No bones about it: Skeleton coach is out

The US Olympic Committee yesterday refused to credential skeleton coach Tim Nardiello for next month's Winter Games in Turin, even though the domestic federation reinstated him Monday after an arbitrator cleared him of sexual harassment charges.

''It is our belief there has been a pattern of conduct on the part of Mr. Nardiello that simply does not meet the standard of what is acceptable for a coach with the US Olympic team," said chief executive Jim Scherr.

The USOC, which noted that the US Bobsled and Skeleton Federation was planning to fire Nardiello after the Games, concluded that he had used inappropriate judgment involving female sliders and that his behavior violated the committee's code of conduct.

Once the Olympics are over, look for the USOC to take a frozen stick to the federation. The sorry sagas involving Nardiello and skeleton sledder Zach Lund are just the latest items on the one-thing-after-another list of controversies, usually in the Olympic season, that have dogged the Lake Placid-based governing body for years.

No matter who's in charge (the federation is on its third executive director since last summer), nothing seems to change. The turbulence was one thing when the sledders didn't win anything at the Games. But now that bob and skeleton have become medal machines -- their combined six at Salt Lake were more than Alpine skiing and figure skating combined -- the USOC can't afford to have those sports run by a dysfunctional organization.

The Amateur Sports Act gives the committee plenty of clout in shaping up wayward federations, most notably revoking the right to run the sport. If there's any more silliness at Olympus, the USOC could create separate federations for each sport. At the very least, it could mandate a headquarters switch to Salt Lake, site of the country's other bob run. That way, the Colorado Springs folks could keep a closer eye on things.

Lund, by the way, isn't home-free just yet. Though he escaped with a warning from the US Anti-Doping Agency on Monday for taking a hair-restoration drug that doubles as a masking agent, the World Anti-Doping Agency could still ban him from the Games on appeal. Lund, who was leading the World Cup standings when he was suspended in mid-month, has been cleared to compete in this week's finale in Germany.

Will she or won't she?

Decision day for Michelle Kwan comes Friday in Los Angeles, where five US Figure Skating monitors will decide whether she should stay on the Olympic team. The two-time medalist, who missed this month's national championships with a groin injury, was put on the roster provisionally even though she hasn't competed in a major event since last March. If Kwan can perform both her short and long programs at a competitive level, she'll get the green light for Turin. If not, alternate Emily Hughes gets the nod . . . After sweeping the titles at last week's European skating championships, the Russians now set their sights on making history at the Winter Games, where no country has captured all four golds. Since the Motherland has a reigning or former world champion in each event: Evgeny Plushenko, Irina Slutskaya, Tatiana Totmianina-Maxim Marinin in pairs, and Tatiana Navka-Roman Kostomarov in dance, nobody's betting otherwise. The iffiest of the bunch is the women's event, which Russia never has won. If Slutskaya manages it, she'll be the oldest women's champion (at 27) since Madge Syers in 1908 . . . With the Canadians, Japanese, and Chinese sending their JVs, the US figure skaters should clean up at this week's Four Continents championships in Colorado Springs. The Americans, who won six of the 12 medals last year and swept the dance, have entered more than half of their Turin team, including both pairs and two of the three dance couples . . . Remarkable accomplishment by Joey Cheek, who last weekend at the Dutch indoor speedway at Heerenveen joined Eric Heiden and Dan Jansen as the only US males to win the world sprint speedskating title. ''To be mentioned in one sentence with those role models gives me goose bumps," said the Olympic medalist, who isn't among the World Cup top three in either the 500 or 1,000 this season. Winning the women's crown was 34-year-old Svetlana Zhurova, the first Russian victor since 1982. Defending champion Jennifer Rodriguez ended up seventh.

Crossing over

Yes, the Sarah Konrad who made the US Olympic cross-country ski team is the same woman who also made the Olympic biathlon squad. Konrad, a Dartmouth grad who'll be making her Olympic debut at 38, is the first American female to qualify in two sports at the same Winter Games. If everything works out, she'll be competing in four events in 12 days -- the biathlon 15-kilometer, sprint, and pursuit races, and the 30-kilometer freestyle in cross-country . . . How tough was it to make the US snowboard team for Turin? Olympic halfpipe champion Ross Powers and bronze medalist Jarret Thomas missed out, as did Chris Klug, who won bronze in parallel giant slalom. And Kelly Clark of Mt. Snow, Vt., the women's halfpipe champ in Salt Lake, qualified on her final run. Besides Clark, only halfpipe silver medalist Danny Kass and Rosey Fletcher return from the 2002 team. As expected, half of the 16-member team will be halfpipers, led by Shaun White and Gretchen Bleiler. Five boardercrossers were picked, including world champions Seth Wescott of Kingfield, Maine, and Lindsey Jacobellis of Stratton, Vt. Besides Fletcher, who made her third team at 30, Sudbury natives Michelle Gorgone and Tyler Jewell made the Alpine roster. Klug, who thought he should have been chosen instead of Jewell, has taken his gripe to USOC arbitrators. Since Jewell had a better World Cup placement than Klug, which is the primary selection criterion, it's a long shot.

Mountain high

The Austrian men, who won half a dozen Alpine medals in Salt Lake four years ago, are prepping for another podium assault. Going into this week, they ranked 1-2 in the downhill (Michael Walchhofer and Fritz Strobl) and combined (Benjamin Raich and Walchhofer) and first in the giant slalom (Raich). The Austrian women, who mined no gold last time, have an excellent chance at two from Michaela Dorfmeister in the downhill and Super G . . . Bode Miller's slalom miseries continued in yesterday's World Cup race in Austria, where he straddled a gate and was disqualified. It's the fifth time in seven races this season and the 22d time in 36 since the start of the 2002-03 season that Miller has failed to get a slalom result . . . Roughly half of the Italian men's ice hockey team in Turin will be foreigners. The Azzurri, the only one of the 12 Olympic squads without an NHLer, will dress nine Canadians and one Yank -- Bob Nardella, a 38-year-old defenseman from the Rockford IceHogs. The Italians, who last played in the Games in 1998, will be delighted if they can get to the quarterfinals . . . With Swiss defending champion Martin Annen sitting out this weekend's finale in Germany to practice for the Games, US bobsledder Todd Hays has a great chance to win his first World Cup title. Hays, the overall leader who has made the medal stand at every stop this season, is 60 points ahead of Canada's Pierre Lueders with just one two-man and one four-man race left. Germany's Sandra Kiriasis has all but clinched the women's title again, helped by US rival Shauna Rohbock's 12th-place finish in St. Moritz last weekend.

Canadian double

The Canadians are well-positioned to win both World Cup skeleton titles this week. Defending men's champion Jeff Pain leads Switzerland's Gregor Staehli by 45 points going into the final race, while Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards has a 30-point edge on Switzerland's Maya Pedersen . . . The only drama at this weekend's World Cup luge finale in Germany will be whether German leaders Patric Leitner and Alexander Resch can dethrone Italian defending doubles champions Christian Oberstolz and Patrick Gruber, whom they lead by 10 points. Italy's Armin Zoeggeler has already clinched the men's crown and Germany's Silke Kraushaar needs only to avoid crashing to claim the women's . . . The French organizers used a Cirque du Soleil-style theme for their Albertville ceremonies in 1992. The Italians will close the Turin Games that way, with a Felliniesque ''Carnevale" featuring clowns, acrobats, and high-wire acts. The organizers are promising artistic moments that will be ''surprising and transgressive."

Material from Olympic committees, sports federations, personal interviews, and wire services was used in this report.