WORLD SPORTS SCENE : No Olympic Festival as USOC Cuts Budget

As expected, the U.S. Olympic Committee on Sunday eliminated the Olympic Festival and funding for U.S. teams at the World University Games, merely one of several budget cuts made at the four-day meeting in Atlanta.

The cuts, which also included limits on spending for Olympic training centers, were part of a reallocation of funds in a reduced budget of $350 million--$65 million below the current level--which will take effect after the Olympics next summer in Atlanta.

The cuts are predicated on the USOC’s belief that the next American Olympics, the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, are so far in the future that sponsors will lose interest.

Since its inception in 1978, the Olympic Festival has escalated in cost and declined in attracting elite talent. It was originally established as an elite event, but has evolved into more of a development program. The USOC hopes to replace it with a series of smaller, international meets that feature a handful of sports.

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With so many different gymnastics clubs represented on the women’s team at the World Championships in Sabae, Japan, there was bound to be infighting among the coaches.

Which two would coach the team on the floor?

It didn’t take long for friction to evolve among the eight coaches. Not surprisingly, Bela Karolyi, who has the best international reputation among the coaches, was chosen, along with Mary Lee Tracy of the Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy. The rest sat in the stands.

Said Steve Nunno, who coaches Shannon Miller: “I’ve got the two-time defending world champion and I can’t even get to speak with her on the floor.”

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With injuries to Dominique Dawes and Amy Chow before the World Championships, America did not send its best women’s team. But once in Japan, things got worse. Miller sustained an ankle injury, yet competed in all four optional events despite the pain to help the U.S. finish third--barely ahead of Russia and more than three points behind first-place Romania, a huge differential.

Besides Miller, of note was the performance of Dominique Moceanu, the final competitor in team competition. She had to score well on the vault for the women to win the bronze medal. Her first vault was terrible, and the pressure increased. But 14-year old Moceanu came through on the second, scoring a 9.612.

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After their protest was acknowledged, Jewish groups attended a ceremony recently at Munich, Germany to unveil a memorial to the 11 members of the Israeli team who were killed by Arab gunmen during the 1972 Summer Olympics.

The 33-foot-long granite memorial is engraved with the victims’ likenesses and names, but Jewish groups felt it was insufficient because it did not say how the team members died. A compromise was reached when the German Olympic Committee agreed to add a bronze plate to the memorial that said the victims died in a “terrorist attack.”

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Major League Soccer could affect who is hired to coach the U.S. men’s Olympic team in Atlanta. All three of the leading candidates to replace Timo Liekoski, who was fired last week, have been linked with MLS teams, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

University of Portland Coach Clive Charles and Virginia Coach Bruce Arena have both met with officials from MLS franchises, while UCLA coach Sigi Schmid is among the favorites to coach Los Angeles’ MLS team, which will play in the Rose Bowl.

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There was a steep price to pay for the Norwegian Ski Federation’s obsession with winning as many medals as possible during the 1994 Winter Games on its own slopes near Lillehammer. A $6.85-million debt has left the federation on the verge of bankruptcy.

“It is an economic scandal,” Norway’s Minister of Culture, Aase Kleveland, said. Norwegian skiers won 18 medals in 1994 and eight of the country’s 10 gold medals.

World Scene Notes

Stanford’s two-sport star, Kristin Folkl, will compete only in volleyball for the Cardinal this winter. When basketball seasons begins, she will leave school to rejoin the U.S. volleyball team. She hopes to compete in next summer’s Olympics before returning to school. . . . Steve Fraser, who in 1984 became the first U.S. Greco-Roman wrestler to win an Olympic gold medal, is the new coach of the Greco-Roman national team. . . . Ray Essick, executive director of U.S. Swimming for the past 15 years, will step down in October, 1997.

It might not feel like winter, or even autumn in some parts of the country, but the winter sports season has begun. Recently at the Meadowlands, winners in the first figure skating competition of the season, the Best of the Best, were Nicole Bobek in women’s singles, Scott Hamilton in men’s singles and Jenni Meno and Todd Sand in pairs. And in Monte Carlo, the U.S. two- and four-man bobsled teams won the World Push Championships.

Two-time archery gold medalist Darrell Pace did not survive the semifinal training team trials and will not be in Atlanta. He finished 29th. The top 16 men and women each advanced to the finals, which will be held Oct. 21-22 in Long Beach.

Times staff writer Randy Harvey contributed to this story.