WINTER OLYMPICS / NOTEBOOK : USOC’s Hearing on Harding Is Tuesday

The U.S. Olympic Committee has notified figure skater Tonya Harding’s attorneys that an administrative hearing to determine whether she can participate in the Winter Olympics will be held next Tuesday, three days after the opening ceremony but eight days before she is scheduled to begin competition.

The hearing will be held in Oslo, 110 miles south of here.

The USOC announced the decision to ask Harding to appear before the 13-member Games Administrative Board on Tuesday, three days after receiving between 300 and 400 pages of documentation from the U.S. Figure Skating Assn.’s investigation into Harding’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan.

“It’s not a matter of hearing more, it’s a matter of giving Tonya Harding a chance to respond, which she has not had a chance to do,” USOC President LeRoy Walker said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Harding, who did not respond to an invitation to appear before the USFSA’s investigative panel last Friday and Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo., has not said whether she will attend the USOC hearing. Her attorney, Robert Weaver, said Tuesday in Portland, Ore., that he was reviewing the USOC’s hearing notice.

The USOC is believed to be focusing on possible code of conduct violations relating to Harding’s Jan. 27 admission that she learned afterward that associates were involved in the attack on Kerrigan but did not immediately report the information to law enforcement officials.

USOC Executive Director Harvey Schiller said the board probably will be more concerned with “sportsmanship and fair-play aspects rather than criminal culpability.”

The USOC has until Feb. 21, two days before the women’s figure skating competition begins in Hamar, Norway, to name a replacement for Harding. The first alternate is Michelle Kwan, 13, of Torrance, who was authorized by the USFSA to leave for Norway Saturday or Sunday.

It appears more likely that she will not leave until the middle of next week, possibly arriving in Oslo as Harding is departing. Whether Harding’s destination is home to Portland or to Hamar for the Olympics is the question before the USOC’s administrative board.