IOC Wants to Streamline Olympics

The International Olympic Committee wants to establish quotas for individual sports in the hope of cutting down the number of competitors at future Olympic Games, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch said Wednesday.

Samaranch said the quota system would probably come into effect for the 1992 Olympics, and added that there is a strong case for introducing such a system.

“There are many, many purposes,” he said. “First, to reduce numbers. Second, we must keep a certain level in the Olympic Games. Third, for the first time in 1984 the IOC paid for the transportation and accommodation of some athletes, but not many. But we think for 1988 we will pay for many athletes. That’s excellent for national Olympic committees, but it is a danger and we have to avoid this danger.

“Our aim is to have these quotas for all sports in 1992 with the exception of two sports. We want to have all the national Olympic committees present in the Olympics, so there must be one or two sports kept open, and one of these must be track and field.”

Angel Cordero, who rode Spend a Buck to victory in the Kentucky Derby, has been named to replace Don MacBeth aboard Chief’s Crown in the June 8 Belmont Stakes.

Chief’s Crown finished third in the Derby as the favorite, then second to Tank’s Prospect in the Preakness, where he also went off as the favorite. MacBeth was criticized for his ride in that race and was removed from the mount after the race by owner Andrew Rosen.

The Denver Nuggets will cut ticket prices on 38% of the seats at 17,022-seat McNichols Sports Arena for the coming season, team President Vince Boryla said. Boryla said the decision was prompted partly by results of a survey sent to season ticket holders and to single-game ticket buyers.

Pinklon Thomas, the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion, had a four-year suspension in Washington state lifted by the state Athletic Commission after he reached a settlement with his former manager, Roland Jankelson of Seattle.

Thomas drew the state ban on Oct. 14, 1981, after Jankelson accused him of failing to honor a contract. The agreement calls for Jankelson, a real-estate investor, to receive a percentage of Thomas’s winnings from his Aug. 30 defeat of Tim Witherspoon and an equal percentage of the fighter’s take from his next four bouts.

A federal grand jury investigating drug trafficking in major league baseball reportedly will hand up indictments Friday, but a Justice Department official warned that the results may be “disappointing” to a speculating press and public.

“You’re going to be very disappointed, as is everyone else. I don’t know if you’re ever going to identify who the players are,” said the official, who spoke on condition he not be identified.

“They’re not going to be hardened Colombian drug dealers just off the boat. You’re talking about people who are probably legitimate businessmen, established people, family people,” the official said.

North Carolina State freshman quarterback Percy Moorman was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted last February of breaking into a dormitory room and raping a female student while she slept Sept. 1, 1984.

Moorman, 19, a high school All-America from Danville, Va., was taken to Polk Youth Center to serve the sentence ordered by Wake County Superior Court Judge James Bailey.

Moorman’s lawyers pleaded for probation and said they hoped he could transfer to a junior college and perhaps play football again. About 150 colleges recruited Moorman, but the lawyers acknowledged no school had expressed interest in him since his arrest.

Assistant District Attorney Bill Hart called Moorman a threat to society.

“He bragged about his sex experiences with ‘rich, white girls’ and ‘faculty members’ dating back to high school,” Hart said. “He told one counselor, ‘It was a trip. That’s the price you pay to be an athlete. The girls are after you, girls use you.’ ”

Moorman’s lawyers immediately appealed the sentence. Prosectors said Moorman’s youthful offender status means he is eligible for parole at any time.

An explosion and fire damaged the Miss Budweiser unlimited hydroplane as the new craft was being readied for a test drive, a spokeswoman said in Seattle.

No one was injured when a battery exploded and ripped a six-foot hole in the deck of the honeycombed aluminum craft.

Miss Budweiser was being readied for the first race of the season in Miami June 9. It was not immediately known whether the damage was serious enough to keep the craft out of the Miami race, she said.