Chris Duplanty, captain of the U.S. Olympic water polo team, makes a save in goal. Photo by Chris Ketteredge, special to the Star-Bulletin

Not that the United States water polo team captain is embarrassed by the photo that shows him and three teammates holding water polo balls in strategic places.

In fact, it the photo has added to the 30-year-old bachelor's catalogue of snappy one-liners.

"Thank God we play water polo and not tennis," he said.

"Every four years, water polo gets a little exposure, and this is it," deadpanned the former University of California-Irvine and Punahou star.

Duplanty said he and the others helped Life with its unique Olympic photo essay, 'Naked Power,' because they knew it would be both classic and classy. "We all had a lot of fun doing it, but if Playgirl calls, I'm not calling back," he said with a laugh.

The pose ranks above Duplanty's first big media splash in 1994's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

"To a degree, the Life photo characterizes our team," he said. "We're on a mission in Atlanta, but we can still have fun."

Their mission is to win America's first gold medal in the sport in 92 years.

By most accounts, this is a medal-contending U.S. team. How far it can go depends largely upon the quickness of Duplanty, the third-time Olympian, and the support he gets in the pool from a relatively inexperienced team.

Despite his somewhat unusual media exposure this year, which also included a 16,000-foot jump from an airplane, modeling Looney Tunes/U.S. Olympic Team-licensed merchandise clothing for Warner Brothers, and a segment on Jay Leno's Tonight Show in which he tossed cabbage into a mulcher, Duplanty said he is intensely focused on the Olympics.

"I'm not going to let anything come between me and what's going to happen on the 20th," he said.

That's the day the U.S. team begins its medal quest with a game against the 1992 gold medal champion, Italy.

For Duplanty, who got about half a minute in goal as a backup to Craig Wilson on the silver medal-

winning 1988 team in Seoul and about 90 seconds backing up Wilson in a non-medal effort in 1992 in Barcelona, this is really his Olympic debut.

"I've been watching from the countertop since 1988," said Duplanty. "The fact that this time I'm a team captain and a starter, and the fact that this time I'm finally in the battle makes this Olympics very special."

Duplanty has nbeen a member of the U.S. Senior National Team since 1986 and has played in 226 matches. But he did not come into his own until after the 1992 Summer Olympics.

In 1993, Duplanty was named U.S. Water Polo Male Athlete of the Year. Last year, he led the U.S. to a gold medal in the Pan American Games and a fourth-place finish in the World Cup.

In May, he kept the U.S ubeaten (4-0-1) through an international round-robin tournament in Nashville, Tenn.

Duplanty said winning that tournament, so close to the Olympics, was 'a big step' for the U.S. team.

At Duplanty's level, water polo can take a painful physical toll even on the best conditioned athlete.

There is the unseen underwater brutality that turns the area in front of the goal into a human blender and then there are the surprisingly high-velocity, one-

handed shots that can stun a goalkeeper.

"The first time I got hit with one of those shots - and they come about 50 to 60 mph - the shock was worse than anything else," said Duplanty. "But if I get hit, then I know I'm doing my job."

He said he feels sorry for the teammates who play in front of him because "they have an unbelievably fatiguing job. They endure physically while I endure mentally," he said. 'And I'm only as good as the guys in front of me.'

He called this team the youngest but the most physically talented he's ever seen.

Take the players who appeared in the Life photo. Duplanty is 6-foot-3, 210 pounds. Rick McNair and Alex Rousseau are both 6-5, 200 pounds. And Chris Humbert is 6-7, 220 pounds.

Of course, operating within his 30-square-foot goal makes Duplanty the most scrutinized player in the pool.

"But I enjoy being under a microscope," he said. "If I did not, I'd have a problem."