WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Attack Shocking, but Kerrigan Says There Are Worse Crimes

Observations, reflections and things learned during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships that ended Saturday night:

--I’m sure everyone felt sorry for Nancy Kerrigan, who arrived last week looking and sounding like the Olympic champion she still hopes to become next month in Norway.

But I also felt sorry for Benny Napoleon, Detroit’s Deputy Chief of Police, who showed up at the press center periodically after the assault on Kerrigan Thursday to assure reporters from across the nation that solving the crime was a high priority for new Mayor Dennis Archer.

Considering that Detroit was No. 2 in the nation in murders per capita in 1993, I wondered if Napoleon resented all the attention being given a woman who was whacked on the knee.

The lead sports headline in a local newspaper Saturday was “The Day After,” as if there had been a nuclear attack on the city.

Even Kerrigan appeared embarrassed by it. “People are killed and robbed and hurt every day,” she said Saturday night. “It’s just that I’m in the spotlight.”

--Reporters often joke about all the figure skaters who repeat, as if it were a mantra, “I just want to stay focused.” But we’re not the only ones who notice.

Commenting on the mood of the skaters after the Kerrigan incident, event director Richard Dalley told the Detroit Free Press: “One would think there would be fear, but I’m amazed. I’ve been in Joe Louis Arena for virtually 24 hours nonstop since Nancy was attacked, and it is not affecting the athletes. It’s not the buzz behind the scene. These are very focused people.”

--Michael Rosenberg, the agent for 1992 Olympic champion Viktor Petrenko, called his client in Odessa, Ukraine, to inform him about Kerrigan. “You forget, Michael,” Petrenko told him, “we have CNN.”

--On the impact of last week on Kerrigan’s popularity, Rosenberg joked: “She went from an A-minus superstar to a spectacular superstar with one whack.” Seriously, he said that if she wins the gold medal she will be “Dorothy Hamill, Peggy Fleming and Katarina Witt rolled into one.”

--Brian Boitano is the world’s best figure skater. If he wants to win the Olympic gold medal, it is time he started acting like it.

After talking so much about how nervous he has been since returning to competition at this level, he no longer is intimidating to the other skaters, especially Scott Davis, who upset his idol last week for the men’s championship.

What is Boitano so nervous about? He has the edge in maturity, experience, power and sophistication. He should step into the arena like he owns it.

I don’t think John Elway takes over the ball at his own one-yard line with less than two minutes to play and says: “I’m so nervous.”

--Speaking of football, the end of the Kansas City-Pittsburgh playoff game was on television in the press room at the conclusion of Saturday afternoon’s pairs competition.

If figure skating judges had been deciding the outcome of that game, they would have ruled that Nick Lowery’s errant 43-yard field-goal attempt at the end of regulation was good because they have seen him make that kick so often in practice and because they think Kansas City would be a better AFC representative in the next round of the playoffs.

That seemed to be the judges’ rationale in awarding Karen Courtland and Todd Reynolds third place ahead of Natasha Kuchiki and Rocky Marval. Courtland and Reynolds might be better skaters, but that was not the case Saturday.

--Calla Urbanski, who formerly paired with Marval, announced her retirement at age 33 Saturday after finishing seventh with new partner Joe Mero.

While she and Marval were en route to two national championships and an Olympic berth in 1992, they became known endearingly as the waitress and the truck driver. But it was not a smooth ride for Marval, whose ears are still hurting from the not entirely constructive criticism he took from her.

“Things will never get as bad with Natasha as on my best day with Calla,” he said. “That was a constant nightmare. When we split last July, I said, ‘Let’s part as friends.’ She said, ‘Why? We’re just acquaintances.’ ”

--Carlo and Christa Fassi, who coached Fleming, Hamill and Britain’s Robin Cousins to Olympic gold medals while headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., are returning to the United States in May after three years in their native Italy to tutor at Lake Arrowhead’s International Ice Castles Training Center.

That will give the Ice Castles an imposing coaching staff. Already at Lake Arrowhead are Frank Carroll, who coached Linda Fratianne and Christopher Bowman, and Irina Rodnina, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in pairs.

The Fassis are leaving behind a son, who wants to remain in Italy, but Carlo wants to be closer to two married daughters who live in the United States.

“I didn’t see my kids grow up because I was always away for competitions,” Carlo said. “Now, I can watch my grandchildren.”

Prominent coaches in the same rink sometimes lock horns, but he foresees no problems. “I’m too old to start fighting,” he said. “I hope all of our egos are already satisfied.”

--Carroll coaches the up-and-coming star of U.S. figure skating, Michelle Kwan of Torrance, who finished second to Tonya Harding in the women’s competition Saturday night as a 13-year-old. What do Harding and Kwan have in common? Both are financially supported by George Steinbrenner.

--Onlookers from CBS, who will televise the Feb. 12-27 Winter Olympics from Norway, said they were concerned during the 1992 Games that they were televising too much figure skating. “Now,” one said, referring to the high ratings for the sport, “we realize there is no such thing as too much figure skating.”