Sydney’s Bid for the Olympics Could Get Hung Out to Dry

Talk about airing your dirty laundry.

A suburban Sydney council has ordered residents of high-rise apartments to stop hanging their wash on balconies, claiming the practice is unsightly and could damage the Australian city’s bid to be host of the 2000 Olympic Games.

Canterbury Council has served notices to some residents saying it feared the “degrading and unsightly” practice of hanging laundry to dry gave Sydney a “Third World” image and could harm the city’s profile.

Residents told the Daily Telegraph Mirror newspaper that the reason they have to hang clothes from balconies is because it would be stolen off the outside lines at ground level.

Maybe laundry-stealing can be a demonstration sport.

Growing up: At 14, Olaf Hampel was a pretty good team handball player in his native Germany, but he played like a bar bouncer.

“The thing was, I was pretty aggressive,” he said. “I would throw guys all around. A friend of mine said ‘You should play another sport.’ ”

He tried football, and currently is a 6-foot-6, 325-pound rookie tackle for the Denver Broncos.

Trivia time: How many Willies are in the baseball Hall of Fame?

Looking, not seeing: If you’re like most figure skating viewers, you can’t tell a triple axel from a double salchow. You have to believe that the judges know what they’re doing. Apparently, though, even judges don’t always know what they see.

The International Skating Union recently handed six-month suspensions to six judges, among them Eleanor Curtis of the United States, who worked the ice-dance competition at the World Championships. When one of the teams used illegal moves in its free-dance routine, only three of the judges noticed it and deducted points. Curtis and the five others who didn’t are on suspension.

To the point: From Jay Leno: “President Clinton did say that from now on he would try to give more attention to our nation’s disasters. In fact, he said in the next few weeks he promises to attend at least one New York Mets game.”

You figure it: Texas went 12-2 and averaged 7.5 runs a game immediately after losing Jose Canseco for the season. . . . Florida went 4-12 immediately after acquiring Gary Sheffield.

Coming attraction: Jeff Gordon, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, asks: “Now that pear-shaped Bobby Knight has body-slammed ESPN blabbermouth Dick Vitale, could a bout with World Wrestling Federation superstar Doink the Clown be next?”

Working man: Russ Little, a judo competitor in the U.S. Olympic Festival, is president of Afro World in Normandy, Mo., a mail-order company that sells hair products to beauticians.

“The festival is the Olympics for me,” Little said. “The Olympic Games themselves are for athletes who train 40 hours a week. I work 60 hours a week.”

Trivia answer: Four--Mays, McCovey, Stargell and Keeler.

Big is better: National champion weightlifter Mark Henry, 22, wants to be the world’s strongest man. He also wants to be a role model.

“I don’t do bad stuff,” he said. “I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I do a lot of things in the community. I like to be around kids, because I’m a kid myself.”

A big kid. He weighs 355 pounds, wears an XXXXXL shirt, a Size 62 jacket and 16EEE shoes.

Quotebook: Manager Dallas Green, after his Mets had lost their first game after the All-Star break, 8-1, “I saw some guys who have been off for three days--and took the fourth day off, too.”