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            Auburn University - University Relations
                         (334) 844-9999
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4/19/95             Janet McCoy

FINLAND, FRANCE AND JAPAN SENDING TEAMS TO AU FOR OLYMPICS
     AUBURN -- More than 175 athletes from Finland, France and
Japan will train on the Auburn University campus during the next
year in preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics games in Atlanta,
university officials announced Wednesday.
     Twenty-two members of the Finnish Olympic track team are
already using the Wilbur Hutsell Track and the weight and training
rooms in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, and will remain on campus
until the end of May, said Jim Ferguson, vice president for
administrative services at AU. 
     "Finland is the first of three teams which will train on our
campus,"he said. "We are very pleased to have them on campus, and
we look forward to working with them and athletes from other
countries."
     The Finnish team will return to campus next spring and is
expected to stay on the AU campus during the Olympics except when
competing in Atlanta.
     Four teams from France will also begin training on campus this
summer, and a total of eight French teams will be on campus in
1996, Ferguson said. Members of the French boxing, weightlifting,
table tennis and badminton teams will arrive in mid-July and will
train through August. During the Olympics, the teams are expected
to return to campus, along with the country's gymnastics,
wrestling, handball and soccer teams. 
     Ferguson said he expected a total of 150 athletes and support
personnel from the French teams.
      "Japan will send a small delegation this summer and next," he
said.
      In addition, Japan in June will send two training camps of
swimmers to the AU campus, where they will train at the
state-of-the-art Martin Aquatics Center through August.
     Ferguson said for now, the teams Finland and France are using
only AU facilities, while the team from Japan will also be housed
and fed on campus. Next summer, athletes from Finland will be
housed, fed and will train on campus.
     Finland Track Coach Petteri Jouste said Auburn has an
excellent setting for training and getting use to the South's
climate. 
     "We checked 12 different universities around Atlanta and found
Auburn to be the best," he said. "We were here a month and a half
last spring touring the campus so we already feel like we're coming
home. The people are very friendly. In Finland right now it's
snowing, so this is a good place to train."
     Ferguson said while the university established an AU Olympic
Delegations Coordinating Committee two years ago, it has not
actively sought teams to train on campus.
      "We've been somewhat passive, but if teams approached us
we've been happy to accommodate them," says Ferguson, who chairs
the committee. "The university has ongoing summer programs we
didn't want to interrupt." 
# # # april95:auolympics
     CONTACT: Ferguson, 334/844-4190.