He steps atop the winners' pedestal as the gold medal hanging from his neck gleams in the photographers' flashes and the hysterical, cheering crowd drowns out the band's rendition of the "Star-spangled Banner."

That vision has lured many athletes to the Olympic games. Earlier this week, Harvard's All-American swimmer Hess Yntema left the team to train full-time, and now breaststroker Ted Fullerton has also decided to take the semester off for Olympic training.

Fullerton told coach Ray Essick and his teammates Wednesday that he would leave the team to train for the Canadian team.

He says he plans to return home to Toronto, where he will discuss his "now or never" opportunity.

Fullerton said he will ask former Harvard swim coach Don Gambril, currently directing the University of Alabama aquamen, for advice on a training location.

Gambril said he directed Harvard swimmer Tom Wolf earlier this year to train for the Olympics with the Long Beach State College team in California, where he would find "more competition."

Poor Chances

Gambril said Fullerton had not yet contacted him yesterday.

Paco Canales and Kevin O'Connell, members of the swim team, said yesterday that losing Fullerton and Yntema makes Harvard's chances of doing well as a team in next month's Eastern Swimming Championships very poor.