Bottom Line for Nagano Is Start Line

Never in the field of human conflict has so much angst been expended over such a small piece of frozen Japanese hillside.

Five hundred feet of snow-covered earth--a patch smaller than the length of two football fields--have spawned a bitter turf war between Makato Kobayashi, director general of the Nagano Organizing Committee (NAOC), and Marc Hodler, chairman of the International Ski Federation

(FIS), who remain in vehement disagreement over the starting line for the men’s downhill ski run at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.

Hodler wants the race to start at 1,800 meters--or 5,940 feet--above sea level, ensuring that the course will be long enough to meet Olympic and World Cup standards.

Kobayashi refuses to budge from the proposed start of 1,680 meters--5,540 feet--arguing that a higher starting point would push the course into a national park, violating Japanese environment-protection laws.

The dispute will be resolved Nov. 20 by a vote of the NAOC’s executive board, but during the argument:

* Hodler threatened to “pull out of the Games and have no skiing at all, not even jumping, not even cross-country--nothing.”

* Kobayashi threatened to resign his position.

* Hodler, noting that an existing ski lift at the Hakuba resort reaches 6,100 feet and enables 60,0000 recreational skiers to ski through the park, complained that the NAOC was discriminating against Olympic skiers.

* Kobayashi promised to ban all skiers, recreational and elite, from the park.

* Hodler likened Kobayashi to Fidel Castro.

* Hodler apologized for likening Kobayashi to Castro after a local newspaper printed his remarks. Said Hodler, “We never intended to compare Mr. Kobayashi to the head of state of Cuba.”

* Nagano organizers, trying to mollify Hodler, proposed adding twists and turns to lengthen the course without raising the starting line.

* Hodler rejected the proposal, suggesting that if the downhill course were so altered, Nagano officials might as well just award two gold medals for super-giant slalom.

* Tommy Moe, defending men’s downhill Olympic champion, came out in favor of the shorter Nagano course, describing it as “a nice course, with lots of rolling jumps. It’s an Olympic downhill, whether it’s 1:30 or 1:45 or two minutes. It’s a fair course, a fair test for everyone.”

* Moe called Hodler, “kind of a dinosaur. . . . He’s been at FIS forever.”

* Hodler agreed with Moe’s assessment of the short course: “People say a short version would be a bad race. Not true.”

No comment from Hodler, however, on whether he’s from the Jurassic or the Cretaceous period.

Last weekend, in what was seen as a major concession, Hodler said he was turning the decision over to Japanese authorities. Hodler was hoping, best-case scenario, that the decision would be made by a neutral arbitrator, but Nagano Gov. Goro Yoshimura said the matter will be handled by the NAOC executive board at its Nov. 20 meeting.

The executive board is composed of 36 leaders of Japanese sport, business and government. Twelve members are known to be in favor of the higher starting line, 14 opposed.

Kobayashi already is forecasting victory.

“It is next to impossible that our position will be overturned,” he said.

Either way, Hodler warned that Kobayashi’s intractability over the downhill start could jeopardize future Japanese Olympic bids, including Osaka’s current campaign to host the 2008 Summer Games.

“I could imagine that some chances for Japan to get Olympic Games will be jeopardized by such a position,” Hodler said. “For the first time, the organizing committee is working against sports . . . against athletes. So far, even in the worst case of the bad Olympic Games, sport was always perfect, fair and in favor of the athletes.”

STAGING A REVIVAL

Bringing back the Los Angeles Invitational Indoor Track Meet was the first step for promoters Al and Don Franken.

More crucial to the event’s survival--and more problematic--is the next step: bringing in the elite athletes.

After years of paying appearance fees, the Frankens say they will be offering only prize money to athletes competing in the open portion of the meet Feb. 7 at the Sports Arena.

“For the first time, we’re going all prize money,” Don Franken said. “There’s no reason to pay an appearance fee to a 3:51 miler and have him come in and run 4:08.

“The days of appearance fees are all but dead. Obviously, there was that meet in Britain [in September] where they paid Michael Johnson $100,000 to run [200 meters in] 20.67. Michael Johnson is a great runner. I’m a fan of Michael Johnson. But he finished fourth or fifth in that race.

“People should be rewarded for doing well. We’re paying for performance. That’s our game plan.”

Before the Los Angeles Invitational was canceled last spring, more than a year after Sunkist pulled its title sponsorship, Al Franken said Johnson’s asking price was $40,000 to $50,000.

“We can’t afford too many Michael Johnsons,” he added.

“Hopefully, though, we can get Marion Jones and Inger Miller. Maybe John Godina and Randy Barnes--the shotput is always a good event indoors, they’re right in front of you, they make a lot of noise. Amy Acuff is another--she’s a potential Olympic champion, or at least a medalist, in the high jump. And we might be able to get one or two of John Smith’s great sprinters. Ato Boldon, someone like that.”

Al Franken said it was “tough as hell” trying to revive the meet, which made its debut in 1960 and ran annually for 37 years through 1996.

“We’ve had to battle to get it together,” he said. “You sort of get spoiled--you get in a niche, you know. We had Sunkist as a sponsor for 26 straight years, and that sponsorship guaranteed we wouldn’t lose money. I can’t fault Sunkist [for pulling out]. Twenty-six years with one sponsor has to be a record.”

Still fishing for a new title sponsor, Franken then paused for a commercial break.

“For a couple hundred thousand dollars, this is a great value,” he said. “Golf, tennis--that’ll cost a sponsor a couple million. Nissan spent over $3 million for the L.A. Open.

“We always had good crowds--about 11,000 or 12,000 in a 13,500-seat building--and good performances. We’re on world-wide TV. You can get all that for about $200,000.”

GOLD, AT LAST

Renaldo Nehemiah, who reigned as the world’s premier men’s hurdler for four years but never won an Olympic medal, was elected to the U.S. Track and Field Hall of Fame last week, along with sprinters Evelyn Ashford and Henry Carr and race walker Henry Laskau.

Nehemiah, the first man to break the 13-second mark in the 110-meter hurdles, was ranked No. 1 in the world from 1978-1982, missed the 1980 Moscow Games because of the U.S. boycott and opted for professional football in 1983, when it appeared the Los Angeles Games were also in jeopardy. He returned to track in 1986, far off his earlier form, and retired in 1991.

“It has taken me 17 years to put the Olympic Games in perspective,” Nehemiah said during a conference call. “That was a hollow feeling. The induction has made up for that. . . . This is my gold medal.”

Ashford won four Olympic gold medals, including the women’s 100 meters in 1984, and Carr earned one with his victory in the men’s 200 meters in 1964. Laskau won 42 national race-walk titles and a gold medal at the 1951 Pan American Games.

The four athletes will be formally inducted at a ceremony Dec. 4.

ONE MAN’S VIEW, ANYWAY

During a recent inspection of the 2000 Olympics sites in Sydney, Billy Payne, chief of the Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee, warned Australians to be prepared for criticism of their Games.

“I like to compare it to your daughter’s piano recital,” Payne said. “She wasn’t the best, there was someone better, but at the same time, it was pretty good. I think the Atlanta Games accomplished what it set out to do.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Calendar

CHAMPIONS SERIES OF FIGURE SKATING

* Wednesday-Nov. 16: Trophy Lalique (Paris).

* Nov. 19-23: Cup of Russia (St. Petersburg, Russia).

* Nov. 26-30: NHK Trophy (Nagano, Japan).

ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP

* Nov. 21-24: Men’s and women’s slalom and giant slalom (Park City, Utah).

* Nov. 27-29: Women’s super-giant slalom, parallel racing (Mammoth Mountain).

* Nov. 29-30: Men’s super-G and downhill (Whistler Mountain, Canada).

* Dec. 5-6: Men’s downhill and super-G (Beaver Creek, Colo.)

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING WORLD CUP

* Nov. 22-23: Men’s 10K and relay, women’s 5K and relay (Beitostolen, Norway).

FREESTYLE SKIING WORLD CUP

* Dec. 5-7 at Tignes, France.

LUGE WORLD CUP

* Nov. 22-23 at Sigulda, Latvia.

* Nov. 29-20 at Konigssee, Germany.

* Dec. 6-7 at Innsbruck, Austria.

SPEEDSKATING WORLD CUP

* Saturday-Nov. 16: 500 and 1,000 meters (Roseville, Minn.)

* Nov. 22-23: 500 and 1,000 meters (Calgary, Canada).

* Nov. 28-30: All-around (Berlin, Germany).

* Dec. 6-7: All-around (Heerenveen, Netherlands).