WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Lewis Often Hides Light Under Bushel

Carl Lewis complains that some among the media emphasize what they perceive to be his negatives--his flamboyance, his candor, his occasional lack of humility, even his singing voice. Either they don’t particularly like him, or they have him confused with Roseanne Arnold.

But one problem could be that Lewis does not emphasize his positives, such as a recent gift that not even his manager, Joe Douglas of the Santa Monica Track Club, learned of until told by a reporter last week.

Dan Shrum, director of the Mt. San Antonio College Relays, said that Lewis has been the largest individual donor to the refurbishment of the track at Mt. SAC, although he would not reveal the amount. He added that Lewis and his Santa Monica teammates paid their own air fare from Houston to this year’s meet after Mt. SAC lost its sponsor.

This is not the first time Lewis has given back to track and field. A few years ago, he contributed $125,000 toward the installation of a new track where he trains at the University of Houston.

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Lewis’ third-place finish in the 100 meters behind Jon Drummond and Mike Marsh in Saturday’s New York Games is no cause for alarm. He seldom starts the season fast. Recognizing that, Drummond took his victory in stride. “This is too early to be an upset for anyone,” he said.

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Hurdler Greg Foster has been taking lessons from boxers. Not about boxing, but retiring. After announcing that this year would be his last, Foster, 34, said last week, “It’s a definite maybe now.” Foster finished second at New York to Mark Crear. Like Olympic 400-meter champion Quincy Watts, Crear is a former USC Trojan who trains under UCLA sprint Coach John Smith at Westwood. Smith also coaches Drummond.

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A Russian hurdler, Lyudmila Nazrohilenko, might have her positive drug test overturned. Her former coach, who also is her husband, acknowledged that he replaced her protein pills with anabolic steroids out of spite after she told him she was moving to Sweden with her manager.

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Two Olympians who never had difficulty winning friends, Mary Lou Retton and Dorothy Hamill, shared first place in a poll conducted by Sports Marketing Group of Dallas to determine the United States’ most popular athletes.

The results might have been different, Nye Lavalle, president of the marketing group, said if the survey had targeted those who frequent sports bars or sporting events. Instead, questionnaires were randomly mailed to 5,000 persons over the age of 12.

“Despite the perception by many people that Michael Jordan is the most popular athlete in the country, the reality is he’s not,” Lavalle told the Associated Press. “His image has suffered in the last year, especially with that gambling incident.”

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For the second time since 1990, Italian teams are in position to win all three major European soccer cups. Already, Juventus of Turin has won the UEFA Cup and Parma the Cup Winners’ Cup. On Wednesday at Munich, AC Milan can complete the sweep with a victory over Olympique Marseille of France in the Champions’ Cup.

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Paul Gascoigne might be England’s best soccer player. He certainly is the most publicized. But fans in this country probably will not be able to see the flashy midfielder play in next month’s U.S. Cup. His club team, Lazio of Rome, is demanding that he remain in Italy to finish the regular season. . . . A Dutch soccer player, Hendrik Wentink, recently had his suspension lifted for hitting a referee. He only had to wait 51 years. And North American hockey fans thought Dale Hunter’s 21-game suspension was stiff.

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Although Beijing officials are optimistic, Sydney, Australia, appears to be the favorite to win the bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics when the International Olympic Committee votes in September. On a recent visit to Sydney, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch felt compelled to warn the bid committee against overconfidence. “The biggest mistake you can make is to think that you are the winners,” he said.

Whichever among the six candidates wins, no one will be able to say that China failed to cover all the bases. On Samaranch’s recent visit to Shanghai, organizers boasted they had built a “five-star toilet” for his exclusive use.

Notes

The International Amateur Athletic Federation council, meeting for three days in Stuttgart, Germany, changed two world records Sunday. The council added 0.04 seconds to the outdoor 1,500-meter mark set by Noureddine Morceli of Algeria at Rieti, Italy, on Sept. 6, 1992, because officials used the wrong print from the photo-finish camera. Morceli’s record was set at 3:28.86. Also the women’s 50-meter indoor mark of 6.00 seconds, set by Irina Privalova of Russia Feb. 2 at Moscow was not ratified because the photo-finish camera was not on the finishing line.

The decision by organizers of the 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway, to spend $750,000 to upgrade the women’s downhill course so that it will no longer be considered too easy received a cool reception from the skiers and the International Ski Federation. They still want the event moved to the more challenging mountain where the men’s downhillers are competing. . . . Latest inductees into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame at Colorado Springs, Colo., include Ronnie Robertson of Irvine, silver medalist in the 1956 Winter Olympics, and Richard Dwyer of Hollywood. Dwyer is best known for his years in ice shows as “Mr. Debonair.” . . . When Dick Shultz resigned as executive director of the NCAA, he also had to relinquish his position as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s executive committee. USOC officials say he played a crucial role in bringing the two organizations closer together, establishing a committee within the NCAA for that purpose.