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"Aerobically challenged" 50 meters the perfect distance for world champ Pilczuk
Posted: Monday July 27, 1998 06:15 PM
UNIONDALE, New York (AP) -- On the list of grueling sports events, the 50-meter freestyle ranks just above marbles and tiddlywinks, and that's why Bill Pilczuk likes it. "I'm aerobically challenged," America's fastest swimmer said Monday. "The 100 is just too long for me." Pilczuk failed to make the 1996 Olympics, but he finally made a splash internationally in January when he broke Russian Aleksandr Popov's seven-year unbeaten string and won the world championship in Perth, Australia. The two rivals meet again at the Goodwill Games, although the dual-meet format will have them both racing in the 50 twice against other teams before they swim against each other Sunday. "I look at this as more of a fun matchup," said Pilczuk, of Auburn, Alabama. "The only real big races are the Olympics and the world championships. I feel like I won the big rivalry race this year, and the next one isn't until the Olympics. He [Popov] might look at it differently since I beat him this year." Popov, the world record-holder for 100 meters, is regarded as something of a distance swimmer by Pilczuk, who doesn't bother swimming anything but the 50. Most of the Americans are looking ahead to the U.S. national championships in Clovis, California, as the most important of the summer. Teams for four international meets in 1999 will be selected based on the Clovis results. "This is a low-key meet for us," Pilczuk said. "I think for the foreign teams, they regard it as the biggest meet of the summer." The U.S. women will swim against China on Tuesday, an international All-Star team on Thursday and Germany on Saturday. The U.S. men will face Germany on Wednesday, an All-Star team on Friday and Russia on Sunday. The men's All-Star team has swimmers from Cuba, Puerto Rico, South Africa, France, Italy, Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Britain, Venezuela, Ukraine and the Netherlands. The women's All-Star team is from South Africa, France, Ukraine, Russia, Egypt, Japan, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Spain, New Zealand and the Netherlands. "This format gives me three chances on three different days to prove myself, and if I have a bad day, I can make up for it," Pilczuk said. The Goodwill Games also provides prize money, a rarity in swimming. A world record is worth $50,000, but most of the Americans have not tapered their training enough to make world records likely. "It would be nice, but you don't get into swimming for the money, you do it for fun," said Lenny Krayzelburg of Los Angeles, who won the 100 and 200 backstroke at the World Championships. "You might see more swimmers go for it on the international teams if they prepared for this meet. Sometimes records just happen when you don't expect them, but most of the U.S. team is pointing for the nationals." Krayzelburg, who moved with his family to the United States from Ukraine 10 years ago when he was 13 and became a U.S. citizen six years later, said the older swimmers have their eyes on the $50,000 in prize money split by the winning men's and women's teams. Just four of the 18 U.S. women and 10 of the 18 men are out of college and eligible for prize money. "I'm just looking at that 5,000," said Pilczuk, whch would be man's share of the prize.
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Pilczuk won the world championship
in Perth, Australia in January 