‘92 Gold Medal Has Her Singing Different Tune

Cathy Turner won an Olympic gold medal in short-track speedskating in 1992 and says it helped her find out who she was. Now, after nearly two years away from the sport, Turner will try again for the gold in the Lillehammer Games. She says she has forever shed the persona of Nicki Newland, a pop singer who wrote a song about herself called, “Sexy, Kinky Tomboy.”

She was Nicki Newland for eight years before becoming Cathy Turner again.

“I was a little bit of crazy, a little bit of wild,” she told Phil Hersh of the Chicago Tribune. “I had to find out who I was and it wasn’t easy. I had an identity crisis. The day I decided to skate again was the day I knew exactly who I was.”

Despite the layoff, Turner was the No. 1 American qualifier for next month’s Olympics.

Trivia time: Who holds the Laker record for most points in a game?

Turnaround: Starting play this week, Boston, Detroit, Dallas and the Lakers either shared last place or were in the cellar alone in their divisions, with a combined 34-104 record.

In 1988, those four teams played in the conference finals.

Scary: Considering the Minnesota Timberwolves’ poor record, it is perhaps appropriate that one of their biggest fans is horror novelist Stephen King.

After one of Minnesota’s rare victories this season, King sent 14 dozen roses to the team’s players and coaches. Each player received a personal congratulatory note.

Looking back: Tiger Williams, the NHL’s all-time leader in penalty minutes, believes NHL players are too soft--and reporters are too hard on players who fight.

“Players aren’t as tough mentally as they used to be,” he said. “A lot of that has to do with you (reporters) out there. The media takes a run at the NHL any time anything happens.

“What Dale Hunter did to Pierre Turgeon last year did not deserve 25% of the season. In Gordie Howe’s day, to get 25 games, you had to pretty near kill the guy.”

Hunter crosschecked Turgeon from behind after Turgeon had scored, knocking him out of one series in the playoffs last spring. Hunter subsequently was suspended for the first quarter of this season.

For the record: Dick Linthicum, not Walt Hazzard, was UCLA’s first consensus basketball All-American. Linthicum made the 1931 and 1932 teams.

Why not?Autograph hounds have always been something that athletes and celebrities had to endure, but a fan once told U.S. mile record-holder Steve Scott what many athletes had long suspected.

“Once I was signing autographs before a big meet and a lady came up and said, ‘I haven’t the faintest idea who you are, but since you’re signing autographs for everybody else, you might as well sign one for me.’ ” Scott said.

True story: According to Lee Solters, a department store in Greenwood, S.C., had just put up a display of fishing tackle when a customer picked up one of the newest lures and inspected its gleaming metal and plastic.

“Do the fish really go for these things,” he asked the salesman.

“I dunno,” was the reply. “We don’t sell ‘em to the fish.”

Trivia answer: Elgin Baylor, with 71 against the New York Knicks on Nov. 15, 1960.

Quotebook: Montreal goalie Patrick Roy, on today’s NHL All-Star game: “It’s an offensive game, not too much defense. It’s a show. We (the goalies) don’t enjoy ourselves in the same way the forwards do.”