WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Kwan, the Calm Amid Storms, Just Goes About Her Business

While the earth shakes in nearby communities, and man-made tremors threaten to split apart her sport, Michelle Kwan of Torrance diligently goes about her business at Lake Arrowhead’s International Ice Castle, preparing her programs in case she is called upon to skate in next month’s Winter Olympics.

“We were told right after the national championships that we were to train very hard, as if we were going to Norway,” Kwan’s coach, Frank Carroll, said over the weekend. “That’s what we’ve been doing.”

Initially, the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. wanted the 13-year-old Kwan, the first alternate because of her second-place finish in the national championships, to be ready in case Nancy Kerrigan was unable to skate because of knee injuries sustained in the assault in Detroit. But now that it seems Kerrigan will be fine, it could be that Kwan will replace national champion Tonya Harding if Harding is implicated in the attack and removed from the Olympic team.

“We’re kind of in limbo,” Carroll said.

So is the USFSA, which has until Jan. 31 to name its Olympians, including alternates. If anyone selected to compete in Norway is subsequently unable to skate, the U.S. Olympic Committee has until Feb. 21, two days before the women’s competition begins in Norway, to replace her with an alternate.

Should Harding’s legal status not be resolved before the U.S. women are scheduled to leave on Feb. 9, it is possible Kwan would be asked to go to Norway with them in case a change has to be made later. But because alternates are not allowed to live in the athletes’ village or skate at official practices, the USOC would have to arrange alternate accommodations.

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A recent item in this column reporting that George Steinbrenner is a financial contributor to Kwan could have caused her problems with other backers, who wondered why they should give if the New York Yankee owner is picking up the tab. As since has been explained to them, Steinbrenner has sent her $7,000, which, while generous, does not put her in Don Mattingly’s income bracket.

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Most Europeans do not seem concerned about the security of their figure skaters, probably because their champions rarely become cultural icons such as Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill.

“It would never happen in France,” Eugene Peizerat, secretary general of the French Ice Skating Federation, told the Associated Press. “We don’t think that way here. It seems to me to be a money-related problem. It’s gone commercial over there.”

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Speaking of commercials, Kerrigan made a brief trip to Los Angeles last week to film one for Reebok. According to Reebok spokesman Dave Fogelson, the general theme was “overcoming obstacles.”

But Fogelson could not reveal the location of the shoot because he didn’t know.

“I didn’t want to know,” he said. “If I’m captured, it can’t be beaten out of me.”

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I’m pretty sure that Shawn Eric Eckardt was not the model for Kevin Costner’s character in “The Bodyguard.”

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The sports scandal captivating Great Britain involves Cliff Temple, the respected track and field correspondent for the London Times who committed suicide by throwing himself under a train. The British Athletic Federation is investigating to determine whether its promotions officer, Andy Norman, emotionally pushed Temple.

“Sports boss hounded suicide reporter,” claimed a recent headline in the Times.

Concerned about a Times investigation into his activities as the most powerful man in British track and field, Norman allegedly threatened to spread stories about a sexual relationship between Temple and a female athlete formerly coached by the correspondent. The athlete, Shireen Bailey, denied there was a relationship.

Bailey and other athletes who were coached by Temple and the British Athletic Writers’ Assn. have called for Norman’s banishment from the sport, but the BAF has allowed him to remain in his position during the investigation.

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Helen Stephens, 75, died last week after a stroke in Florissant, Mo. She was less famous for the two gold medals she won in track and field in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin than for her encounter afterward with Adolf Hitler.

“Hitler comes in and gives me the Nazi salute,” she said later. “I gave him a good old Missouri handshake. Immediately, Hitler goes for the jugular vein. He gets ahold of my fanny, and he begins to squeeze and pinch and hug me up, and he said, ‘You’re a true Aryan type. You should be running for Germany.’

“So after he gave me the once-over and a full massage, he asked me if I’d like to spend the weekend in Berchtesgaden.” She declined.

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Organizers of the Feb. 12-27 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer report they have sold 90% of available tickets. That beats the previous record of 84% set by the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

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Jay Leno says Tonya Harding belongs in the Olympics . . . “as an enforcer for the hockey team.”