| | NICE, France -- Skaters who have turned pro -- such as
former Olympic gold medalists Oksana Baiul and American Tara
Lipinski -- will be barred from the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake
City, the International Skating Union said Thursday.
Any skater who decides to leave the ISU for another organization
will "never, ever" be eligible to return to Olympic
competition, declared ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta during a
press conference at the World Figure Skating Championships.
"On the basis of the present rules, there is no possibility," Cinquanta said. "They are 100 percent excluded."
Before the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, the ISU allowed a
one-time amnesty for skaters who wished to return to the ISU
family. Several athletes took advantage of the offer, including
Britain's legendary dance couple Jayne Torvill and Christopher
Dean, 1984 and 1988 Olympic champion Katarina Witt and Brian
Boitano, gold medalist at the Calgary Winter Games.
Lipinski, the Olympic champion in Nagano, has never hinted at a
possible attempt to regain eligibility for the next Olympics in
2002. But others have speculated the teenager might try for
another gold in front of an American audience when the Olympics move to
the United States in two years.
Baiul, on the other hand, has openly expressed interest in
competing in Salt Lake City. The Ukrainian, who won Olympic gold
in Lillehammer in 1994, already has made overtures.
But Cinquanta was unsympathetic.
"So they are very young," Cinquanta said. "They say, 'I have a
medal already, I can make a lot of money.' It doesn't work that
way. We have never kicked out anyone from the ISU. No one has
ever told me why they left. And I must ask why they want to come
back. If you have an egg and you boil it, you do what you want.
But then you say, 'I want it fresh again.' It's impossible."
Cinquanta said he harbored no bitter feelings toward skaters who
left the fold for lucrative professional skating circuits and
ice shows. But it was clear that it was also a question of the
ISU's power struggle with the pro circuits.
"We cannot allow another organization to undermine the ISU,"
Cinquanta told SportsTicker. "That cannot be allowed. That's
what the rules are for."
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