The U.S. Olympic Committee expects 700 American athletes to show up at the Pan American Games. America expects 12 of them to win - at last.
The U.S. men's basketball team hasn't won a major international championship since 1986, but U.S. basketball coach Gene Keady says: "Each day we get a little bit better."And, each day, the Pan Am Games draw closer as crews of volunteers work 20-hour days to put the finishing touches on the biggest sports extravaganza ever in the world's last bastion of oldtime, Soviet-style communism.
In track and field and swimming, U.S. teams also were expected to do well, although neither was sending its A Team. U.S. boxers, meanwhile, had reason for hope until each of the Olympic Festival winners decided to pass up the Pan Am Games for the world championships in Australia in November.
The games run Aug. 2-18 in Havana and Santiago, cities rarely seen by Americans since Castro took over in 1959 but now badly in need of outside cash.
The U.S. men's basketball team will try to be ready on time. The team hasn't won a major international gold medal since the 1986 world championships with a team led by David Robinson and coached by Lute Olson.
In the five years since, the team has been beaten in the 1987 Pan Am Games, 1988 Seoul Olympics, and 1990 Goodwill Games and world championships.
This year, Keady, of Purdue, will take a team led by Jimmy Jackson of Ohio State and Christian Laettner of Duke into Havana as a co-favorite along with Puerto Rico. The Americans start the tournament on Saturday against host Cuba.
"By our standards, anything less than the gold is a losing situation," Keady said.
Keady coached the U.S. team to a gold medal in the 1989 World University Games, but that is not considered a major international tournament since it does not involve the U.S. national team.
The U.S. women's team, meanwhile, has won 41 consecutive games in major international competition and is heavily favored to win the gold medal in Havana.
At the last Pan Am Games in Indianapolis in 1987, the United States won a record 369 medals, including 168 gold, 118 silver and 83 bronze.