Athletes trade Red and Blue for Red, White and Blue

Thousands of American athletes will begin competing this weekend in Sydney, Australia, for the glory of the red, white and blue. For a special group of five, though, the preparation for the realization of these Olympic dreams came while wearing the Red and Blue. Penn, which has been represented in every modern Olympiad since the first in 1896, will see five of its own compete for the United States in Sydney over the next few weeks. Fencers Cliff Bayer and Tamir Bloom, rowers Sarah Garner and Garrett Miller and wrestler Brandon Slay will make up the Quakers contingent at this year's Summer Games. Former Penn rower John Pescatore and former Quakers crew coach Ted Nash will also head Down Under as assistant coaches for the U.S. rowing squads. For Bayer, this will be his second Games -- he finished 34th in the individual foil in Atlanta in 1996. This time, though, Bayer -- the only current Penn student-athlete in Sydney -- is being called the United States' best hope for a fencing medal since 1984. The top-ranked American foilist, Bayer qualified for the Games by winning the gold medal in the foil at a World Cup event in Bonn, Germany, in April. His World Cup performance also moved him up to No. 8 in the world foil rankings. Sports Illustrated recently predicted Bayer, a Wharton senior, would earn the bronze medal in Sydney. A former NCAA champion, Bayer is taking this semester off and will return in the spring. He will be joined in Australia by his friend Bloom, who graduated from the College in 1994. Bloom, who will compete in epee, trains with Bayer at the New York Athletic Club. While Bayer may be Penn's best hope for a medal, wrestler Brandon Slay will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in the 167.5-pound weight class of freestyle wrestling. Slay's road to an Olympic berth certainly was the most emotional. The 1998 Wharton grad and defending U.S. champion, Slay was forced to face his close friend and current Penn assistant coach Brian Dolph in the finals of the U.S. Olympic Trials. It was definitely a tough match for Quakers coach Roger Reina to witness, as he saw his two top pupils battle for one spot. After the match, Reina told reporters, "If you heard a loud snap during the match, that was my heart." The final Penn representatives in Sydney will be rowing in the beautiful Australian waters, but they first honed their skills on the murky Schuylkill River. Sarah Garner, a 1994 College graduate, and Garrett Miller, a 1999 Wharton alumna, will be the Quakers on teams laden with Ivy rowers. In the spring, Garner received a Buick Regal as part of the UAW-GM "Team Behind the Team" program, and Miller recently appeared in GQ magazine with other Olympians.