BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : SUMMER GAMES SPOTLIGHT : ‘HEY, DIDN’T YOU FLY OVER IOWA ONCE?’

It is amusing to watch the journalistic pursuit of the local angle here.

Sometimes, it pops up when nobody is trying, such as the other day at the tennis team news conference, when American players were asked which other sports they wanted to see in their off hours.

“I want to go watch Janet Evans in swimming,” Michael Chang said. “She’s from Placentia, just like I am, and even though we’ve only seen each other a couple times in Placentia, she’s still my hometown athlete.”

And then there was the hot pursuit of Pete Sampras by a broadcaster who sauntered up after the news conference, cleared his throat and stuck a microphone in Sampras’ direction, saying, “Pete, being a hometowner from Bradenton, Fla., could you say something right here on the Florida Sports Network to the people you know back in Bradenton?”

To which Sampras replied: “Sorry, I don’t know many people in Bradenton. I haven’t lived there long. But if you want me to say something to the people in L.A., well, I could do that for you.”

This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant, all Times-Mirror newspapers.