Feb. 10, 2000 3:04 PM AP

By ERICA BULMAN

Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria (AP) For Israeli athletes at the European Figure Skating Championships, the competition has been overshadowed by unease over the rise to power of Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party.

"We were a bit afraid to come," said Line Haddad, an Israeli pairs skater. "We were nervous at the airport when we arrived."

"We were worried it could become dangerous like at the Olympics when the Israeli team was killed there," said Haddad, referring to the slayings of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches at Munich in 1972. "I was told not to say anything for our own safety."

The Freedom Party's inclusion in Austria's government has sparked an outcry around the world - especially in Israel, which recalled its ambassador - because of Haider's past praise for the Nazi regime. Haider later apologized.

Israeli team members referred most political questions to their team leader, Yossi Goldberg.

"It's a very sensitive issue, and everybody has different thoughts about what should be done," he said. "We are competing here as part of Europe."

At first, there were doubts whether the team would participate at all.

Asked if Israel would call for a sports boycott of Austria like that of South Africa during apartheid, a spokeswoman for the Israeli minister for science, culture and sports, Matan Vilnai, said the country is reexamining its sports relations with Austria. He did not elaborate.

"We didn't know at first, but later the federation told us it was safe to go, it was OK," said Haddad, who lives in Metulla, Israel. "I guess I feel pretty safe here now."

If the championships have run smoothly, the atmosphere in the streets of the Austrian capital has been less so.

As anti-Freedom Party demonstrators marched past the Vienna Sporthalle, organizers protectively barred the doors to the stadium.

"We were very unlucky," Haddad said. "This problem arises just at the time of the Europeans. We haven't heard about Austria in the news for so long and then, just when we're going to Austria, this problem happens."

While many skaters were oblivious to the political climate in Vienna, others chose to stand behind the Israelis.

"We thought at first they might not come," said French skater Gwendal Peizerat, one of the leading dance pairs at the championships. "We are conscious of the political problems here, we saw the riots on television and everything.

"But the competition here with all the people together in one room - the Israelis, the Russians, the Austrians all together - shows the brotherhood, and that in sport, there is no room for politics."

The International Skating Union clearly wished to avoid taking a stance.

"Personally, I don't feel embarrassed about the situation," said ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta, an Italian. "Regarding the ISU, there is no reaction. We are conducting a championship in a very regular and normal manner.

"I was personally not aware that they (Israeli skaters) were nervous," he said. "But I believe that there was no reason to be."

For Israeli skater Michael Shmerkin, it is not the first time politics and skating have collided. He recalled competing at Skate Canada the day after the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

"I stood on the ice and said a silent prayer, and all the spectators prayed with me," Shmerkin said. "I tried to do something.

"But Michael Shmerkin is not the government," he said. "I represent Israel and I do what the federation tells me. I don't know what else to do."

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