European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 8, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 38 the stars and stripes sports tuesday february 8,1994 by Johnette Howard forget the 30-Day window that Tonya Harding now has to respond to the unanimous decision by a five member . Figure skating association panel to proceed with a disciplinary hearing. All saturdays announcement did is ensure Harding Likely will travel to the Winter olympics in Norway before any real action is taken against her. It does no to guarantee Harding will Ever get to skate. Nor should she. Just a few hours after the us say a five member special panel announced it found a reasonable evidence to proceed with a disciplinary hearing against Harding the . Olympic committee weighed in with a far More important statement saying its games administrative Board was prepared to conduct a hearing regarding Harding Scase when she arrived in Lillehammer for the feb. 12-27 games. Though the a soc a leap into the fray Wasny to the absolute death Knell to Harding a stubborn dream of still skating it was the next closest thing. Neither the Ussa nor soc said that of course. Probably to protect themselves against a near inevitable lawsuit should Harding be bounced from the team the soc and the Ussa Are continuing to take great pains to act Nonor judicially toward Harding. Or at least to give the appearance that they re acting non pre judicially through their very deliberate carefully measured movements and comments and adherence to procedure. But make no mistake what we began seeing saturday was nothing less than the laying of the foundation for Harding a removal from the team. It May not happen As quickly As everyone would have liked. It might not result in the sort of crushing condemnation of Harding that the anti Harding faction has been clamouring to see. Nor will the criminal proceedings in this Case be wrapped up in a tidy Little package by the time the games administrative Board gives Harding her hearing in Lillehammer. Something might even happen to Clear Harding or let her compete. Barring that though Harding is skating on borrowed time. Ussa president Claire Ferguson could have noted the panels recommendation and suspended on commentary Harding Susisa membership outright before her disciplinary hearing rolled around. And that would have accomplished two purposes once suspended Harding would be ineligible to compete at the games because olympic rules require athletes to be members of their National governing body in their sport. And the suspension might have Strong armed Harding into forgetting the us say a 30-Day waiting period and requesting her disciplinary hearing before the feb. 21 deadline for final olympic skating rosters. But such a decisive action also entailed a risk suspending it farming before her disciplinary hearing might be frowned upon by a civil court should Harding decide to sue. So instead soc and Ussa officials have decided their Best option is the games administrative Board a group made up of soc officers and other High ranking . Olympic committee officials. This Way Harding gets her hearing before being suspended or left alone. Both the Ussa and soc buy time just in Case any new bombshells emerge in the criminal investigation. A a and there a this caveat although the Ussa is Hamstrung by a 30-Day waiting period the games administrative Board has no such onus. It can meet at the games give Harding a Chance to argue her Case then discipline her As it sees fit. According to the soc Constitution the Board has a final authority on All matters regarding the . Delegation at the olympics and functions As an appeals Board on team selection issues that a Are not finally resolved prior to the departure of the team for the games. Now that the apparatus to kick Harding off the team is in place the Only debate left is what is her crime. Regardless of the denouement of the on going criminal investigation of whether Harding had a role in the Jan. 6 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan the Ussa and the soc need Only be concerned with one Standard whether Harding committed any ethical transgressions that would Merit her dismissal from the . Olympic team. The Short answer of course Harding has. Time Harding has admitted she did no to immediately run to authorities after learning about the plot to injure Kerrigan several Days after her Jan. 10 return to Portland. By the time Harding finally admitted what she knew three arrests had already been made in the Case. Harding sex husband Jeff Gillooly had already been implicated by at least one of the others. And Harding herself rambled for More than two hours in her first Portland interview with investigators before investigators abruptly interrupted her and told her she was lying. Harding has yet to fully explain Why she lied beyond some vague mention of fearing retribution. If fear did indeed silence Harding her behaviour since her talk with police does no to Back it up. She Hasni to closed her practices Hasni to secluded herself and Hasni to been particularly hard to see around Portland even though the four men arrested in the Case Are All out on bail Given that it hardly matters How the myriad other uncertainties swirling about Harding play out did Harding and or Gillooly use Ussa provided training funds to finance the hit on Kerrigan is Gillooly telling the truth about Harding a involvement in planning the attack were her advisers and attorneys slow to practice spin control in the Early Days of the investigation because Harding lied to them too about her knowledge of the plot have the past three weeks been nothing but an unbroken string of More lies it appears the Case against Harding could get worse before it gets better. As William Hybl head of the us say a five member panel said saturday it Wasny to just one thing that convinced the panel to recommend Harding face disciplinary proceedings. Rather Hybl said it was a the cumulative effects of information the panel received from its special counsel in Portland the mul Tomah county sheriffs department representative who spoke with the panel Friday and 300-400 pages of findings the panel says it has forwarded to the soc. There a Little doubt Harding acted unethically at the very least. If she Ever makes it to Lillehammer she deserves to be sent right Back Home. The Washington Post frenzy expected As Speed skaters compete indoors a giant replica of a norwegian Perch hangs from roof of olympic Hall where games Speed skating begins monday. Hamar Norway up a if thousands of mainly dutch and norwegians fans sing along and enjoy themselves thoroughly for hours on end in a sports Arena it just must be Speed skating. The introduction of indoor Arenas has transformed the sport into an All out party and the 10 menus and women a olympic races starting monday Are expected to lift the crowd frenzy still further and the athletes to greater Heights. Hamar a olympic Hall a shaped like a overturned Viking ship a is one of the three major world indoor rinks along with those in Heeren Veen the Netherlands and Calgary Alberta. All of the current world records were set in one of these three Arenas where the absence of wind rain or Snow produces an obvious increase in speeds. Most excitement is expected in the menus Long distance races where dutchmen Rintje Ritsma Falko Zandstra and Bart Veldkamp will team up in an Effort to Stop local hero Johann Olav Koss the 5,000 and 10,000-meter world record Holder. Koss emphasised his strength by improving the 5,000 Mark to 6 minutes 35.53 minutes on dec. 4, but the skating crazy dutch battled Back Jan. 9 with a 1,500-meter record of 1 51.60 by Ritsma. Both Marks were set on the fast ice of Hamar. However a few other nations led by the United states Germany and Japan Are determined to add More of an International flavor to the party. The american 500-meter world record Holder Dan Jansen will be gunning to finally climb the podium in his fourth olympic attempt. Jansen 28, finished outside the medals in fourth place at the 1984 and 1992 editions of the sprint. This season he is stronger than Ever improving the world record to unbelievable 35.76 seconds on Jan. 30 in Calgary where he won his second sprint world championship title. It was Jansen a fourth sub 36-second race and he is the Only athlete to have broken the Barrier. A whoever wants to win in Hamar must skate a new world record a was Jansen a prediction for the feb. 14 showdown. The main Challenge is Likely to come from the japanese stars who also underlined their ambitions on Jan. 30. Junichi Inoue sprinted 36.05 and Hiroyasu Shimizu 36.08 to move into second and third place in the All time world Best list. The women a sprint is also Likely to go to the United states As Bonnie Blair Aims for her fourth career Gold. The 29-year-old won the 500 and 1,000-meter sprint double in Albertville to go with a 500-meter Gold and 1,000-meter Bronze in Calgary six years ago. Blair is unrivalled in her disciplines As China Sye Qia obo has shown poor form so far in the season