Speedskater Dan Jansen Wins Sullivan Award

Speedskater Dan Jansen, whose Olympic frustrations ended last year with a gold medal and world record in a stirring triumph at the Lillehammer Games in Norway, Monday night won the Sullivan Award, given to the nation’s top amateur athlete.

Jansen, the 65th winner, finished ahead of Bruce Baumgartner (wrestling), Leroy Burrell (track and field), Dominique Dawes (gymnastics), Michael Johnson (track and field), Nancy Kerrigan (figure skating), Shannon Miller (gymnastics), Tommy Moe (skiing), Glenn Robinson (basketball) and Tiger Woods (golf).

Jansen, 29, is the third speedskater to win the award, joining Eric Heiden and Bonnie Blair.

Football

Safety David Whitmore, who came to the Kansas City Chiefs from the San Francisco 49ers in the Joe Montana trade, said he thinks the four-time Super Bowl winner will retire.

“He’s probably done, that’s all I can say. I have to be careful what I say,” Whitmore told WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kan.

“I talked to him last night. There’s a lot of things he’s real unhappy about with the organization and things of that nature.”

Montana, 38, has been the subject of several reports quoting unidentified sources saying he intends to retire. He has one year left on the three-year contract he signed in 1993.

After the surgeon who operated on Sterling Sharpe’s neck said there is a 90% chance he will be able to play again, Sharpe’s agent reportedly is seeking the Green Bay wide receiver’s release unless the Packers raise their salary offer of $200,000 for 1995.

The Raiders re-signed reserve offensive lineman Robert Jenkins, an unrestricted free agent, to a three-year, $1.9-million deal.

Jenkins, 31, a nine-year veteran who joined the Raiders before last season after spending eight years with the Rams, will receive a $400,000 signing bonus and annual base salaries of $500,000, $400,000 and $600,000. He made $162,000 last season.

The Raiders have also signed Kevin Spencer as their new special teams coach, replacing Steve Ortmayer, who left to go to the Rams. Spencer, 41, spent the last four seasons with the Cleveland Browns.

The Minnesota Vikings began rebuilding their defense, signing free-agent safety Harlon Barnett to replace Todd Scott and letting Henry Thomas go to Detroit, where he signed a three-year, $7.35-million contract with the Lions. . . . Linebacker Joe Cain, the Chicago Bears’ leading tackler last season, reached terms on a new two-year contract. . . . The Jacksonville Jaguars and Jaguar Cars Ltd. have settled a lawsuit filed by the auto maker, which claimed the team’s name and original logo infringed upon its leaping-cat trademarks.

Miscellany

Boxer Gerald McClellan remained in critical but stable condition on a life-support machine in London, where he had a large blood clot removed from his brain after being stopped by Nigel Benn in a WBC super-middleweight title fight Saturday night. . . . Carla McGhee, Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes were among 12 players picked for the U.S. Pan American women’s basketball team. . . . Vreni Schneider of Switzerland won her 54th World Cup race, edging local favorite Katja Koren with a strong second run on a slushy course at Maribor, Slovenia. . . . Venuste Niyongabo of Burundi clocked the second-fastest indoor time ever in the 1,000 meters, missing Noureddine Morceli’s world record by only .36 of a second in the DN Games track and field meet in Stockholm, Sweden.