LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : NOTEBOOK : Much Like Jansen, German Champion Succumbs With Fall

It doesn’t happen only to Dan Jansen.

World champion Gunda Niemann of Germany skated over a plastic lane marker in the women’s 3,000-meter speedskating race Thursday at Hamar and fell, missing a chance to repeat as Olympic champion.

America’s Jansen, the top men’s sprinter, fell twice in his specialties at Calgary in 1988, then slipped again Monday in the men’s 500, which he might well have won otherwise. Instead, Russian Aleksandr Golubev finished first.

Another Russian, Svetlana Bazhanova, took advantage of Niemann’s misfortune and won in 4 minutes 17.43 seconds, nearly seven seconds behind Niemann’s world record. Emese Hunyady of Austria was second and Claudia Pechstein, Niemann’s teammate, third.

“I’m in shock,” Niemann said, crying. “But in this sport this can happen any day. I’m just happy to be alive. I’m a good fighter and I’ll try to overcome this.”

Her fall was nasty, taking out Seiko Hashimoto of Japan, too, as Niemann slid across both the inside and outside lanes. Niemann got up and finished the race, almost a minute off her record time, but was disqualified for being in the wrong lane. Hashimoto later was given a re-skate and finished sixth.

German coaches protested the placement of the lane markers, but judges looked at videotapes and rejected the protest.

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Norwegian skier Bjorn Daehlie, who defeated Vladimir Smirnov of Kazakhstan in the men’s 10-kilometer classical cross-country ski race, later served cherry brandy to the Norwegian press, saying: “It contains no Smirnov.”

Daehlie said the brandy was made from cherries picked by him and his father at his home in Nannestead, Norway.

“It has been developed in various ways, and I do not recommend it to athletes,” Daehlie said.

Just shows what he thinks of newspapermen.

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Don’t athletes want to have fun?

Off-hours activities in the Olympic villages have been canceled for lack of interest.

“It is a pity that the athletes aren’t taking the chance to see more of the surrounding country,” said Gerd-Helen Kvamme, marketing consultant for the company in charge of the athletes’ activities. “I believe their stay in Norway would leave a more lasting impression if they would only try a sleigh ride or a trip behind the dog sledge while they are here.”

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Lillehammer police are jailing Olympic tourists regularly--giving them a place to spend the night.

Officer Rigmor Saether said she did not want the police station to become just another cheap hotel but added that those without lodging would not be turned away, as long as there is room.