WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Countdown to Lillehamer / ’94 Winter Olympics : Harding at Opening Ceremony a Question

Until further notice, figure skater Tonya Harding has all the rights and privileges of any other member of the U.S. team for the 1994 Winter Olympics, including an invitation to participate in Saturday’s opening ceremony.

“Oh yeah, she’s a team member,” said Harvey Schiller, U.S. Olympic Committee executive director, Sunday, one day after announcing that an administrative board might meet within the next two weeks to determine whether Harding can compete in the Games. “Nothing has changed in regard to that.”

Schiller added he does not expect Harding to arrive in Lillehammer until the middle of next week, but he said no firm date has been set for her travel. And other USOC officials emphasized that she is almost predictably unpredictable. “I don’t think she’ll be here, from what I hear,” said one official, who did not want to be identified. “She’ll have to surprise us. But she’s done that before.”

Harding has time reserved at the rink where she trains in Portland, Ore., through Friday, but she said during the national championships last month in Detroit, where she earned an Olympic berth by finishing first, that she looked forward to marching in both the opening and closing ceremonies.

Not only did she miss the opening ceremony for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, she did not arrive until two days before her competition started, giving herself little time to adjust to changes in time and climate. One year after winning the silver medal in the World Championships, she finished a disappointing fourth.

“It’s going to be more fun this time,” she said last month. “I’m going to do the opening and closing ceremonies. It’s an experience I should have seen the first time. I realize that was wrong. I’m going to take every opportunity I can.”

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If Michelle Kwan of Torrance is called upon to compete as a replacement for Harding, she will be the first alternate to represent the United States in Olympic figure skating since 1932.

Maribel Vinson and George Hill withdrew from the pairs competition when Harvard would not allow Hill to take time off from classes because he was on academic probation. They were replaced by Gertrude Meredith and Joseph Savage, who finished last.

Savage also served as the chief referee of the speedskating competition. He was 52, the oldest person to compete for the United States in the Winter Olympics. Kwan, 13, would be the youngest.

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Since the U.S. figure skating championships in Detroit, enrollment in the Lake Arrowhead Ice Castle International Training Center’s Learn to Skate Program has increased 400%.

“Who knows whether it’s because it’s an Olympic year or because of this?” said Frank Carroll, who coaches Kwan at the Ice Castle.

This , of course, is the worldwide publicity surrounding Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.

“Maybe (our students) had better take martial arts and figure skating at the same time,” Carroll said.

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With the IOC’s announcement that no new members will be named at this week’s session, the United States has gone 2 1/2 years with only one representative, Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles.

Although she is recognized as one of the IOC’s most effective members, she insists that she cannot do the job alone, particularly with Salt Lake City’s campaign for the 2002 Winter Olympics coming to a head next year. The IOC has promised that she will have a U.S. colleague by the end of the summer.

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Among the official delegation from the U.S. government to Saturday’s opening ceremony will be Dawn Steel, who produced “Cool Runnings,” a movie about the Jamaican bobsled team.

The International Society of Olympic Historians called it “a movie of bad Olympic history.”

“I would not for a minute expect any ISOH members to respect it at all for its flagrant lack of respect for many things Olympic and the liberties it takes with the true story line,” society secretary general, Bill Mallon, wrote in the ISOH Journal. “Having said all of the above,” he continued, “I really enjoyed the movie.”