Premier of Greece Stresses Unity in Olympic Planning

Costas Simitis, the premier of Greece, warned both his government and organizers Tuesday that the Olympics were a race the country cannot afford to lose.

Simitis asked organizers of the 2004 Games in Athens to put aside differences with the government and focus on preparing for the Olympics.

Costas met for five hours with senior ministers and the Athens organizers.

His construction minister also promised to speed construction of five Olympic venues, a key demand by the International Olympic Committee.

Simitis also said he was not planning to replace Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki as head of the Athens Organizing Committee, and asked all Greek Olympics officials to stop quarreling.

Earlier this month, the IOC official overseeing preparations called for a “truce” between the government and organizers.

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Canadian Olympic officials said they have asked the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency to look into doping allegations against Italy’s gold medal kayaker Josefa Idem Guerrini. Reports surfaced last weekend in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera alleging that Guerrini and four other Italian Olympic gold medalists had registered high human growth hormone levels in blood tests undertaken by the Italian Olympic Committee last spring.

Soccer

Five Galaxy players, including three who played on the U.S. Olympic team, have been named to the U.S. team that will play Mexico next Wednesday at the Coliseum. The Galaxy players selected by U.S. Coach Bruce Arena for the 24-man roster are defender Danny Califf and midfielders Peter Vagenas and Sasha Victorine, who played for the U.S. at Sydney, and defender Greg Vanney and goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.

Six players were named from the MLS Cup champion Kansas City Wizards.

Four players from women’s Olympic soccer champion Norway were among eight foreigners to sign with the new Women’s United Soccer Assn.

Norway’s Hege Riise, Bente Nordby, Gro Espeseth and Ann Kristin Aarones, all regulars of the team that beat the United States for the gold medal in Sydney, joined the league. Also signing were Sweden’s Ulrika Karlsson and Kristin Bengttson, Canada’s Charmaine Hooper and England’s Kelly Smith.

In all, 16 international players will join the WUSA when it begins its first season in April.

The Tampa Bay Mutiny said it will not pick up Coach Tim Hankinson’s contract option for next season.

Tennis

Elena Dementieva of Russia, who advanced to the semifinals at the U.S. Open and won a silver medal at the Olympics, lost to Cara Black, 7-5, 6-3, in the first round of the Generali Ladies Open at Linz, Austria. Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport and No. 2 Venus Williams had first-round byes. . . . Albert Costa of Spain was ousted from the $400,000 Toulouse Open in France, losing to Julien Boutter of France, 6-2, 6-4.

College Sports

The Indiana University freshman who was berated by Bob Knight shortly before the coach’s firing has withdrawn from school.

Kent Harvey’s brothers, Kyle and Kevin, also have withdrawn from the university. The triplets, their mother and stepfather left the state following Knight’s firing last month.

Wisconsin was told by the federal government that it is not abiding by Title IX legislation, and the university must do more to comply with the sex discrimination law.

Wisconsin has not achieved “substantial proportionality” and must add a female sport with 25 to 26 openings for athletes, the Office of Civil Rights said.

The 1972 law requires schools to provide athletic opportunities to men and women in numbers proportionate to undergraduate enrollment.

UCLA guard Nicole Kaczmarski will miss the first seven games of the season for personal reasons, Coach Kathy Olivier said. Kaczmarski, a starter as a freshman last season who averaged 11.7 points, has been in New York getting treatment for a foot injury.

Miscellany

Jim Seacord, a high school football coach in Charlotte, N.C., was fired after two parents accused him of telling the team’s center to “put a gun to your mouth and pull the trigger” during halftime of a game Sept 15.

Seacord allegedly had asked the player if he was satisfied with the way he was playing and satisfied with his life, and the player had answered “yes” to both questions.

The parents also complained that Seacord grabbed and squeezed the lip of another player who had complained of cramps during a practice.

Seacord, a coach for 28 years, remains at the school as a physical education teacher.

Kalima Skolimowska, 18, of Poland, who won the Olympic hammer throw with a toss of 233 feet 5 inches, managed only 170-0 and failed to get through the qualifying round at the World Junior Track and Field Championships at Santiago, Chile.

Orlando will be the site of the 2001 WNBA All-Star game, to be held July 16.

Five-time U.S. men’s figure skating champion Todd Eldredge was added to the list of competitors for Skate America next week at Colorado Springs.