WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Bradley Gets a Technical Foul for Complaints About China

These are not the best of times for Rhodes Scholars in Washington. Senator Bill Bradley, a Democrat from New Jersey and former Knick from New York, did not get an expensive haircut on a busy airport runway, but he nearly had his head bitten off by the International Olympic Committee.

He deserved it, too. Bradley made a mistake by writing a letter to Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC president, voicing opposition to Beijing’s bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics because of the Chinese government’s poor human rights record, then compounded it by going on NBC last week with a gym bag full of insults directed toward China and the IOC.

The Chinese, to their credit, took the high road, choosing not to ask Bradley about the homeless people in Newark.

The problem here is not with Bradley’s message. The massacre in Tian An Men Square, the imprisoning and torture of political opponents, the ironclad guarantee of a dissent-free Games are hardly consistent with Olympic ideals.

But Bradley delivered his message with so little understanding of the movement, in which he participated as a member of the U.S. basketball team in 1964, that it is possible it will have the opposite effect from that which he intended.

“I’m afraid that the IOC values its independence so much that any attempt to prod them externally only pushes them in the very direction you don’t want them to go in,” Andrew Young told the Associated Press.

This issue hits close to Young’s home. As co-chairman of the organizing committee for the 1996 Summer Olympics at Atlanta, he is concerned, as are others, that China will boycott those Games if Beijing bid officials blame their anticipated loss to Sydney, Australia, in the Sept. 23 IOC vote on interference from the U.S. government. Salt Lake City’s bid for the 2002 Winter Games might also be adversely impacted.

So it is no wonder that the U.S. Olympic Committee’s reading of the situation on its electronic bulletin board last week was a rather indelicate: “IOC Tells U.S. to Butt Out.”

That was a reference not only to Bradley, but also to a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, which has passed a resolution opposing Beijing’s bid. Unless LeRoy Walker, USOC president, is successful in his mission of persuading the lawmakers to “butt out,” the resolution is expected to be adopted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. A similar resolution has been introduced in the Senate.

Aren’t these the same folks in Washington who recently awarded most-favored-nation trading status to China?

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When their time was not required to fend off intrusions from members of the U.S. Congress, the IOC’s executive board, in meetings last week at Lausanne, Switzerland, resolved several issues, including:

--An agreement among at least 20 international sports federations to adopt common sanctions for drug use. Track and field officials said they will move to decrease their standard four-year suspension, the harshest penalty in international sports, to two years, in concert with other federations.

--The establishment of a Supreme Council of International Sport Arbitration, an independent panel composed of 20 judges from throughout the world to hear grievances brought by athletes against their federations.

--An agreement among National Olympic Committees to establish stricter qualifying standards to assist in limiting the number of athletes competing in the Summer Olympics to 10,000. To ensure the universality of the Games, nations with no qualified athletes would be able to enter one man and one woman in track and field or swimming.

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Sports petitioning for inclusion in the 2000 Summer Olympics include golf, triathlon, taekwondo, parachuting, squash, roller hockey, racquetball, bowling, women’s softball and water skiing. Women’s soccer and beach volleyball are expected to be approved later this year for the 1996 Summer Games at Atlanta. Supporters of hot-air ballooning should not hold their breath.

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When miler Steve Scott missed the recent national championships, it was the first time since 1976 he has not competed in the major track and field meet of the U.S. outdoor season. He has been physically depleted by anemia, which he said was brought on by overtraining.

“And maybe old age,” said Scott, 37. “I was training like I’m still 25.”

In his last indoor race, the Sunkist Invitational in February at the Sports Arena, Scott extended his record number of sub-four-minute miles to 135.

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Eleven months after he was the victim of a drive-by shooting in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, Chris Nelloms will represent the United States in the 200 meters Friday in a dual meet against Great Britain at Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Ohio State sprinter, who suffered a collapsed lung in the shooting, said in February that it would be “a miracle” if he was able to compete in the NCAA indoor championships last winter. He not only competed, he won the 200. He also won the event in last month’s NCAA outdoor championships.

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After NBC passed on its option, ABC reached an agreement to televise six hours over two weeks of track and field’s World Championships in August in Stuttgart, Germany. Network officials apparently were not discouraged by the recent TNT rating for the Bruce Jenner meet at San Jose of 0.4. As USA Today sports television columnist Michael Hiestand wrote: “You can almost get such a rating just from the household pets who accidentally turn on TV remote controls.”