U.S. Backs Anchorage as 1992 Site

Anchorage, Alaska, was chosen Saturday as the proposed site for the 1992 Winter Olympics by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

USOC President Robert Helmick did not disclose the runner-up city but said Anchorage got the vote on the first ballot and was several votes ahead of the runner-up.

Helmick said he believed “fresh new ideas” gave Anchorage the edge over the three competing sites--Lake Placid, N.Y., the Lake Tahoe-Reno area and Salt Lake City. Delegations for each of the four areas made a spoken and film presentation at the meeting in Indianapolis.

As the U.S. choice, Anchorage will make its presentation to the International Olympic Committee in October 1986. Helmick has repeatedly expressed doubts that any U.S. city will be chosen for the 1992 Winter Games. There is talk about holding them in Germany, Sweden, France, Bulgaria or Italy.

“I think the speculation is premised on the fact that it’s been usual for the Games to be alternated between continents,” he said, but added that a U.S. site still could be a possibility.

The 1988 Winter Olympics will be held in Calgary, Canada.

Larry Holmes and undisputed light-heavyweight champion Michael Spinks will fight some time in September, promoters Don King and Butch Lewis announced in Las Vegas.

The fighters will split between $5 and $6 million, King said. Neither he nor Lewis would break down the purse structure, but it was believed to be in the area of $4 million for Holmes and $2 million for Spinks.

“I’m in agreement with Don to fight Spinks in September,” said Holmes, 35, who has a 48-0 record and needs one victory to tie the mark of Rocky Marciano, the only heavyweight champion to retire without having lost a fight. At stake would be Holmes’ International Boxing Federation title.

The promoters said the fight would be held in Las Vegas.

Total contract packages for first-round NBA choices increased by an average of more than $75,000 per year from 1983 to 1984, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The jump was primarily due to contracts given the top six players--Akeem Olajuwon, Sam Bowie, Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Charles Barkley and Melvin Turpin. Those players got average yearly packages nearly 2 1/2 times as large as the top six players in the 1983 draft--Ralph Sampson, Steve Stipanovich, Rodney McCray, Byron Scott, Sidney Green and Russell Cross.

Each of the top six picks in 1984 got deals in excess of $2 million, with Olajuwon ($7,334,160, six years) and Jordan ($6.2 million, seven years) getting the largest packages.

Names in the News

Indianapolis 500 winner Danny Sullivan won the pole for today’s $480,000 Portland 200 at Portland, Ore., with a speed of 115.030 m.p.h.

Elio de Angelis of Italy set a track record of 116.651 m.p.h. in a Lotus to win the pole for today’s Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal.

Qualifying for the Miller 400 at Michigan International Speedway was canceled by rain, and the pole was awarded to Bill Elliott because he leads the NASCAR Grand National standings.