Slutskaya at Ease for Grand Prix

She left Salt Lake City with a silver medal instead of gold, but another wish came true for Irina Slutskaya a few weeks later, when she won the world figure skating championship.

“Can you imagine if you dream about some title all your life and you win it?” she said. “I feel very comfortable inside myself. I was dreaming since I was 6 years old, maybe 7, to have this medal.”

Since then, she has struggled. Persistent bronchitis put her in the hospital last autumn and her results suffered: She finished third at the Cup of Russia, second at the NHK Trophy and second at the Russian national competition before she won the European title. Buoyed by that victory, the 24-year-old Russian said she’s ready to go all out next week in St. Petersburg, Russia, to win her second successive Grand Prix Final.

“I feel really good. I don’t have problems with my health and I feel more comfortable out there right now,” she told reporters during a conference call. “I think it’s too early to be thinking about the [2006] Olympic Games because it’s three more years.”

Slutskaya, who was second to Sarah Hughes at the Olympics and one place ahead of Michelle Kwan, will be the only female Olympic medalist in the Grand Prix Final. Hughes missed the Grand Prix series because of a leg injury and Kwan skipped the finale to focus on next month’s world championships in Washington. Sasha Cohen, fourth at the Olympics and third at this year’s U.S. championships, will be the only U.S. skater at St. Petersburg.

Faux Pas for Fasel

International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel said in the IIHF’s newsletter and on its Web site the organization “does not want to promote mixed hockey,” women playing with men. In a condescending editorial in which he called two-time U.S. Olympian Cammi Granato “Tammi,” Fasel lauded Canadian standout Hayley Wickenheiser for her commitment to the game but said Wickenheiser shouldn’t be playing for a semi-pro men’s team in Finland.

“I don’t think it would be healthy for Hayley, or any other female player, to go into a corner with a player who is determined to deliver a hard check,” Fasel wrote. “Hockey is a tougher game than soccer, handball or basketball. You don’t see girls playing in men’s leagues in those sports....

“We want Hayley Wickenheiser to score 50 goals and set all kinds of records in a women’s league and be a role model for young girls who want to play hockey. We want girls to put up posters of Hayley Wickenheiser, Tammi Granato and Kim Martin because those players make women’s hockey a great game and they should be idolized as stars in women’s hockey and not as banged up, and maybe hurt, pioneers in a provincial third-level men’s league.”

Wickenheiser, a sturdy 5 feet 9 and 170 pounds, has never said she wants to play in the NHL and that’s not why she’s in Finland. She went to find a tougher challenge than her female peers can provide. She would gain nothing from scoring 50 goals in a women’s league and it wouldn’t advance women’s hockey, which the IIHF could help by funding a league if that’s where it wants to consign female players.

Wickenheiser isn’t a star with her team in Kirkkonummen. But she was willing to risk embarrassment and injury and leave her boyfriend and adopted son behind in Canada to improve her game. Maybe she will inspire some girl or woman -- or boy or man -- to push harder in whatever league they’re in. For that, bravo to her.

Keeping Track

Last week’s Los Angeles Invitational track meet will be slightly in the red, continuing a trend begun when Sunkist withdrew its $250,000 sponsorship in 1995. However, promoter Al Franken said he intends to stage the meet again next year.

“After 43 years it becomes part of your life, and you keep trying to find ways to make it work,” he said.

Fan and sponsor support for track and field in Los Angeles has nearly vanished. But there’s hope in Carson, where Philip Anschutz -- owner of the Kings, Staples Center and more than half of the teams in Major League Soccer -- funded the construction of the Olympic Training Center. The first event is scheduled June 1, a track meet that will be part of USA Track and Field’s Golden Spike tour.

“We wish them success, for the sake of the sport,” Franken said. “But I’d certainly like to have Anschutz-type money behind me.”

Here and There

Two-time Olympic 100 sprint gold medalist Gail Devers, who set a U.S. indoor record of 7.78 seconds for the 60-meter hurdles Feb. 7, is training in Northridge for the U.S. indoor championships March 1-2 at Boston. She has coached herself since she parted with Bob Kersee two years ago. “Some days you suffer, but you muddle through,” said Devers, 36. “I really can’t find a drawback.... It’s made me become a student of my event.”

Gervasio Deferr of Spain might lose the silver medal he won at last year’s World Gymnastics Championships after testing positive for cannabis.

The U.S. men’s water polo team will face Slovenia three times in three days. The series starts today at USC and continues Saturday at Newport Harbor High and Sunday at La Verne University.