Ice Time Will Be Limited

So many players, so little time.

The U.S. men’s Olympic hockey orientation camp in Colorado Springs this week will afford Coach Herb Brooks little more than a cursory glance at the 37 players who hope to wear red, white and blue at Salt Lake City.

Players will report Tuesday and must depart Friday, by decree of the NHL Players Assn. They won’t have much time on the ice--one practice Wednesday and another Thursday, each less than three hours. They will have to sit through meetings and lectures and undergo uniform fittings, as well as get educated about substances banned by the International Olympic Committee, in preparation for the start of random, no-advance-notice drug testing.

Team Canada, operating under the same constraints imposed by the players’ union, will hold its camp at the same time in Calgary.

“I think this camp is important because you can accomplish a lot of things that you won’t have to deal with later,” said Larry Pleau, Team USA’s associate general manager.

“Everybody would like to have five weeks. You take what you can get.”

The camp won’t determine who will play goal. Mike Dunham was the only goalie selected to the preliminary roster, but Robert Esche, Damian Rhodes, Brent Johnson and Mike Richter were also invited to Colorado Springs. Richter has the strongest credentials and was the U.S. goalie at Calgary in 1988 and Nagano in 1998, but he has had knee problems and might have lost some quickness.

“The other guys are younger and there’s no question about their talent,” said Pleau, who is general manager of the St. Louis Blues. “Dunham has some experience [with the 1994 Olympic team]. Everybody would like to have a healthy Richter, but we expect to be successful there no matter who ends up playing.”

Most of the evaluations will be made between the start of the NHL season and Dec. 22, when the 23-man Olympic roster must be submitted. Players who excel this week, though, could help themselves.

“A coach might have an idea about a player and then he sees something else,” Pleau said. “The guy might do something that makes you say, ‘Id better keep an eye on him.”’

Ice Time

If all had gone according to plan, U.S. figure skating champion Timothy Goebel would be competing at the Goodwill Games this week in Brisbane, Australia, the first event of the skating season.

But a painful injury two months ago that started with a back spasm and ended with his ribs being displaced canceled his plans. Although he was off the ice for only about 10 days, he had to ease back slowly.

“I think my body was just saying something,” said Goebel, who has since regained his fitness. “I couldn’t skate but I really worked a lot on my choreography and a lot of different aspects related to my [artistic] marks. I had some quality time to do that, so from that standpoint the summer has been productive.”

Goebel, who will be 21 on Sept. 10, is among the sport’s most technically accomplished competitors. He was the first U.S. man to land a quadruple jump in competition, the first skater to complete a quadruple salchow in competition and the first to land a quadruple salchow-triple combination in the world championships. He also became the first skater to land three quads in one program, at Skate America in 1999, and won the event last October with a long program that included three quads and six triples.

However, judges have had less enthusiasm for his artistry. His expressiveness has improved in the year since he left Cleveland to train in El Segundo with Coach Frank Carroll, and he is working with a team of coaches to develop the grace that will persuade judges he’s more than a jumping machine. He finished fourth at this year’s world competition, up from 11th in 2000.

“I feel like I’ve come a long way, especially later in the season,” said Goebel, who plans to spend most of this week in Toronto with choreographer Lori Nichol, working to polish his long program and discussing his competition costumes. His short program music this season will be “Danse Macabre,” and his long program is to a medley from “An American in Paris.” He plans one quadruple jump (in combination) for the short program and three for the long.

“The European judges saw me at only one competition before worlds,” he said. . “What they see and what American judges see is different. From that standpoint, it’s going to take a long time.”

He’s confident they will come around--and that his technical skills will give him an edge. He believes no one can win gold at the Salt Lake City Games without performing a quad, and he’s able to do more than anyone else, even world champion Evgeny Plushenko.

“Maybe in Grand Prix events you can get away with not doing them,” he said. “But so many people are doing them, they’re becoming what the triple axel was in past Olympics. You have to have it.”

Before the Olympics, though, he must finish in the top three at the U.S. championships in January at Staples Center.

Goodbye, Goodwill?

Media mogul Ted Turner started the Goodwill Games to promote one of his favorite causes, world peace. And another of his favorite causes--himself.

Both causes were hurt by America Online’s acquisition of Time Warner. Turner, who had merged his cable empire into Time Warner, was pushed into a largely ceremonial role as vice chairman of the new conglomerate and his pet project became endangered because it loses money.

The first three Goodwill Games lost $109 million and the fourth, in New York in 1998, lost more than $10 million. Organizers hope to break even this year in Brisbane. .

Turner, who started the Goodwill Games to ease tensions created by the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics and the Eastern-bloc boycott of the 1984 Olympics, won’t let his dream die.

“Every time we had them, there was speculation it was the last,” he said during a conference call with reporters. “I’m going to do everything in my power to keep it going.”

That could include funding the Goodwill Games himself if AOL Time Warner pulls the plug.

“If that were the case, I would consider just about anything,” he said.

He also insisted the event isn’t an anachronism and that it serves the same purpose as the Olympics: to bring about social and political harmony through sports.

“The Olympics are certainly dedicated to that as well,” he said. “But since we have numerous conflicts in the world, that reasoning hasn’t gotten through....You can’t get too much good will.”

But too much of the Goodwill Games? Maybe. They’re lost in a mind-numbing succession of championships and tournaments. They’ve drawn top-notch athletes, but the attraction is prize money, not a chance to advocate nuclear disarmament.

Here and There

The U.S. Olympic Committee executive committe will meet Wednesday and Thursday in New York. Reports will be given on the Paralympics, World University Games, and the coming Winter Games, as well as on the committee that will chose a permanent chief executive officer.

Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles, who lost her bid for the International Olympic Committee presidency in July, was reelected vice president of the International Rowing Federation.

The International Ice Hockey Federation, FIFA (soccer’s international governing body) and the IOC Medical Commission will hold a symposium on concussions in sports Nov. 2-3 in Vienna. Speakers will include concussion specialists such as Dr. James Kelly.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency signed an agreement with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports, permitting the testing of their own and each other’s athletes when the athletes are in the other’s country. The organizations also agreed to share technology and expertise.

la Only 158 days until the Salt Lake City Winter Games.