WORLD SPORTS SCENE : Gymnastics Becoming a Hot Ticket in Atlanta

If the first analysis of ticket orders for the 1996 Summer Olympics at Atlanta is an indication, NBC is justified in its decision to devote the largest amount of its coverage to gymnastics.

On a list of the 10 most-coveted tickets released last week by the organizing committee, first was the opening ceremonies July 19. Five of the next seven were for gymnastics events, four of them ahead of the men’s basketball final expected to feature Dream Team III.

The biggest surprise, however, was that tickets for the baseball final ranked ninth, more requested than any track and field or swimming events and the closing ceremonies.

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The chances for a gymnast to be in Atlanta increase greatly if he or she makes the U.S. team in trials Friday and Saturday at Austin, Tex., for next month’s World Championships in Japan.

Berths are available for seven men and seven women. Considering that the world-class women are nine or 10 deep, competition among them is expected to be particularly tight.

Veterans Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes will be at Austin, as will 13-year-old national champion Dominique Moceanu, who will get another test of high-level competition. Also competing will be Kristy Powell of Colorado Springs, Colo., who missed last month’s nationals because of an injury.

Missing will be former world champion Kim Zmeskal, who is trying to come back from retirement and injuries but is not yet ready for this kind of competition. Amanda Borden is questionable because of a toe injury.

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Dick Schultz began work Tuesday as the U.S. Olympic Committee’s executive director. As the former NCAA commissioner, he served on the USOC’s executive board for four years and should be familiar with most of the issues, among them including how to improve relations between his former employers at the NCAA and his new ones.

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USOC officials have approved actor Dolph Lundgren as the manager of the U.S. modern pentathlon team for the Atlanta Olympics. They had to make an exception because managers are supposed to be former competitors in the sport they represent.

Lundgren was a karate expert in his native Sweden. He became interested in his new sport while filming the movie “Pentathlon.”

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Speaking on the opening day of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women last week in Beijing, Anita DeFrantz, an International Olympic Committee executive board member and president of Los Angeles’ Amateur Sports Foundation, said:

“Since 1981, several women have been elected as IOC members. However, although there has been great progress in their participation in physical activities and the Olympic Games, the percentage of women in the Olympic movement at IOC, international federation or national Olympic committee levels is still very low. This is one area in which the Olympic movement has to make particular efforts.”

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Among DeFrantz’s contributions to women’s sports since becoming an IOC member in 1986 was her role in the addition of softball to the Summer Olympics. So the timing of her comments in Beijing was appropriate for this announcement that arrived in the mail last week:

“We’ve waited 28 years, nine months, four days and 10 hours for this moment . . . “

USA Softball, which began its campaign for inclusion on the program that long ago, was inviting reporters to attend the naming Monday in Oklahoma City of its first women’s Olympic team.

Among those selected was shortstop Dot Richardson, who, at 33, is the team’s oldest member. The former UCLA shortstop postponed her residency in orthopedic surgery at L.A. County-USC Medical Center in hopes of making the team.

Other Southland players selected: pitcher Lisa Fernandez of Long Beach, outfielder Laura Berg of Santa Fe Springs, catcher Gillian Boxx of Torrance, infielder Sheila Cornell of Diamond Bar, infielder-outfielder Leah O’Brien of Chino and infielder Julie Smith of Glendora. Pitcher Michelle Granger, formerly of Valencia, also was picked. She now lives in Anchorage, Ala., where she practices during winters inside a church.

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Cape Town, South Africa’s motto for its bid for the 2004 Summer Olympics: “Thousands of years ago, the continents divided and went their separate ways. Now the time has come to return to Africa.”

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A Japanese sponsor offered a lot of yen to Matt Biondi if he would return to the pool in Atlanta next year to face Russian sprinter Alexander Popov. Declining, Biondi said, “There is one thing that money can never buy, motivation.” . . . France and the Czech Republic want you if you’re a baseball player with parents or grandparents from those countries. Either federation can be contacted through USA Baseball at (609) 586-2381.

The 14th of 23 test events for the Atlanta Olympics begins Tuesday with the IX Diving World Cup at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. Officials are generally pleased with the results of the first 13. One problem was that the air conditioning system in the badminton arena was too breezy for the shuttlecocks.

Times staff writer Maryann Hudson contributed to this story.