Section B·Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, February 18, 1998
WINTEROLYMPICS 1998
Figure skater Lipinski glides toward medal
The Associated Press
NAGANO, Japan — It would be a marriage made on ice, five or 10 years from now — Tara Lipinski and Todd Eldredge.
Tara Lipinski joins teammates Michelle Kwan and Nicole Bobek in the short program tonight. Together, they begin their quest to give the United States gold, silver and bronze medals in women's figure skating.
"He's like her big brother," Jack Lipinski said. "But you never know. Whatever makes her happy. He's been real supportive. They train so hard together. They have the same work ethics, the same ways about them. They don't give up. They drive themselves. They push each other. One watches the other."
For Liplinski, the toughest part of the Olympics has been watching Eldredge come unglued in the free skate and fall from third to fifth. She sat in the mezzanine, gripping pairs skater Jenni Meno's arm when he came onto the ice, then buried her head in her hands when he singled his triple axel.
"Well," says Pat Lipinski, Tara's mother, smiling and running the idea through her mind. "I'd be happy. He's super."
"She was so sad," Pat Lipinski said. "She had to go off by herself. And then she went down to Todd, and they spent time together at the rink that night. We left her and went back to our hotel. She called later but was very subdued that night, very quiet."
Jack Lipinski laughed nervously, as any father of a 15-year-old would when contemplating the notion of his little girl getting married someday.
For the past couple of years, Lipinski and Eldredge have been inseparable, training together at the Detroit Skating Club with coach Richard Callaghan.
Eldredge, 11 years older, is teaching her to drive in his BMW as she practices with a learner's permit.
"I think she has dreams of driving that Ferrari of his," Pat Lip inskiaid.
The Lipinskiis give their daughter plenty of space to grow up on her own, to make her own choices and be herself. Instead of staying with her parents in their hotel, as Michelle Kwan is, Tara Lipinski is in the athletes' village.
we asked her if she wanted to stay with us," Pat Lipinski said. "And she said, 'No. First, I want to be with my team. Second, I want to support my team. And everybody else is living there. I want to be a part of it."
She is making an exception right before the competition, staying at her parents' hotel to guarantee a good night's rest.
"It's been a phenomenal experience for her," said Jack Lipinski, an oil company executive in Houston who has been traveling weekends for years to visit with his wife and daughter in Michigan and, before that, New Jersey. "It's a growing experience, but it's also the ambiance of being there and representing the U.S."
In the village, Tara shares a small apartment with ice dancer Jessica Joseph and pairs skater Kyoko Ina. The rooms are tiny, but then again so is Tara, not quite 4-foot 11 and 82 pounds. No one looking at her would imagine that she could pack away food the way she does when her plates are bulging with pasta, and she is found eating ice cream whenever she can get it. Her parents gave her a blender for Christmas so could whip up milkshakes.
That, he and his wife say, is more important than medals.
Lipinski keeps everything neat, shirts and sweaters folded carefully, books straightened, snack food and candles arranged nicely
all so orderly except for a typically teen-age pile of stuff dumped in the corner. Her walls and the sloped ceiling over her bed are covered with photographs of her friends back home.
"If she takes nothing else from these games, if she gets nothing, but goes home and knows how to be in unity with people, that's all going to help her in the other world she's going into soon," Pat Lipinski said. "She's not going to skate forever. She'll go to college, maybe run a company or be a doctor, whatever. She'll take all this with her, dealing with people from every country. She's learning to communicate with them."
Tara stays in touch with her parents day and night with a cellular phone, calling sometimes just to say, "I love you."
Nothing about the way Tara is handling the Olympics, and the pressure that's part of it, could surprise her parents any more than getting here in the first place. Neither of them, or anyone in their families, was an athlete. Tara simply graduated from Gymboree and ballet and roller-skating to bigtime figure skating, her father said.
"I remember in the hospital when she was born we said, 'Well, she's a girl and we really don't have to worry about having an athlete in the family.' Boy were we wrong," Jack Lipinski said.
U.S. women score hockey gold
The Associated Press
Olympic Roundup:
NAGANO, Japan — After taking America's first Olympic hockey title since 1980's "Miracle On Ice," the championsdonned their gold medals and clutched their flowers. Flowers?
The U.S. women's team, with an emotional 3-1 victory against archival Canada, captured the first Olympic hockey gold for women — a hard-fought victory that brought smiles, tears, hugs, handholding and a group rendition of the national anthem.
It was the second time in four days that the Americans had knocked off their northern neighbors, and the victory was in doubt until the end when an empty-net goal by Sandra Whyte with 8 seconds left won the game.
"Let's get this party started!" shouted U.S. defenseman Colleen Coyne before disappearing into the arms of her teammates after the victory.
The Canadians were less than pleased about taking the silver. Captain Stacy Wilson, her medal around her neck, put it this way: "When you see it's silver, it kind of kicks your butt."
After a busy day yesterday with six medals, the Germans, bolstered by their medal sweep in the women's combined, topped the medals chart with 27 (wolf. 8 silver. 7 bronze).
Finland captured the bronze medal by knocking off China 4-1.
The host Japanese,boosted by their record-setting fourth gold medal of the games in team ski jumping, already have posted their
best Winter Games performance ever: 8 medals (4-1-3). The Americans, with the hockey vceu, enauled that total (3-1-4).
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING: The U.S. women's 3,000-meter relay team, silver medalists in Albertville and bronze medalists at Lillehammer, failed to make the finals in Nagano. The disappointing showing in an earlier heat came despite the efforts of Cathy Turner, winner of four previous short track medals.
South Korea claimed its first two medals of the games, with Kim Dong-Sung winning the men's 1,000-meter competition and its relay team taking the 3,000-meter race. China was second and Canada third in the relay. Li Jiajun of China was second in the men's race, ahead of Canada's Eric Bedard.
— MEN'S HOCKEY: The single-elimination quarterfinals begin today. The matchups are: the United States (1-2) against the Czech Republic (2-1); the undefeated Canadians, the team to beat, against Kazakstan (0-3); Russia (3-0) against Belarus (0-3), and defending gold medalist Sweden (2-1) against Finland (1-2).
— SPEEDSKATING: Another day, another world record, another Dutch gold medal — their fourth in eight races in Nagano. Gianni Romme took his second gold of the games in the men's 10,000-meter race, slicing a stunning 15 seconds off the old record.
Romme's victory capped a Dutch sweep as Bob de Jong and Rintje Ritsma took the next two spots. The Dutch speed skaters now have won 10 medals overall, the Netherlands' best Olympic showing ever, with two women's races still to go.
Swedish Olympian ousted
The Associated Press
NAGANO, Japan — Ulf Samuelson became the first hockey player kicked out of the Olympics, not because he had Sudafer in his system but because he had
signatures on two passports
Samuelsson, the Swedish defenseman who has made a career of irritating opponents, was blindsided by his country's citizenship. His elipli
bility was rescinded yesterday by the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Sweden appealed but was rejected by the Court for the Arbitration of Sport, so the defending gold medal team had to go into Wednesday's quarterfinal match against Finland without the National Hockey League standout.
"He's a very physical player. He raises his level of play in big games. He likes to play against opponents' best lines," Swedish assistant coach Barry Smith said. "We'll never replace him."
Samuelsson was booted for having passports from both the United States and Sweden. Under Swedish law, a person surrenders his citizenship when he becomes a citizen of another country.
As tough as it was for Sweden to lose Samuelsson, it could have been worse.
The arbitration panel rejected the Czech Republic's bid to have Sweden's two round-robin victories revoked.
Had the panel sided with the Czechs, Sweden would have had to play undefeated Russia today. The Czechs were hoping to have Sweden drop in the standings so that the Czechs could play winless Belarus instead of the United States.
Rickard Fagerlund, president of the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation, said Samuelsson sought American citizenship so he wouldn't have to keep applying each year for a U.S. work permit to play in the NHL.
"Unlike the World Championships where forfeiture applies, at the games this sanction would negatively affect a number of innocent teams — a consequence not intended under the rules," the arbitration panel said.
"Of course I'm disappointed." Fagerlund said. "We didn't know about the dual citizenship, and for sure Ulf Samuelsson didn't know about the consequences. He has been traveling on a Swedish passport all of the time, and he has never used the American passport for traveling."
Samuelsson declined to comment.
Swedish Olympic officials didn't realize that Samuelsson had dual citizenship until a Swedish journalist found out and made an inquiry. Once it was discovered, the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation reported it to the international federation.
U.S. wrestlers warmly greeted at Iranian meet
The Associated Press
Wrestlers on the five-member American team carrying the flag waved back enthusiastically.
TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian crowd burst into cheers yesterday when U.S. wrestlers carried the Stars and Stripes into an international meet — marking the first time in 18 years the American flag was displayed with honor rather than hatred in Tehran.
The U.S. flag, burned and trampled again and again here since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, received more applause than any of the other 16 national banners except that of the host nation.
"I never know what to expect wherever I go, but more so here because other countries don't call us 'Great Satan,'" said Melvin Douglas, a 1993 wrestling world champion.
Coach Joe Seay said that hearing the cheers felt good.
"But what was very special is that they had our flag. We had brought our own flag, but we had no need for it because they had one already for us." Seav said. "That showed caring."
The Americans and the Iranian organizers have stressed the athletics — rather than the diplomacy — involved in the landmark visit.
The possibility that ties might be restored between Iran and the United States has been raised by the presence of the Yankee wrestlers, the most closely watched Americans in Tehran since militant students released U.S. Embassy hostages in 1981 after 444 days in captivity.
The U.S. team's arrival came a month after Iranian President Mohammad Khatami spoke to CNN about opening the door to cultural and sports exchanges between the two estranged nations. Even the moderate Khatami, however, has said that he saw no need for diplomatic ties.
Iran's hard-line spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday again called the United States the "Great Satan." Khamenei said that the U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf threatened the Islamic world, though not Iran in particular.
Iranian state television covering the event did not show the American flag or mention the presence of the U.S. team.
Also taking part are: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Turkmenistan, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Russia, Turkey, Tajikistan and Mongolia. Iraq's flag was hanging from the hall ceiling, but the team did not show.
Some Iranians in the Azadi Arena said it was the first time they had seen a U.S. flag.
"In the field of sport, I think there's no problem if we have an American team and an American flag here," said Parviz Moulavi, 28, who was among those clapping as the U.S. team stepped onto the platform.
Another who applauded, Kambiz Mahdavi, a 17 year-old student, said that the message of sports was to be friendly with everybody.
The American and other teams are in Iran in part to prepare for the world championship to be held in the same arena in September.
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