Stenmark and Girardelli Cleared to Compete in the Olympics by IOC

Two of the biggest names in Alpine ski racing were given the final approval Thursday to compete in next February’s Winter Olympics, while a panel was set up to study possible penalties against countries that boycott the Summer or Winter Games.

Skiers Ingemar Stenmark and Marc Girardelli were among 10 athletes cleared to compete by the International Olympic Committee’s excutive board. The IOC said the cases of eight other athletes were pending until further documents were received.

Opening a two-day meeting at the IOC’s headquarters, the board also said that so far 101 nations had accepted invitations to send teams to Seoul, South Korea, for the Summer Games. No responses have been received from East Bloc countries, it added.

Stenmark was reinstated for Sweden after being barred from the last Winter Games because he had declared himself a “licensed amateur” under International Ski Federation rules.

The other cases all involved athletes who had switched countries after previously competing under other flags. Girardelli had been a member of the Austrian ski team but has skied for Luxembourg for several seasons.

Left undecided, however, was the case of Naim Suleymanoglu, a former world-champion weightlifter in the 150-pound class, who defected from Bulgaria to Turkey last year.

The pending list also included one American, luger Miroslav Zajonc. No action could be taken on these other cases until further documents were received, IOC spokeswoman Michele Verdier said.

Others on the approved eligibility list were yachting competitors Leslie Jean Egnot and Jennifer Marie Egnot of New Zealand, and Roy Heinen of the Netherlands; table tennis players Wang Xiao Ming of France, and Olga Nemes and Zsolt-Georg Bohm of West Germany; fencer Stephane Michiel Ganeff of the Netherlands; and gymnast Nicoletta Dessena of Switzerland.

The working group on boycott penalties will focus on nations that accept invitations to compete in the Games and then announce they are staying away.

The panel will be made up of executive board members Zhenliang He of China, Prince Alexandre de Merode of Belgium and Marc Hodler and Raymond Gafner of Switzerland.