Nagano’s Winning Bid Latest Focus of Probe

Nagano’s winning bid for the 1998 Winter Games is the latest focus of investigation in the growing Olympic corruption scandal.

The Japanese Olympic Committee on Thursday appointed a seven-member panel to look into the Nagano efforts after Mayor Tasuku Tsukada said there might have been excesses in the city’s dealings with IOC members.

In other developments:

* Organizers of Toronto’s failed bid for the 1996 Olympics said they had warned the IOC eight years ago that many of its members were seeking improper privileges and gifts but that the IOC never got back to them.

* U.S. Olympic Committee President Bill Hybl, responding to a New York Times article, denied that he wanted IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch to resign and said he had no plans to discuss possible changes in the IOC at a USOC executive committee meeting next month.

* Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the IOC’s medical commission, said the bribery scandal had been blown out of proportion and there was no reason for Samaranch to apologize, suggesting that the underlying reason for the controversy was a plot to oust Samaranch.

* USA Today reported that the Justice Department was trying to determine whether a Salt Lake City Olympic official carried about $50,000 to Budapest, Hungary, in 1995 when the 2002 Winter Games were awarded.

* A senior Chinese Olympic official called for stripping Sydney of the 2000 Games. Chinese Olympic Committee honorary president He Zhenliang was quoted as saying he was “extremely furious” over $70,000 inducements paid by Sydney to IOC members.

* Dick Pound, an IOC vice president and head of the IOC investigation into corruption, said he might consider stepping aside in cases of bid cities that could present at least the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Names in the News

Olympic swimming champion Michelle Smith-de Bruin’s appeal against a four-year doping ban has been postponed until May, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The Angels are negotiating to play an exhibition game April 3 against a Mexican League team at Edison Field. The Angels traditionally play the Dodgers on the final weekend before the start of the regular season, but the Dodgers excused themselves from two of three Freeway Series games so they could play the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium.

Yankee Stadium should be renovated to better handle disabled people, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said as federal officials joined a lawsuit against the Yankees, and added New York City as a defendant.

Ken Griffey Jr., frustrated that he hasn’t played in the World Series, isn’t interested right now in a contract extension with the Seattle Mariners. His contract runs through the 2000 season. . . . Texas Ranger right-hander Tim Crabtree, one of the team’s top middle relievers in 1998, agreed to a two-year contract through the 2000 season. . . . Utility infielder Mark Loretta and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed on a one-year contract worth $1,495,000.

Ted Iacenda, a fullback who left USC’s team after the football season, plans to transfer to New Mexico and will be eligible next season after receiving a waiver of the one-year residency requirement from the NCAA, his father said. Transfers usually must sit out a year under NCAA rules, but Iacenda applied for an exception, saying he was transferring because of the emotional hardship resulting from a rape charge brought by a former girlfriend that was later dismissed.

Englishman James Weaver gave team owner and co-driver Rob Dyson his first Daytona International Speedway pole in the opening round of qualifying for the Rolex 24-hour race at Daytona Beach, Fla.

Alexei Yagudin of Russia won his second consecutive men’s European figure skating championship at Prague, Czech Republic.

A horse was killed and driver Jack Moiseyev was hurt Thursday night in a spill at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Moiseyev was hospitalized with a possible rib fracture, and the horse he was driving, Ballerina Leebrook, suffered a fractured skull.

Paul Arnold, a prep All-American running back from Kennedy High in Burien, Wash., said he has committed to Washington over UCLA.