Olympic notebook

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 21, 2002

Belarusian forgets to reveal his plans

SALT LAKE CITY -- Belarusian ski jumper Andrej Lyskovec apparently enjoyed his visit to the United States so much he didn't want to go home.

Problem was, he didn't tell his delegation.

Lyskovec was last seen by teammates Sunday, sending officials scurrying Monday when he didn't show up to meet his coach for the flight home.

The team reported him missing to the FBI and local police.

"We found that he was not in the village three or four hours before the departure," delegation administrator Natalia Kotlyarova said. "Then we were waiting for him at the airport, hoping he'd come. We called his wife, but she also had no idea."

His wife eventually solved the mystery.

Police spoke to her Tuesday, and she said her husband had called to tell her he was staying in the United States for a few months.

Lyskovec was 42nd in the K90 individual jumps on Feb.10 and failed to qualify in the K120 two days later.

LAW AND ORDER: Federal agents have seized tons of fake Olympic pins and confiscated enough clothing to stock an Olympic superstore with everything from baseball caps to $1,000 leather pants.

"We're making a significant dent in the Olympic trafficking," U.S. Customs Service agent Donald Daufenbach said.

The haul includes tens of thousands of knockoff Olympic pins, many manufactured in Asia.

Agents for the Customs Service and FBI got the goods from 58 seizures at U.S. ports and from Salt Lake City street vendors since the Olympics began.

The FBI has executed four search warrants, but no arrests have been made.

SPANISH LESSONS: German-born Johann Muehlegg has put Spanish skiing on the world stage, but his two gold medals do not sit well with a former Olympian at home.

Muehlegg, who won gold in the 30-kilometer freestyle event, easily won the men's cross-country pursuit Thursday.

He grabbed a Spanish flag near the end of the race and carried it across the finish line.

Paco Fernandez Ochoa, the 1972 slalom champion and Spain's only previous winner of an Olympic skiing event, questioned Muehlegg's background.

"He has less Spanish blood than I've got Japanese," Fernandez Ochoa said. "Muehlegg is outstanding, and I admire him. But as a Spaniard, I can't identify with him. It's like a Norwegian or Swede winning."

BRONZE TINT: Austria has the strangest statistic of the Olympics. It has won 14 medals but just one gold to go with four silvers and nine bronzes.

No country in Winter Olympics history has had such a skewed medal count. The closest is China in 1998 with six silvers, two bronzes and no golds.

ONE LESS: Figure skater Tatiana Malinina of Uzbekistan withdrew because of the flu. She was 13th after the short program.

GRETZKY HONORED: Wayne Gretzky was awarded the Olympic Order for his contributions to hockey and the Olympics.

Also receiving the Olympic Order were Miroslav Subrt, a former president of the Czech Ice Hockey Federation, Walter Bush Jr., a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation council since 1986, and Shoichi Tomita, a goalie who played for Japan in the 1960 Olympics.

Gretzky played for Canada at the 1998 Olympics.

COURT VICTORY: Greece's highest administrative court cleared the way to build a weightlifting center for the 2004 Olympics.

It was one of several sites held up by court action taken by residents groups.

The court also ruled against residents' objections to building two interchanges on the capital's main coastal road.

RATINGS UP: The short program in women's figure skating helped NBC gain its highest rating since the Opening Ceremony.

Tuesday's telecast drew 22.3 percent of U.S. viewers. The Opening Ceremony drew a 25.5.

Four years ago in Nagano, Japan, CBS drew a 20.7 rating. The biggest audience was 1994, when the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding drama helped CBS draw a 48.5.

GYMNASTS PUNISHED: Russian rhythmic gymnastics world champion Alina Kabaeva and runner-up Irina Tchachina were banned for a year and ordered to return their medals.

The International Gymnastics Federation imposed the bans after they tested positive for furosemide, a diuretic sometimes used by athletes to shed weight quickly or mask forbidden products.

BOBSLEDDER PUNISHED: Chip Minton was suspended for two years after flunking a drug test for testosterone in an out-of-competition exam at Lake Placid in July. Minton did not make the U.S. team for the Salt Lake City Games. He competed in 1994 and 1998.