ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702180044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
FIGURE SKATING
Eldredge joins elite
Todd Eldredge went conservative and got another championship. Michael Weiss went for U.S. history, and got it with a quad - for about an hour.
While Eldredge played it safe, he still won his fourth title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville, Tenn. He joins some of the elite of American skating - Dick Button, Hayes Jenkins, David Jenkins, Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano - with at least four crowns.
One thing Eldredge never has done, however, is land a quad, a four-revolution jump. No American had done it in competition until Weiss, from Fairfax, Va., appeared to nail his quadruple toe loop as the second jump of the final program in the free skate.
A little while later, it was as if it never happened. After viewing a videotape of the jump, Nancy Bizzano, the referee for the men's event, said Weiss did not make a clean one-footed landing. The U.S. Figure Skating Association said it would not give Weiss credit for a quad, even though the judges appeared to have done so with their marks.
Eldredge, the current world champion who won nationals in 1990, '91 and '95, finished first with five judges to four for Weiss, who soared from fifth after the short program to second overall. The difference was one-tenth of a point in presentation from one judge.
In the women's competition, Tara Lipinski showed the grace and maturity of someone far beyond her 14 years night as she became the youngest U.S. women's figure skating champion.
Lipinski was a picture of complete calm when she went on the ice after defending champion and current world champion Michelle Kwan let her nerves get the best of her as she went sprawling across the ice on two of her jumps.
Lipinski nailed a huge triple flip on her second jump, and she started grinning after a perfect triple lutz-double toe combination.
ETC. Lindh surprises, wins women's downhill
Hilary Lindh saved her best for last - and it was good enough.
Alberto Tomba saved his best for last - but it wasn't good enough.
Lindh - who nearly retired a year ago - was the most surprising winner of the two-week World Alpine Ski Championships, which ended Saturday, capturing the women's downhill in Sestriere, Italy.
It was the first medal for the Americans, who fielded a team weakened by injuries to Tommy Moe and Picabo Street.
Switzerland's Heidi Zurbriggen got the silver and Sweden's Pernilla Wiberg took the bronze.
With Norway's Tom Stiansen claiming the gold in the men's slalom and France's Sebastien Amiez taking silver, it was Tomba's second run that saved the bronze medal for him and showed why he's the sports most electrifying racer.
The 27-year-old Lindh claimed her first world gold by only .06 seconds - to go with a bronze a year ago in the worlds and a silver in downhill at the 1992 Olympics.
* Former Gov. Booth Gardner of Washington was hired as commissioner of the National Soccer Alliance, an eight-team women's professional league scheduled to begin play in 1998.
The league cities will be selected from the top 20 soccer markets in the nation by a bidding process to be held over the next few months. The 20 markets were not specified.
The format calls for teams to play a 20-game schedule over a 10-week period ending June 21, 1998, with four advancing to single-elimination playoffs. The championship game will be July 4 at a neutral site.
Thirteen members of the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic team have agreed to play in the new league. They are Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Michelle Akers, Carla Overbeck, Tisha Venturini, Kristine Lilly, Tiffeny Milbrett, Shannon MacMillan, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett, Briana Scurry, Mary Harvey and Carin Gabarra.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. American Hilary Lindh negotiates a turn on her wayby CNBto capturing the gold medal in the women's downhill at the World
Alpine Ski Championships in Sestriere, Italy, on Saturday.