IOC Board: Pros Under 23 OK in 3 Sports for ’88

Professional ice hockey, tennis and soccer players under the age of 23 could compete in the 1988 Olympics under a proposal approved Thursday by the International Olympic Committee’s executive board.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC president, in announcing the decision by the nine-member governing group, said the major change in Olympic regulations was experimental.

“This decision is only for 1988,” he said. “After 1988 we will see. The Olympic movement must go with the times.”

The proposal must be ratified by the IOC’s 91 members at their June meeting at East Berlin, but that is considered a formality.

That is not the case, however, for those National Hockey League players who would be young enough to be eligible for the 1988 Winter games in Calgary.

They would have to gain approval from their teams, which is considered unlikely since the league will be in mid-season during the Feb. 13-28 Games.

“I’d be surprised if any player on a regular roster would play in the 1988 Olympics,” NHL president John Ziegler said. “Players will be expected to honor their NHL contracts.”

Buffalo Sabre goalie Tom Barrasso, Pat LaFontaine of the New York Islanders, Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings are among the NHL stars who would be young enough to play in the Games. Barrasso and LaFontaine would be eligible to play for the United States, while Lemieux and Yzerman are Canadians.

The international sports federations for hockey, soccer and tennis had recommended new guidelines stating that players who haven’t reached their 23rd birthday by opening day of the 1988 Winter Games be allowed to compete.

Eligibility for the tennis exhibition at the 1984 Los Angeles Games was limited to players 20 years old and under, regardless of whether they were professional.

William Simon, former president of the USOC, felt the IOC executives did not go far enough. “I’m not surprised that the IOC continues not to be able to confront in a totally honest fashion the whole area of eligibility for the Olympic Games,” he said. “We saw that when they had this silly eligibility rule for tennis players setting age as the criteria for professional versus amateur.

“Now they say that athletes can compete as professionals until they’re 23. I’d like to know the difference between a 23-year-old professional and a 25-year-old professional.”

Simon, in an interview with ABC Radio Sports, added: “I think it’s ludicrous and I think they’d better determine what is indeed the honest and forthright definition of eligibility, and that is that anybody who is allowed to compete in the Games as long as he doesn’t play for pay in the sport that he is competing in.”

The IOC executive board eased hockey eligibility rules after receiving a proposal from the International Ice Hockey Federation. It is the same group that earlier this week threatened week to block NHL participation in the Olympics.

The controversy surrounding hockey eligibility in Sarajevo, coupled with an abrupt decision to allow professionals to compete in soccer and tennis at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, prompted the re-examination of the rules.

Among the tennis players who would be able to play in Seoul, South Korea, in the 1988 Summer Games would be Canada’s Carling Bassett, Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria, Pascale Paradis of France, Italy’s Raffaella Reggi and Hungary’s Andrea Temesvari. The American women could be led by Kathy Rinaldi and Mary Joe Fernandez.

The men could include American Aaron Krickstein, Stefan Edberg of Sweden, West Germany’s Boris Becker and Australian Mark Kratzmann, among others.

Jim Henderson, a spokesman for the North American Soccer League, said no active American players in the NASL or Major Indoor Soccer League would qualify for the 1988 Olympics because they would be too old.