1992 Olympics

Ice ExtravaganzaThe Columbia Figure Skating Club will perform its "Dual Spring Ice Extravaganza" this weekend at the Columbia Ice Rink. The show includes routines from the popular Disney features "The Lion King" and "Pocahontas," performed by more than 135 skaters from the Baltimore area, most of them children. The audience can also expect a spectacular performance from guest skater Michael O'Rourke, who has toured with the Ice Capades and choreographed the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1992 Olympics.

Get your red hot Olympic ticketsFor those eager for tickets to the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, and Barcelona, Spain, you'll be able to place your orders sometime next month.In the meantime, call Olson Travelworld, the exclusive ticket seller in the United States, at (800) 874-1992, to get on a mailing list to receive a ticket brochure and order form that will be sent out in April.The order form will ask you to state a first and second ticket request for each day you plan to attend the Olympics.

The debate raging these days between those arguing whether this year's U.S. Olympic men's basketball team could compete with the Dream Team of 20 years ago is not answered simply by a generational divide. I for one, being of sound mind and slightly broken-down body, believe the 2012 version is not being given the respect it deserves before it ever steps on a court in London. I also think the 1992 team was not quite as invincible as they were made out to be because the international game was far from what it is today.

Starting next Sunday, many of the top sailors in the world will be racing out of the West River Sailing Club in Galesville during the Star North American Championships, running through Oct. 27.The list of entries in the 71-boat field reads like a who's who of championship racing, including Mark Reynolds, Rod Davis, Ross MacDonald, Vince Brun, Paul Cayard, John Kostecki and Bill Buchan.Reynolds (U.S), Davis (Australia) and MacDonald (Canada) were the gold, silver and bronze medalists in the class at the 1992 Olympics.

It took David Tua a little longer than his last fight -- a 19-second knockout -- but the unbeaten New Zealand heavyweight again displayed his devastating power at Teamsters Hall last night, disposing of Anthony Cooks at 2: 24 of the first round of their nationally televised bout.Tua, 236 and built along the lines of a miniature tank, raised his record to 24-0 with 20 KOs by dropping Cooks three times.A left hook decked Cooks (11-5), who took the fight on short notice, in the first 20 seconds.

ATHENS - Where's Charles Barkley when you need him? Without Barkley to create an international scene with his old friends from Angola as he did in the 1992 Olympics with a vicious elbow smash, there was nothing to distinguish yesterday's men's basketball game between Angola and the United States from all those runaway laughers back when the U.S. Dream Team really was a dream team. Tim Duncan softly laid the ball into the hoop to begin the game, the U.S. team raced to a five-point lead and it was never caught, running up a 40-point advantage at one point before cruising to an 89-53 victory at the Helliniko Indoor Arena.

Carl J. Sardegna is out as chief executive officer of Blue Cros and Blue Shield of Maryland -- and none too soon. His cavalier management of a health insurance operation crucial to hundreds of thousands of Marylanders led to needless losses and diminished public confidence. That Mr. Sardegna's salary leaped outrageous levels as the mess compounded only added to an intolerable situation.Now the company has to move ahead with needed reforms. Under the board's new chairman, Frank A. Gunther Jr., and interim CEO William A. Beasman Jr., the Blues can focus their energies on their primary mission: providing affordable medical insurance to people who need it.Beyond that, one of the board's first inquiries should be inward.

Shooter used drug to slow heartbeatHAVANA -- Pedro Garcia, a silver medalist shooter from Peru (( identified yesterday as the third Pan American Games athlete who failed a doping test, apparently was using a performance-enhancing drug.Garcia's urine sample contained traces of the drug propranolol, a medication for pulse regulation that slows the heartbeat. Shooters sometimes use such illegal substances, known as beta-blockers, to calm them and help their aim.In the book "Drugs and the Athlete," propranolol is listed as a therapeutic drug that "may both control migraine headaches and improve hand steadiness in riflery."

CARAVELS A'COMIN': If the Columbus Quincentenary Commemoration has piqued your interest, circle May 29 -- Friday -- on your calendar. That's the day you can get involved without leaving Baltimore.About noon that day, the highly publicized replicas of Columbus' Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria are scheduled to sail into the Inner Harbor. These are the Spanish-built caravels that crossed the Atlantic and in recent weeks have been working their way up the East Coast, port by port.They will be arriving amid a flotilla of other boats that will be assembling at the Key Bridge at 10 a.m.And all three caravels, coming to Baltimore from Norfolk, Va., will be staying in the city until leaving June 8 for points north.

Think of the excitement generated by the "dream team" representing the United States in basketball in the 1992 Olympics. Then imagine 143 countries fielding dream teams. And imagine that rather than brushing aside a bunch of Angolas, the U.S. team is facing an intensely competitive tournament in which at least half a dozen teams have a good chance of winning. Finally, imagine that nearly everything stops in countries around the world as people watch the games.That gives you some idea of what soccer's World Cup means -- at least outside the United States, which is playing host to the tournament for the first time.