Miroslav Zajonc is a native of Czechoslovakia, for which he never competed internationally.
He won a world luge championship for Canada, in which he never was a resident.
He could represent the United States in two luge events at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
Sound complicated? The U.S. Luge Association knows just how much.
For the past several months, the USLA has been trying to get the paperwork together so Zajonc, naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1986, can be declared eligible for the Games.
Under bylaw 5 to rule 8 of the International Olympic Committee charter, naturalized citizens are not eligible for the Olympics for three years after their naturalization-unless sports officials of their previous country sign a waiver allowing them to compete.
Because Zajonc, 27, never slid for Czechoslovakia before defecting in 1981, U.S. luge officials presumed they had no reason to contact the Czechs. They thought the waiver had to come from Canada, for whom Zajonc won the world singles championship in 1983.
Only when that waiver was submitted did USLA learn Canada had no say in the matter and that the Czechs had to decide. The Czechs have recently informed the USLA that Zajonc has their approval to compete for the U.S. They must similarly inform the IOC-which has given Zajonc ”provisional approval”- at their office in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Whether that has been done was impossible to determine this week, since a call to Switzerland found virtually the entire IOC staff on vacation.
”I`m confident Miro will get the go-ahead,” said Bob Hughes of USLA.
”Of course, I`ve been saying that for eight months.”
Zajonc, from Novy Smokovec in the High Tetra Mountains of Slovakia, left his homeland because ethnic and political problems were getting in the way of his sports career. Being a Slovak in a national federation dominated by Czechs and not being a member in the communist party kept him from the national luge team even though he was the country`s junior champion.
He arrived in North America with no money, no family and no friends and headed for Lake Placid, N.Y., then the site of the only luge run on the continent.
When they heard of his plight, Martin and Dee Hughes, an Annapolis, Md. couple with a vacation home in Lake Placid, took Zajonc under their wing, giving him a room in their house and a job in his steel company. He has lived in Annapolis and trained in Lake Placid since.
Zajonc, who married his childhood sweetheart after she came to the States in 1986, joined the U.S. national team in 1985 and has been able to compete in world championships and World Cup races for the U.S. In 1985, he won the first U.S. medal in international competition, a World Cup bronze. In the 1987 World Championships, he was the second U.S. finisher (21st overall) in singles and was disqualified for an overweight sled in doubles.
He and Tim Nardiello are ranked as the top U.S. doubles team, although both are recovering from injuries. Zajonc dislocated his shoulder two weeks ago in Yugoslavia while using his arm to prevent the sled from hitting a wall and further damaging Nardiello`s sore knee.
– A West German ski officials said logistics will help the rich get apline skiing medals in the Calgary Olympics.
Heinz Krecek, the chief of women`s skiing in the Olympics-as well as World Cup and the world championships-said teams that cannot afford to stay outside the Olympic Village will be worn down by the 65-mile trip between the village and the alpine ski venues at Mount Allan.
”The big nations, those with enough funds, all found better facilities,” he said.
”The well-funded teams are quartered in ideal spots, while the poor ones have to take a two-hour drive from the Olympic Village.”
The Swiss, current rulers of the ski world, are staying in a new hotel within walking distance of the downhill finish areas. The U.S. has rented six mobile homes in the nearby Mount Kidd RV Park, five minutes from the base of the mountain. The West Germans have rented mobile homes in the same vicinity. – Prince Albert of Monaco, 29, will likely shun the official International Olympic Committee hotel, the Palliser in downtown Calgary, to stay with the athletes in the main village at the University of Calgary.
The Prince is both the youngest member of the IOC and a member of Monaco`s bobsled team.
– Second city complex: Edmonton has yet to get excited about having the Winter Olympics a couple hours down the provincial road in Calgary.
Edmontonians are, in fact, miffed that Calgarians are lording it over them for having won the biggest event in Alberta`s history. One reason why some 400,000 Olympic tickets remain unsold is so few have been bought in Edmonton, whose 460,000-odd residents make it the second largest city in the province, behind Calgary`s 640,000.
The Calgary organizers (OCO `88) have begun a belated billboard campaign
(”Come to the Games, Edmonton. We want you and we need you”) to lure their fellow Albertans. The ads have only added to the acrimony.
”They`ve been ignoring the existence of Edmonton-and the rest of Alberta-since they were awarded the chance to host the 1988 Winter Olympics. . .suddenly, they`re accusing Edmontonians of ignoring the Games,” wrote columnist Frank Hutton in the Edmonton Journal.
– All 83 men who have competed in the Olympic marathon for the United States were granted automatic entry to the 1988 U.S. Olympic trials.
That means 1972 gold medalist Frank Shorter, three-time Olympian Johnny Kelley and 47 others have been sent invitations to the men`s marathon trial April 24 in New Jersey.
The remaining 34 of the 83 U.S. men`s marathoners have died.
Anyone else who wants to run must have completed a marathon in two hours, 20 minutes or better during the previous 18 months.
The Athletics Congress, governing body of track and field in the U.S., has made a similar ruling for the May 1 women`s race in Pittsburgh. It affects just three runners, since there was no women`s Olympic marathon before 1984.
– The president of the International Olympic Committee told a Seoul newspaper, Dong-A Ilbow, it is ”inconceivable” that North Korea would take any military action to disrupt next year`s Summer Olympics.
Juan Antonio Samaranch also said he believes the Seoul Olympics will be a success, with the Soviet Union and other Communist nations taking part.
