
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993                   TAG: 9306120156
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.                                LENGTH: Short

SKATERS REGAIN AMATEUR STATUS FOR '94 OLYMPICS

Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano and Viktor Petrenko, the last three Olympic men's figure skating champions, are among 14 professional skaters cleared to resume international competition, including next year's Winter Games.

The reinstatements by the International Skating Union (ISU) were decided upon during the ISU Council's meeting in Wurzberg, Germany. Each skater had previously been reinstated by his own nation's governing body.

Hamilton, of the United States, won the men's championship at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and Boitano, also an American, won in 1988 in Calgary, Alberta. Petrenko, a Ukranian, won in 1992 in Albertville, France.

Among the others reinstated were Anett Poetzsch, the 1980 women's Olympic gold medalist; Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, the 1984 Olympic ice dancing gold medalists; Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov of the former Soviet Union, the 1988 Olympic pairs champions; and Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev, also of the former Soviet Union and the 1992 Olympic pairs champions.

Also reinstated were Americans Elaine Zayak, the 1982 world champion; Christopher Bowman, the 1990 world bronze medalist; Joseph Mero, a bronze medalist in pairs with Katy Keeley at the 1989 worlds; and Vern Taylor of Canada, the first skater to complete a triple axel in competition.

by CNB