USOC Marketing Chief Quits

John Krimsky, who helped raise more than $2 billion as the U.S. Olympic Committee’s marketing chief but has been buffeted by the Salt Lake bribery scandal, resigned Monday to return to private business.

Krimsky will be succeeded by Dave Ogrean, executive director of USA Hockey, the national federation for Olympic-level ice hockey.

Ogrean is a former broadcasting director for the USOC and has been mentioned as a potential successor to Dick Schultz, the committee’s executive director who is expected to quit after the 2002 Winter Games.

Krimsky, 60, said the scandal had no bearing on his decision to leave the job he has held for 13 years.

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Runner Mary Slaney, 40, was retroactively banned for two years after an arbitration panel in Monte Carlo, Monaco, found her guilty of taking banned drugs before the 1996 U.S. Olympic trials.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation’s decision, from which there is no appeal, removes from the record books Slaney’s silver medal she won for the 1,500 meters at the 1997 World Indoor Championships.

Pro Football

The Washington Redskins have another sale agreement for $800 million, apparently meaning Coach Norv Turner and General Manager Charley Casserly will keep their jobs if the deal goes through.

Prospective buyer Daniel Snyder, a communications executive, and trustees of Jack Kent Cooke’s estate announced the agreement.

The sale, which must be approved by NFL owners, includes Jack Kent Cooke Stadium.

Snyder said he would retain Turner and Casserly for the 1999 season.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to public financing for a new Seattle Seahawk stadium, clearing the way for an initial bond sale.

The high court, acting without comment, turned away a Seattle man’s challenge of the 1997 election in which voters approved providing $300 million toward the $425-million open-air stadium to be built where the Kingdome stands.

New York Giant quarterback Kerry Collins was convicted of driving while impaired at Charlotte, N.C., and ordered to pay $186 and surrender his driving privileges for one month.

Tennis

Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who has not won a match on the ATP tour since Feb. 26, will take over as world No. 1 from the injured Pete Sampras next week.

Sampras pulled out of this week’s Atlanta tournament because of a back injury and will drop 172 points as a result. Kafelnikov’s total will be unchanged.

Fourth-seeded Michael Chang defeated Gianluca Pozzi of Italy, 6-4, 6-2, in the first round of the AT&T; Challenge at Duluth, Ga., and second-seeded Jason Stoltenberg beat Paul Goldstein, 6-4, 6-1.

Defending champion Thomas Enqvist was eliminated in the opening round of the $500,000 BMW Open at Munich, Germany by Dinu Pescariu, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Miscellany

Times sports editor Bill Dwyre was awarded the Powerade sports story of the year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Assn. in Salisbury, N.C. The winning story was a profile of legendary basketball coach John Wooden that appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine. At the same ceremony, Jim Nantz of CBS was named sportscaster of the year and Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press was honored as sportswriter of the year.

As WNBA labor talks resumed in New York, the Los Angeles Sparks announced cancellation of their tryout camp Saturday and Sunday.

A previously agreed-to agreement blew up last week and the league postponed indefinitely its college-ABL draft, scheduled today.

Ascent Entertainment Group Inc. has agreed to sell the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and the teams’ future home, the Pepsi Center, in a deal valued at $400 million. The sale will be to a partnership controlled by Bill Laurie and his wife, Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie of Columbia, Mo.

The transaction must be approved by the NBA, NHL, and the City and County of Denver.