They Can’t Run From Freedom : L.A. marathon: Tatyana Zuyeva, from the former Soviet Union, has found that new system has its drawbacks.

It is possible to be freed from tyranny, only to be enslaved by freedom’s responsibilities. This is what Tatyana Zuyeva has come to know.

Zuyeva is one of seven women from the former Soviet Union who will run in Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon. The race will serve as an Olympic trials for the Commonwealth of Independent States team, but it also will serve as a political primer on the tension brimming in the newly independent republics.

The fact that Zuyeva and the others are traveling freely in the United States is testament to the changes in the former Eastern Bloc. But the fact that the runners are uncertain of their athletic futures, scrounging for money and fighting among themselves, reveals the power vacuum experienced by many athletes whose skills had been honed by one of the world’s most sophisticated sports machines.

The runners have been adrift in the United States like accidental tourists, where little has gone right. The team landed in New York last month, bound for their training camp at Gainesville, Fla. However, because of a communications lapse from their federation, the athletes were stranded in New York. The women traveled by bus from New York to Florida.

The runners have been training three times a day in Gainesville, pushed by the pressure of the trial race. Only the top three CIS runners will make their Olympic team.

The trial race was originally scheduled to be at the Rotterdam Marathon, but there were, says Zuyeva, “difficulties.”

Los Angeles Marathon officials stepped in to offer a package to the CIS group--make our race your Olympic trial and we will sponsor your training in the United States for a few weeks, plus a little extra.

According to Zuyeva, the group of seven runners will share $25,000, which is to pay for their plane tickets, the six weeks of training camp and other expenses.

“That is a problem,” she said. “Some of the athletes believe we should not share the money equally, but according to our best times before the race. Some are not happy.”

Ethnic differences are also surfacing. Zuyeva is a Ukrainian living in Moldova. Two Russian runners are traveling with their coach, a dour, somber man who glared frequently at Zuyeva. At a news conference Thursday the runners and team officials appeared to clash, and at one point Zuyeva began to cry.

“They don’t trust me because I speak English,” Zuyeva said.

The 33-year-old has a university degree in languages and spoke impeccable, British-accented English.

Division of the money aside, the athletes have other pressing problems. The race won’t pay them until two weeks after the marathon, after all drug-test results are in. The race’s only announced drug positive to date came from a former Soviet woman--Sirje Eichelmann, who placed seventh in 1989.

The runners borrowed the money for the plane tickets and fear that two weeks after the race they will have returned to their separate republics, and be unable to get their money.

“If it goes to the federation, we will not receive it ever,” Zuyeva said.

That means business as usual. Under the old Soviet system, the national sports committee received 90% of any payment made to athletes. The team’s official translator said with some pride Thursday that in today’s climate, the state only receives 10%, and the athlete 90%.

When that was being translated from Russian, the runners exchanged tight smiles and rolled eyes.

“Why should the federation receive any money, when it is we who run?” asked one.

In its pre-Olympic mode, the CIS sports machine is governed by the Coordinating Sports Committee. After the Barcelona Olympics, control of sports federations will be decentralized and placed in the hands of the republics.

“For now, I think they have just changed the label,” Zuyeva said. “It is the same people in control.”

Zuyeva’s criticism of the old system is tempered with an appreciation of the extent to which Soviet athletes were afforded privileged status in a classless society.

“For the sportsmen, I think we were in a rather good position,” she said. “We were totally taken care of. Now, we have to change our way of thinking. We must take care of ourselves, we must think like professional athletes. We are at a loss at the moment.

“Now, we must wait in line most of the day for butter, sausage, bread. I can’t imagine how I will be able to train. It was easier before, we were given special food coupons. We must have food to be able to train. Simply, there is no food.”

Asked what scarce items she will bring back to Moldova, Zuyeva laughed and said: “Everything, everything.”

Zuyeva was asked if she felt any restrictions about what she said.

“No,” she said, laughing again. “What have I got to lose?”

The CIS team is not the only national team using the race as an Olympic trial. Mexico has sent a few of its top men and women, including course-record holder Martin Mondragon.

Mondragon won the race in 1988 when it also served as an Olympic trial for the Mexicans. His time of 2 hours 10 minutes 19 seconds will have to be bettered if he or any of the Mexican runners hope to make their Olympic team. Mexican authorities are requiring a time of better than 2:10 simply to be considered for the team. Another group of Mexican runners will compete in the Rotterdam Marathon and the fastest three from either race will make the team.

Also in the men’s race: Two-time L.A. Marathon winner Art Boileau of Canada, who is also trying to qualify for his country’s Olympic team; John Treacy of Ireland, the silver medalist in the 1984 marathon; Alfredo Shahanga of Tanzania, who has run 2:10:11, and Julius Sumawe of Tanzania, who has run 2:12:50.

The seventh annual race will begin at 9:05 a.m. Sunday at the corner of Exposition Blvd. and Figueroa Street in front of the Coliseum. Wheelchairs will start at 8:35, racewalkers at 8:45 and the 5K race at 9:30.