WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : IOC Wants to Put Professionals in Place

Bed checks for Charles Barkley?

Some would say that the International Olympic Committee opened Pandora’s Box when it allowed multimillion dollar professionals to compete in the Olympics. Now, it is trying to put the lid back on by considering a proposal that would require Olympians to stay in the athletes’ village.

“We think that everyone, even Dream Teams, should be in the village,” said Finland’s Peter Tallberg, chairman of the athletes’ commission, which made the recommendation. “We don’t want rich athletes living in five-star hotels outside the village. We want to strengthen the Olympic spirit.”

Quoting another IOC member, Tallberg said, “Unless we keep this under control, there will be second-class athletes in the village and rock stars living in five-star hotels.”

You mean, like the IOC members?

Although the Dream Team might not have done much to impress some basketball fans in the United States who preferred more competitive games, there is increasing evidence of the NBA’s popularity in other parts of the world.

A recent poll of French boys, ages 12 through 18, revealed that soccer is still their favorite sport, but basketball has improved since last summer to a close second. And their two favorite athletes are Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. A distant third is French soccer star Jean Pierre Papin.

Figure skater Brian Boitano’s decision to regain his eligibility so he can compete for a berth in the Winter Olympics next February in Norway did not intimidate Christopher Bowman of Van Nuys.

In announcing that he also will seek reinstatement after spending the last few months with the Ice Capades, Bowman, 26, said he has “as much talent and twice as much hair.”

Boitano did not disagree with either assessment.

“I think Christopher Bowman has more talent than me,” he said. “Christopher’s problem has never been that he doesn’t have talent. But he has to put in the time and energy. If he does that, he could do wonderful things.”

As for the hair, Boitano said, “He’s not 30 yet.”

Neither is Boitano, but he will be in October. Today and Wednesday at the Sports Arena, the 1988 Olympic gold medalist will compete for the first time since applying for eligibility. Also in the Hershey’s Kisses Pro-Am men’s field are 1984 gold medalist Scott Hamilton and 1992 silver medalist Paul Wylie.

Long before figure skating had the “Boitano Rule,” which allowed professionals to become amateurs again, it had the “Zayak Rule.”

At 16, Elaine Zayak of Paramus, N.J., astonished figure skating fans and won the world championship in 1982 with seven triple jumps. But four of them were the same jump, the triple toe loop. That motivated the International Skating Union to pass a rule that allowed skaters to repeat a jump only once and only if it was in combination with another jump.

Zayak never was as prominent again. But she was at the forefront of the movement toward more athleticism in women’s figure skating. She performed triple axels in practice as a 13-year-old.

Proving that she still has the capacity to astonish, Zayak, 27, has applied for reinstatement after working as a coach for the last four years.

Notes

Residents of Kingsburg, Calif., voted overwhelmingly to name a new junior high school for one of their own, 1960 Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson. Thomas Jefferson was a distant second. . . . Encouraged by the success this winter of an AIDS benefit which was organized by figure skaters at Toronto, the 1980 Olympic champion, Great Britain’s Robin Cousins, is producing, directing and starring in an AIDS benefit scheduled for May 15 at Birmingham, England.

UCLA’s first home track meet of the year Saturday will honor alumna Gail Devers, the Olympic 100-meter champion. Earlier in the day, Devers and UCLA volleyball/basketball player Natalie Williams will conduct clinics on campus for girls 7 through 13 as part of L.A.’s “Discover Women in Sports Week.” . . . Quincy Watts, ranked No. 1 in the world in the 400 meters in 1992, and Michael Johnson, ranked No. 1 the two previous years, will run on the same 1,600-meter relay team in the April 17 Mt. SAC Relays at Walnut. Featured on another team will be world record-holder Butch Reynolds. . . . Carl Lewis, who will run in a relay and perhaps the open 100 at Mt. SAC, has decided that he will not compete in the long jump this season. . . . The IOC announced that 16.6 billion from 200 nations watched the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona. The figures from the Winter Games at Albertville, France, were 6.5 billion people from 64 nations. . . .A record 67 nations were represented by athletes at Albertville. Already, 76 have committed to Lillehammer. More nations are recognized now.