WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Soviet Union Machine Dismantled, but Some Sports Will Stay Strong

Most experts on the riddle that is sports in the Soviet Union had one question when the government dissolved the central sports committee last week. What took so long?

The committee, known as Gossport, was an inert, gluttonous dinosaur filled with pre-perestroika bureaucrats that survived as long as it did only because the government had more pressing concerns.

The warnings of Gossport’s first deputy chairman, Leonid Drachevsky, that the action threatens the Soviet Union’s participation in the 1992 Olympic Games is pure, self-serving bolshoi.

As Vitaly Smirnov, president of the Soviet Olympic Committee, said Saturday: “There have been 50 government ministries which have been abolished. You can imagine if the ministry of transportation is liquidated, it doesn’t mean that railways will not be existing.”

The best guess is that either the Soviet Olympic Committee or a confederation of independent Olympic committees from Russia and 11 other republics will assume responsibility for fielding Olympic teams next year.

Smirnov said last week that funds are available to send a full complement of athletes to the Winter Games, Feb. 8-23, in Albertville, France, and expressed confidence that an additional $1 million can be raised to cover expenses for sending a team to the Summer Olympics, July 25-Aug. 9, in Barcelona, Spain.

But even if the Soviets must reduce the size of their teams, they still are expected to maintain their position atop the medal standings at both Albertville and Barcelona.

Beyond 1992, the future of Soviet sports is less clear.

Even with Gossport in place, the government and unions were finding it impossible to fund the system of special schools and clubs that train elite coaches and athletes, forcing sports to become self-financing. Popular sports such as soccer, basketball, track and field, gymnastics and figure skating probably will have continued success, but many other sports will be hard-pressed to survive.

There also will be a decreasing talent pool as the republics gain more independence. The former Baltic republics, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, will compete as separate nations in 1992, while sports officials from the newly independent Ukraine said last week they hope to have their own team in time for the 1994 Winter Games. Although a large percentage of Soviet athletes are Russian, some of the most celebrated, including gymnast Olga Korbut, sprinter Valeri Borzov and pole vaulter Sergei Bubka, are from the Ukraine.

Additionally, there is no guarantee the remaining republics will get along well enough to make an concerted Olympic effort. While the 12 republics will march behind the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag and stand at attention to the Soviet anthem in Albertville, officials from 11 of the republics, excluding Russia, have requested to use the Olympic flag and anthem at Barcelona.

Say dasvadanya to the Big Red Machine.

One country that might not be able to field a team in Albertville is Yugoslavia, which will have difficulty finding athletes willing to represent it.

According to Slovenian officials, 163 of 166 athletes who have competed for Yugoslavia in past Winter Games, primarily in skiing, came from their republic, which is seeking independence. But the Slovenians say that under no circumstances will they represent Yugoslavia in 1992.

If Slovenia gains political recognition as an independent nation before the Winter Games, International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch said he has been empowered by his executive board to also recognize the republic. If not, he said, Slovenian athletes might still be allowed to compete in Albertville under the Olympic flag.

After more than a year of trying to capture his elusive potential in Toronto, former U.S. figure skating champion Christopher Bowman of Van Nuys has returned home and will be coached by John Nicks in Costa Mesa.

Bowman, who was considered the heir apparent to 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano, has had a controversial career, much of it the result of his notoriously lackadaisical training habits and his off-the-ice escapades.

But Nicks, who began working with Bowman Wednesday, said the skater assured him that he is serious about training in preparation for the national championships next month in Orlando, Fla., where the 1992 Olympic team will be chosen.

“He’s very competitive, and he agreed to adapt and conform to the same training principles and philosophy that all the other skaters here and I have,” Nicks said.

After winning the U.S. championship and finishing second in the world in 1989, Bowman, 24, failed to defend his national title the next year because of an injury, dropped to third in the world and had a falling out with his longtime coach, Frank Carroll of Lake Arrowhead. Bowman went to Toronto in the fall of 1990 to work with former Canadian Olympian Toller Cranston and finished second at the nationals to Todd Eldredge of San Diego this year and fifth in the world.

Bowman upset Eldredge at this fall’s Skate America in Oakland but had to withdraw from the prestigious Trophee Lalique in Albertville after being mugged in Toronto. Then came the split from Cranston.