This Advice Was a Breath of Fresh Air

If the U.S. hockey team beats the Unified Team and Czechoslovakia beats Canada on Friday, it will set up a rematch of the 1960 gold-medal game at Squaw Valley, Calif. But whether the Americans could expect some coaching help again from their United Team counterparts is another thing.

In 1960 final, the U.S. team trailed, 4-3, after two periods. At the break, the Americans were in their locker room when Nikolai Sologubov, captain of the Soviet team, came in to offer them some advice. But since Sologubov didn’t speak English, he pantomimed to the Americans that they should take some oxygen.

A tank was obtained, and the revived Americans went back on the ice. The United States scored six consecutive goals to win, 9-4.

Add 1960: The U.S. hockey team beat the Soviets, 3-2, in their 1960 semifinal game.

Trivia time: When was the last time Canada won an Olympic gold medal in ice hockey?

There’s something about that ice: Bill Glauber of the Baltimore Sun writes that the last time most of the world paid attention to figure skater Midori Ito was at the World Championships last year in Munich, Germany, where she bounded into the photographers’ pit on a triple jump that spun out of control.

“I was embarrassed,” Ito said. “It won’t happen again. I couldn’t figure out how close I was to the fence. I fell in. And then, the music was still going. I had to catch up. I did not feel pain at all. I just skated.”

No contest: Chris Evert, when asked what level of tennis she is currently playing since the birth of her son, Alex: “It’s hard to say. I go out and hit it around OK. I can still beat my husband (Andy Mill), but I could beat him when I was nine months pregnant.” Alex is four months old.

Down and out in Las Vegas: It was a year ago Wednesday that Joe McIlvaine, general manager of the San Diego Padres, was in Las Vegas speaking at a luncheon at Caesars Palace honoring the Las Vegas Stars, the club’s triple-A team.

Pitcher Mike Maddux, then-unemployed and living in Las Vegas, went to the luncheon and asked McIlvaine for a tryout. Maddux not only made the team as a middle reliever but compiled a 7-2 record, a 2.46 earned-run average and five saves in 64 relief appearances and recently settled in arbitration for a salary of $500,000.

Keep trying: At the masters race (50 years old and over) held last Saturday at the Sunkist Invitational, Sid Howard, a 53-year-old from Plainfield, N.J., ran the mile in 4:43.7. In high school, his best time in the mile was 4:48.

Trivia answer: The 1952 Games at Oslo, Norway.

Quotebook: Alexendre Gournoff, a Russian broadcaster, talking about covering the Games for listeners in the former Soviet Union: “I do not know how to call my own country. I usually say us, our country, our athletes. I don’t call it the Unified Team. It’s stupid. . . . I don’t call it the Commonwealth of Independent States. I hate the sound of the word. We’ve been renaming it every other week. Everybody is sure this name won’t last.”