March 30, 2000 10:09 AM Sportsticker

By Brooke Edwards SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NICE, France (Ticker) -- Skaters who have turned pro, such as former Olympic gold medalists Oksana Baiul and American Tara Lipinski, will be barred from the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the International Skating Union said Thursday.

Any skater who decides to leave the ISU for another organization will "never, ever," be eligible to return to Olympic competition, declared ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta during a press conference at the World Figure Skating Championships.

"On the basis of the present rules, there is no possibility," warned Cinquanta. "They are 100 percent excluded."

Lipinski, the Olympic champion in Nagano, has never hinted at a possible attempt to regain eligibility for the next Games in 2002. But others have speculated the teenager might try for another gold in front of an American when the Olympics move to the United States in two years.

Baiul, on the other hand, has openly expressed interest in competing in Salt Lake City. The Ukrainian, who won Olympic gold in Lillehammer in 1994, already has made overtures.

But Cinquanta was unsympathetic.

"So they are very young," Cinquanta said. "They say, 'I have a medal already, I can make a lot of money.' It doesn't work that way. We have never kicked out anyone from the ISU. No one has ever told me why they left. And I must ask why they want to come back. If you have an egg and you boil it, you do what you want. But then you say, 'I want it fresh again.' It's impossible."

Cinquanta said he harbored no bitter feelings toward skaters who left the fold for lucrative professional skating circuits and ice shows. But it was clear that it was also a question of the ISU's power struggle with the pro circuits.

"We cannot allow another organization to undermine the ISU," Cinquanta told Sports Ticker. "That cannot be allowed. That's what the rules are for."

Before the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, the ISU allowed a one-time amnesty for skaters who wished to return to the ISU family. Several athletes took advantage of the offer, including Britain's legendary dance couple Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, 1984 and 1988 Olympic champion Katarina Witt and Brian Boitano, gold medalist at the Calgary Winter Games.

Cinquanta indicated that no such exoneration would be offered this time around.

Copyright © 2000 SportsTicker Enterprises, L.P.