Switzerland’s Rey-Bellet Skis Into Record Book

Skier Corinne Rey-Bellet of Switzerland, who had never before won a race, made World Cup history Saturday by winning two on the same day at St. Anton, Austria.

By capturing a downhill and a super-giant slalom within four hours, Rey-Bellet became the first skier in World Cup history to win two events in one day.

“Everything I did today was just great,” Rey-Bellet said. “I was dreaming of a World Cup victory, but I never thought I would win two in one day.”

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Lasse Kjus of Norway strengthened his lead in the World Cup downhill standings by capturing his third victory of season at Wengen, Switzerland. . . . Rickey Bower of Park City, Utah, and Kim Stacey of Stratton Mountain, Vt., gave the United States a sweep of the halfpipe titles in the world snowboarding championships at Berchtesgaden, Germany. . . . Germans dominated the World Cup luge meet at Oberhof, Germany, winning the men’s doubles and the women’s singles and taking five of the six places on the podium.

Olympics

Japanese Olympic organizers lavished free trips and entertainment on 62 International Olympic Committee members to win the right to host the 1998 Winter Games, a Japanese newspaper reported today.

The Mainichi Shimbun said the Nagano bidding committee spent between 2 million and 3 million yen ($17,544-$26,316) per person to entertain the officials, including eight IOC members who have been accused of corruption in the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, during their visits to the central Japan region.

The IOC and other governing bodies in sports, to gain credibility with athletes, must demonstrate they want to be fair and impartial in drug testing, former hurdles champion Edwin Moses said.

“I think the critical function they will have to do is establish that they are serious about the problems and maintain focus on major issues,” Moses said at a forum in Durham, N.C., organized by Duke to examine issues raised by the testing of athletes.

Names in the News

Ohio State teammates Joe Montgomery and Joe Germaine provided much of the offense and the East defense had three interceptions and four sacks in a 20-10 victory in the East-West Shrine Bowl at Palo Alto. Germaine passed for 207 yards and Montgomery rushed for 93 yards and a touchdown in 23 carries.

Central Florida’s Daunte Culpepper passed for 134 yards and ran for a touchdown as Team Florida defeated Team USA, 17-9, at Orlando, Fla., in the inaugural All-Star Gridiron Classic, which matched college seniors who played at Florida colleges or high schools against players from the rest of the country. UCLA fullback Craig Walendy scored on a three-yard run for Team USA’s only touchdown.

Five-time Olympic champion Jenny Thompson, who shattered two world records last month, broke the 100-meter individual medley world record in a World Cup short-course meet at Sydney, Australia.

Thompson followed up her record-breaking performance by winning the 50-meter butterfly, giving her five gold medals at the meet.

In the 100 medley, she knocked 0.02 seconds off the short-course world mark set by Slovakian Martina Moravcova one month ago.

Thompson, who last month set world records in the short-course 50-meter and 100-meter butterfly at College Station, Texas, clocked 1:00.41 to beat Moravcova’s 1:00.43.

Reliever Dan Miceli and the San Diego Padres avoided arbitration when they agreed to a $4.6-million, three-year contract. Miceli, who was 10-5 with a 3.22 earned-run average as a setup man for Trevor Hoffman, made $750,000 last year.

Charles Austin, the 1996 Olympic high jump champion, will compete in the San Diego Indoor Games on Saturday.

Miscellany

The $67-million judgment a federal jury ordered the NCAA to pay to a group of entry-level coaches last May has jumped to nearly $74.5 million.

Counting interest and lawyer fees, the total price tag for the NCAA’s ill-fated attempt to force certain coaches to accept $16,000-a-year salaries is now approaching $90 million.

It’s the largest financial penalty ever levied against the NCAA and threatens to become an explosive political issue among big-time schools over where to pin blame and how to share financial pain.

In the latest turn in the five-year-old legal wrangle, U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Vratil informed both sides late Friday that she had ruled against the NCAA’s motion for a new trial and granted the coaches’ motion to add an inflation adjustment to the $67-million figure.