By Pat Bigold. Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Tuesday, September 5, 2000.
Fidel Castro is trying to sink a U.S. boat en route to Sydney, and there's a local athlete in it.
Hawaii has one of its best Olympic contingents in many years and there could be a half dozen or more medals coming back to the islands.
That's good news because the state hasn't harvested a single medal since 1988.
But one of our best hopes, Honolulu-bred Peter Newton, could get blown out of the water in an eligibility dispute he didn't even create.
It's hard to imagine how Newton, who qualified for his third consecutive Olympics, is feeling now.
He's so close to dipping his paddle into the waters of the Sydney International Regatta Centre, yet teetering on the brink of disqualification.
Here's the problem.
Angel Perez, a Cuban refugee athlete who is one of Newton's teammates in the K-4 flatwater kayak, has been denied a release from his native country.
International Olympic Committee rules require that athletes like Perez, who have been citizens of their new countries for less than three years, receive official releases from their former countries in order to represent their new countries in the Olympics.
Castro won't let Perez go even though he's been in America since 1993.
The IOC isn't helping. It has rejected Perez's appeal to compete, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which has final say in matters involving the Olympics, has yet to receive a petition to compete from Perez or any other Cuban athlete. Meanwhile, South Africa, which just missed qualifying a
K-4 for the Olympics at the 1999 world championships, is saying that because the U.S. has an ineligible athlete, it should not be allowed to compete.
The South Africans would presumably take the American berth.
The IOC also has supported Castro in blocking women's long jump world champion Niurka Montalvo and water polo player Ivan Perez, who both wanted to represent Spain.
All because of this, Newton as well as two other seasoned kayak veterans, Stein Jorgensen of San Diego and John Mooney of Eugene, Ore., may miss the Olympics.
What a kick in the stomach.
After four years of dedicated training and preparation, these guys could get the heave-ho less than two weeks before the opening ceremonies.
And who's to blame?
The same bearded guy in fatigues who'll be given incredible security when he visits New York City later this week.
THE Perez story goes that while competing in Mexico in 1993, the paddler broke away from his team and swam the Rio Grande to political asylum.
He went to Miami and established his citizenship. In 1997, he qualified for the U.S. National Team and got the OK from the Immigration and Naturalization Services to compete abroad.
Perez paired with Newton in the K-2 at the 1997 nationals and in the world championships. In 1999, they were teammates on the gold medal K-4 1,000-meter team at the Pan American Games before capturing first in the Olympic trials this year.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport begins its work today in Sydney with 12 arbitrators, and hopefully Perez will fight to do what Elian Gonzalez could not do. Break free of Castro's hold.
Let's hope he does and is successful.
Otherwise, some fine athletes will have wasted four years of their lives.
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.
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