WINTER OLYMPICS : Speed Skating : Appeal by Three on U.S. Team Is Turned Down

CALGARY, Canada —  The United States speed skating team, which couldn’t win a medal in the 1984 Olympics, couldn’t begin this year’s Games without a controversy.

David Cruikshank, Eric Henriksen and John Baskfield appealed for entry Friday in the men’s 1,000-meter race, but after a three-hour meeting that lasted into the night, a special U.S. Olympic Committee panel turned down their appeal.

The three skaters protested being left out of the race by U.S. speed skating team management.

Cruikshank, 19, won a 1,000-meter race at the U.S. Olympic trials, but he was passed over in favor of Tom Cushman, who had threatened legal action against the federation if he were not skating in the race.

Cushman, 23, finished sixth at the trials, but had done well in recent World Cup events in Europe.

Cushman’s father, Bill, is a board member of the skating federation, and Cruikshank hinted at favoritism in the entry selection.

Nick Thometz, who will race in the 1,000 meters, said the entire issue could have been avoided if the race starters had been named earlier. Cruikshank’s victory in the U.S. Olympic trials was in mid-December.

“It’s all due to the selection process,” Thometz said. “It’s gotten out of hand. The (selection) schedule is vague. They need to have stiffer criteria. Some people aren’t going to be very happy. Morale is down a little bit. People have been pushed too far.”

Besides Thometz and Cushman, the other U.S. entries in the 1,000 are Dan Jansen and Eric Flaim.

The speed skating issue is the second controversy for the USOC before the start of the Olympic games. In the other, bobsledder Donald LaVigne hired a lawyer after he was bumped from the U.S. team to make room for Willie Gault.

USOC President Robert Helmick, who appointed the speed skating panel, said the bobsled issue differed from the appeal by the speed skaters.

“Mr. Gault had been put on the team, and Mr. LaVigne had been put off the team,” Helmick said. “In speed skating, it’s different. All the skaters (who appealed) are members of the Olympic team and are involved in the games.”

According to Helmick, the distinction is that while LaVigne was no longer s a member of the team, each of the three skaters are still on the team. They just won’t be competing in the 1,000.

The USOC stepped in and reinstated LaVigne, although he holds the 13th spot on what is normally a 12-man team. That didn’t happen until the USOC received IOC approval to expand the team.