Slushy Ice Sparks Friction at Games

ST. PETERSBURG -- The showcase figure skating event at the Goodwill Games was postponed Wednesday because of ice problems in a major embarrassment to the organizers and the city.


Goodwill Games president Jack Kelly sharply criticized the Russian director of the Yubileiny Sports Palace where technical staff struggled unsuccessfully for three days to produce ice adequate for the world-class skaters who were to participate in the events originally scheduled Wednesday through Saturday.


He told a press conference that the ice skating would be postponed until Thursday and moved to SKA Rink, a kilometer away, because there still was not enough ice at Yubileiny.


This is the third event in the Games that has had to be postponed -- swimming and speed skating were both delayed because of organizational snafus -- but it is clearly the most embarrassing problem so far.


As the marquee event in St. Petersburg, the figure-skating competition was expected to receive good U.S. television ratings and had been heavily promoted in television advertising in the United States.


Ted Turner, who founded the Goodwill Games, owns the Turner Broadcasting System that televises the event and his network stands to lose considerable advertising revenue.


Matt Pensinger, a spokesman for the U.S. figure-skating team, said this was the first time a major event has been moved.


"We've had various equipment problems, but not anything that impacted directly on the event like this has," he said.


Even with the shift to the new site, the organizers were far from out of the woods.


Although the ice was thicker at the SKA rink, it proved to be just as soft and French world silver-medalist Surya Bonaly called the ice at both venues "horrible."


The move will pose considerable logistical challenges. The SKA venue holds less than 3,000 people and does not contain the equipment normally needed for a major international competition.


Television cameras, lights and scoring equipment will all have to be set up in a hurry.


Kelly, who had given assurances Tuesday that the ice would be ready in time for figure-skating practice Wednesday morning, said Yubileiny officials had misled organizers about the rate of ice-making, and suggested some people might be fired.


"Their specialists appear not to be specialists," Kelly said. "They had a much more difficult problem getting heat out of the building than they let on. Their experts were not entirely forthcoming with the difficulties they were having."


Officials blamed a heat wave, with temperatures reaching the 30s Celsius, a power outage and a lack of air-conditioning for the failure in getting the ice ready at Yubileiny. The venue had been used for boxing until last Saturday.


Kelly, who earlier on this week had praised the Russian organization of the Games, now reacted less positively to questions on the preparations.


"At each step, their estimate of how long was needed fell behind reality," Kelly said. "When they were making the ice, I said, 'Why not have two guys with two hoses instead of just one guy with one hose?' And at noon the crews take lunch breaks."


Competitors were taking the troubles in stride, but many were surprised by the move.


"There's been problems in other big events I've been to," said Stephanie Stiegler, a U.S. pairs skater from Manhattan Beach, California. "But there's always been ice."


(MT, AP, Reuters, LAT)