You come here and you have to push yourself. Players you’ve only heard about you’re playing side by side with. It picks you up.”

The 66 softball players at this year’s Festival range in age from 18 to 34, and competitors from both sides of the generation gap claim to benefit from the mix.

“The younger people are the best in their category and all of a sudden the look around and say, ‘Wow, I’ve got to keep working,’ ” said Barbara Jordan, a 29-year-old former Granada Hills High and Cal State Northridge standout.

As for the more experienced players?

“We’re looking around too,” Jordan said. “And we’re saying, these people are coming up. I’ve got to stay on top of my game.”

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Softball players who survive the cut and are named to the U.S. Olympic team will be used to performing under pressure.

For the past three years, top players have been scrutinized under the watchful eye of a seven-person selection committee.

That committee’s work is almost done. The Festival is the first of four major competitions this summer that will culminate with the announcement of a 15-member team Sept. 5.

After the Festival comes the international Superball Classic in Columbus, Ga., Aug. 3-6; the women’s major nationals, in Decatur, Ill., Aug. 11-19; and finally, the Olympic Team Trials, in Oklahoma City, Aug. 30-Sept. 5.

Walker-Deegan, Jordan, former Glendale High star Jenny Dalton, former Buena High player Kim Maher, former Northridge All-American Priscilla Rouse and former Taft High and UCLA star Sheila Cornell are among the Festival participants and Olympic hopefuls who are feeling the heat of the spotlight.

“You try not to think about them watching you, but in the back of your mind it’s there,” Walker-Deegan said.

Of the local contingent, Cornell, a power-hitting first baseman, and Jordan, a feisty outfielder and singles hitter, probably have the best chances of making the Olympic team.

Cornell, 33, has been among the nation’s very best players for more than a decade. This spring, she helped the U.S. team’s gold-medal-winning effort in the Pan American Games by batting .581.

Going into Tuesday night’s games at the Festival, Cornell was batting .412 with a home run and five runs batted in.

Jordan was batting .333 going into Tuesday’s games. In the Pan Am Games, she batted .294 and scored six runs playing part time in the outfield. A solid effort, but good enough to make the final 15?

She tries not to worry about it.

“I just see my goal and I just play,” Jordan said. “I just hope my ability takes care of things. I Smean, if they don’t like me by now. . . .”

Members of the selection committee have avoided commenting on who might be front-runners for the team.

“There are players who are leading at their positions, but there’s nobody who is a done deal,” said committee member Kathy Arendsen, a former national team player who is coach at Yale.

Arendsen said she expects the U.S. team to be a “wonderful blend of youth, experience, speed and power.”

It usually is.

The United States has won 105 consecutive games against international competition dating to 1986.

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Two local softball players turned down invitations to the Festival.

Former Hoover High star Nancy Evans is resting a stress fracture in her right foot. Former Thousand Oaks High standout Amy Chellevold could not get the time off work.

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The Dumais brothers from Ventura, Troy, 15, and Justin, 16, were the youngest male divers to compete in this year’s Festival.

As usual, not much separated the two. Justin placed fourth in the 10-meter platform, scoring 613.68 points, to edge his brother, who finished sixth with 611.04 points.

Diving has become a tradition for the Dumais family, which, oddly enough, doesn’t have a pool in the back yard. Brice, 14, Leanne, 11, and Dwight, 9, also compete in age-group meets.

Their father, Marc, started things by entering Troy in a meet 10 years ago after noting the enthusiasm and potential his son showed while frolicking in the pool at a friend’s home.

Justin and Troy train at Rose Bowl Aquatics in Pasadena, prompting the family to recently secure a second home in Glendale.

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Jim Hop of Camarillo scored 11 goals in three games to help the West team into Tuesday night’s gold medal team handball match against the South.

Hop, a member of the U.S. national team, came into the game sixth in Festival scoring.

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There is a double standard in Olympic weightlifting.

Men’s weightlifting is part of the Olympics. Women’s competition is not.

Diana Fuhrman of Simi Valley, a four-time national champion, doesn’t understand it.

“It’s not like we need any special equipment,” said Fuhrman, who placed second Tuesday in the 70-kilogram weight class. “It’s not like gymnastics where you have all kinds of expensive apparatus. The only thing I can think of is that it’s not a big money-maker like some of the other sports they’re letting in.

“We don’t have a lot of fancy gadgets or $2,000 bikes that a sponsor would like us to ride.”

Fuhrman, 33, a Van Nuys High science teacher, said she would be willing to try a little sex appeal if it meant more attention would be focused on her sport.

“How about giving the girls some nice-looking suits, where maybe they could put a sponsor’s name across the front,” she said. “Weightlifters have always gotten crap.”

This year’s options: Plain black leotard or plain blue leotard.

“It’s frustrating,” Fuhrman said. “Most of the girls have some real nice figures. If we can make the sport a little more dazzling and eye-appealing to the media, just do it.”

Sounds like somebody else’s slogan.