Attack on Lugers May Have Ramifications : International sports: U.S. could withdraw from future competitions in German village where incident took place.

Although the executive director of the U.S. Luge Assn., Ron Rossi, called an apparent racial attack against U.S. lugers by skinheads in an Oberhof, Germany, bar an isolated incident, he threatened Sunday to withdraw his team from an upcoming competition in that village unless he is convinced athletes will be secure.

“We have to get assurances that the German government is sincere about doing something about the situation and that the athletes feel comfortable,” Rossi said. “Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense to compete there.”

U.S. lugers are scheduled to compete in four World Cup events this winter in Germany, including one in January in Oberhof.

U.S. lugers have used that small resort village, the location of the first refrigerated luge track in the former East Germany, as a training site for several years without an incident. Even after Friday night’s attack on five members of the men’s team, they remained in Oberhof Saturday to attend a training race involving the U.S. women’s team before traveling to Igls, Austria.

“You can’t shrivel into a little ball and let the world run you over,” said Bonny Warner, a former luger who represents the sport on the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Athletes Advisory Council and was here Sunday for a USOC Board of Directors meeting.

Discussion of the incident was not included on the agenda, but USOC President LeRoy Walker said afterward it would cause his organization to take a closer look at sites offered by the U.S. military in Germany as potential European training camps for athletes. Racial violence is not uncommon in certain areas of Germany, particularly in the east.

“Besides the facilities, we need to look at the environment,” he said. “Our athletes aren’t going to be training 24 hours a day. They’re going to be training for three or four hours and then going out on the town.”

Walter Troeger, president of the German Olympic Committee who was here to attend last week’s U.S. Olympic Congress, told USOC officials Saturday that his organization would work with German police to ensure the security of athletes training and competing in the country.

In an interview Saturday with the New York Times, one luger, Duncan Kennedy, said the incident in Oberhof started after a skinhead wearing a T-shirt bearing Nazi symbols approached the five Americans in a bar and proclaimed “Nazi power.”

Two lugers, Robert Pipkins, the only black member of the team, and Gordy Sheer, who is Jewish, confronted the man but walked away when he said he did not speak English. Later, about 15 other skinheads entered the bar and began taunting Pipkins.

When a bar patron suggested the lugers leave, all but Kennedy began running. He said he remained behind to create a diversion because he believed the skinheads were after Pipkins.

“My first thought was that they were going to kill Rob,” he said. “They would have if they had caught him. No question.”

The skinheads beat Kennedy, kicking him in the head, face and body. He was treated by a doctor traveling with the luge team but was not hospitalized. The other team members were unharmed.

“It think it’s wonderful what Duncan did,” Warner said. “Robert and Duncan are competitors, but they’re also members of the U.S. team. It shows team unity.”

Kennedy said Sunday he does not believe the U.S. team should boycott the Oberhof competition.

“We’re doing our job,” he said. “We shouldn’t let punks interfere with it.”

Pipkins said, “If there’s a race, I’ll be there.”

Matt Roy, interim executive director of the U.S. Bobsled Federation, said he has advised his athletes, particularly the 10 blacks on the team, to travel in groups when training or competing in countries where there have been racial attacks. They have three World Cup competitions scheduled this winter for Germany.