4B = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2003
New federation created to govern figure skating
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A year after the Salt Lake City debacle, figure skating has more chaos on its hands.
And this one goes to the very heart of the sport, a power play by some of skating's most prominent names to replace the International Skating Union.
"We cannot be silent any longer and let our sport careen into the abyss," Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie said yesterday, announcing the creation of the World Skating Federation.
"We have watched and waited for the ISU to take the necessary steps to cleanse the sport, and we have seen nothing but cosmetics," he said. "There is no other way than to simply start from scratch."
Disgusted by what it says is a loss of the sport's integrity and
credibility under the leadership of ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta, the WSF's ultimate goal is to become the sport's governing body.
"A coup? We definitely want to shine a light on what people in figure skating think is wrong," said Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic champion and a leading voice in the sport. "If you want to go the high road, it's an alternative, a platform where we can really do this right."
The group already has a leadership structure and a constitution, and it has pledges for almost $200,000 in funding, said Jon Jackson, an international judge and a WSF founder.
But there's more to creating a new federation than a star-studded list of supporters and a glitzy video presentation.
The biggest hurdle will be convincing the International
Olympic Committee that the WSF, not the ISU, is best suited to be skating's governing body. The WSF faxed IOC president Jacques Rogge a letter early Tuesday, and also sent him a package outlining its criticisms of ISU leadership, Cinquanta in particular.
The IOC didn't exactly greet news of a splinter group with a rousing reception.
"The IOC recognizes one international federation for each sport and, as far as skating is concerned, it is the ISU," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said. "There is no plan to change anything. It's not on the agenda at all to change things."
Cinquanta would not comment. ISU special events coordinator Peter Krick said Tuesday no comment would be made until after the world championships.
The WSF might have better luck with the IOC if it can show
OLYMPIC GAMES
support from a wide-ranging list of national federations; organizers said theyll begin trying to line up endorsements immediately.
"I will not ask any member to join the WSF because they could potentially put their athletes in jeopardy," said Ron Pfenning, a top judge who is acting president of WSF. "I would hope they could endorse this organization on the principles on which it was founded."
The WSF's announcement caught ISU member nations by surprise, and most refused to comment before reviewing the information.
Though WSF officials initially
said they had gotten an endorsement from the USFSA, the USFSA quickly said that wasn't true.
"(The USFSA) has had neither the time nor the opportunity to review the proposals offered by those seeking to create a new world figure skating body," the USFSA said in a release. "We will follow the well-established representative process we have in place to determine what is truly in the best interest of our membership."
Skating has been buffeted by criticism and international scorn in the aftermath of the Salt Lake City scandal, and the interim judging system hasn't helped.
The WSF says it will give control of the sport back to skaters. The ISU oversees both figure skating and speedskating, and many figure skaters say that compromises their influence.
It doesn't help that Cinquanta
is a former speedskater, and has almost wholesale support from the speedskating side of the ISU.
"You don't have hockey players running basketball," six-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge said.
The WSF said it would involve athletes and coaches at every level, giving them a voice in major decisions. It also would mete out real punishment for those found guilty of misconduct, the breeding ground for recent scandals.
The ISU has no official code of conduct. Judges or officials found guilty of wrongdoing can be reinstated once they've served their punishment.
Even judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne, who touched off the biggest scandal in Olympic history with her admission that she was pressured to vote for the Russian pair, is suspended for only three years.
A's demolish Mariners; Rogers, Rodriguez return to teams
The Associated Press
The Japanese fans missed quite a show when the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners played yesterday.
Instead of opening the season in Tokyo, the two teams slugged it out in an exhibition game in Arizona, with the A's beating the Mariners 25-10.
Eric Chavez hit one of Oakland's seven home runs and the Athletics had 31 hits.
The teams originally were scheduled to play their season opener at the Tokyo Dome yesterday, but the trip was called off because of the war in Iraq. The result would likely have been very
different if this game had counted.
Instead of a matchup of aces, the A's sent Ted Lilly out to face Gil Meche.
"I think the lineups would have been a little different," As manager Ken Macha said.
Frank Menechino, Mark Ellis, Ramon Hernandez, Billy McMillon, Adam Piatt and David McCarty homered for the A's, who had their highest-scoring game in spring training since at least 1986 — as far back as the team's records go.
"We hit some balls hard," Macha said. "It was just one of those days. That's baseball. We've got Randy Johnson pitching tomorrow. That's baseball, too."
Elsewhere, Kenny Rogers held Cincinnati's slumping offense to two hits in five innings in his debut for Minnesota, leading the Twins to a 2-1 victory over the Reds.
Rogers signed a $2 million one-year contract on March 13 and had a spot in the rotation reserved.
The left-hander pitched in two minor league games before
appearing with the Twins for the first time yesterday.
"I know that was something that was needed," he said. "Not that the other work is not quality, but it's not the same. When you get into a 'A' game, you get the extra adrenaline and nervousness."
Rogers held Cincinnati to a pair of singles and two walks in five innings, striking out two.
"We were real excited to see what we did today," pitching coach Rick Anderson said.
Also yesterday, the New York Yankees said they expected closer Mariano Rivera to start the season on the disabled list while Texas' Alex Rodriguez
took a big step to returning to the Rangers' lineup.
Rodriguez has a small disc herniation in his neck, but reported no pain after playing seven innings at shortstop in a minor league game. He batted each inning, going 2-for-8 with a two-run homer, single and three RBL.
"I'm right on schedule," Rodriguez said. "My timing was a little off, but it was really good to get out there. I got in eight solid at-bats. It was good to be able to see some live pitching."
Rivera felt discomfort while making his final pitch in the ninth inning Monday against Detroit.
"Unfortunately I think he'll
have to be disabled," Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said.
"If we play this thing wrong, we have more than a short period of time that we can damage here. We could jeopardize a much longer period of time, so we'll take the safe approach."
Rivera went on the disabled list last June with a groin strain in the same area.
"I've been treating it," Rivera said. "That's all they're going to do. It's a little sore. It's better than last night."
Juan Acevedo, the Tigers' closer last season, will get the majority of the save situations.