Olympic Flag Rule Attacked by State

Georgia’s attorney general said that an Olympic rule barring fans from waving unauthorized banners--such as the Confederate flag--violates free-speech rights and shouldn’t be enforced by state police.

Only the national flags of participating countries are allowed at events, the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games has ruled. People with unauthorized flags will be barred from entering or ejected.

But Attorney General Mike Bowers said that ACOG’s power to enforce the ban is questionable. ACOG said it will review Bowers’ statement.

*

Olympic skater Sergei Grinkov had an inherited genetic variation that may explain his death of a heart attack last year at age 28, Johns Hopkins University researchers reported in Baltimore. The researchers cautioned, however, that they don’t know exactly how the variant gene works. And they are not certain if it contributed to Grinkov’s death. If the variation did in fact kill Grinkov, his death represents a dramatic demonstration of the danger it represents to otherwise healthy, young people, the researchers said. . . . Carl Borack of Los Angeles was named team captain and Zoran Tulum of Stanford was among the coaches selected for the U.S. Olympic fencing team in Colorado Springs, Colo. Also named were Anthony Leach of Rochester, N.Y., and Dr. Aladar Kogler of New York. Carl Oberg of North Hills was named armorer.