WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : While Talking to Yamaguchi, Kerrigan Avoids the Question

The new U.S. women’s figure skating champion, Nancy Kerrigan, speaks often by telephone to her friend Kristi Yamaguchi. But unlike the pesky press, Kerrigan never asks the question :

Will Yamaguchi apply for reinstatement so she can defend her Olympic title in 1994? “I don’t want to be another person saying, ‘What are you going to do?’ ” Kerrigan said during the U.S. figure skating championships last week in the America West Arena.

There is less mystery surrounding the intentions of the 1988 men’s Olympic champion, Brian Boitano. He said last week he is still 95% sure that he will decide by the April 1 deadline to reinstate. The only question appears to be whether his injured right knee will hold up for another year.

As for comments by Kurt Browning, Canada’s three-time world champion, and this year’s U.S. runner-up, Mark Mitchell, that Boitano should step aside and allow younger skaters--presumably meaning Browning and Mitchell--to have their day, Boitano said: “Essentially, what they’re saying is that it’s etched in stone that the pros are going to beat them. That might not happen. They’re also saying they don’t want to compete against skaters who might be better than them.”

It is hard to believe that anyone named Rocco Marvaldi, also known as Rocky Marval, would appear in public in the costumes he wore during last week’s pairs competition.

Puffed sleeves in the technical program? Please. In the freestyle program the next night, skating to a Spartacus theme, his glittering sequins were more befitting of Cleopatra.

That is fine for his partner, Calla Urbanski, but not for Rocco. We suspect a choreographer somewhere is attempting to soften his truck driver image. Advice to Rocky: You are what you are. Don’t ever change.

If Marval was embarrassed, it didn’t show from the top of the victory stand. But, although Urbanski and Marval showed improvement in defending their title, they might have had a more difficult time if their two closest challengers from 1992 hadn’t split.

Meantime, the team of Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur, in winning at Phoenix, raised U.S. ice dancing to a level where it has not been since Judy Blumberg and Michael Seibert finished fourth in the 1984 Olympics.

Some ice dancers complained that Sur should not have been allowed to skate in the national championships because he has not obtained his U.S. citizenship since defecting from the former Soviet Union in 1990. But Rachel Mayer, who teamed with Peter Breen to finish fourth, said: “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

Besides, Roca and Sur could give the United States a third ice dancing berth in the Olympics by finishing among the first five in the March 10-14 World Championships at Prague in the Czech Republic.

If frequent ice miles were offered, Troy Goldstein of Culver City would have a platinum card. Competing in every senior competition at Phoenix open to him, he finished 14th in the men’s freestyle skating and fourth in figures. He and his sister, Dawn, finished 10th in pairs and 21st in ice dancing.

His reward? A trip with his sister to Zakopane, Poland, to compete in pairs in the Feb. 6-14 World University Games. “Among skaters, coaches and judges, there is a certain respect for what I’m doing,” he said. “I hope the audience doesn’t get sick of seeing me.”

Before anyone says, “Troy, get a life,” consider that he is a full-time law student at LaVerne.

Across town from the figure skating championships at Phoenix last week, track and field athletes who are more accustomed to jumping horizontally, long jumper Mike Powell and triple jumper Mike Conley, finished one-two in a slam-dunk contest ahead of football’s Barry Sanders, baseball’s Kenny Lofton and Ken Griffey Jr., volleyball’s Bob Samuelson, swimming’s Matt Biondi and weightlifting’s 366-pound Mark Henry.

Conley’s infatuation with basketball is apparent. His two sons are named Michael and Jordan.

Emboldened with support from International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, the president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, Primo Nebiolo of Italy, proved once again last week why he is know as the Machiavelli of sports.

When an increasing number of agents for track and field athletes began recommending a boycott of this summer’s World Championships unless prize money was offered, Nebiolo prodded the IAAF Council to adopt a proposal that would requires athletes to compete in the World Championships, as well as regional championships, such as the Pan American Games, and the World Cup, to be eligible for the Olympics.

We have not heard back from the agents, but anyone who advises his clients to jeopardize their Olympic eligibility should be an ex-agent. Track and field athletes are defined by their success in the Olympics.

Perhaps we will all learn a lesson from this episode. You can insult Nebiolo from here to his home at Turin, Italy, but don’t mess with his wallet.