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Shaved her legs and then he was a she

Thirty years after her championship run, French skiing legend Marielle Goitschel has received official recognition for winning a world championship after the skier who defeated her turned out to be a man.

In the 1966 World Alpine Championships in Chile, Goitschel was runner-up to Austrian Erika Schinegger in the downhill.

But Schinegger later discovered during medical tests that she was in fact a man, according to her autobiography published in 1988.

During the 1968 Olympics at Grenoble, France, doctors detected only male hormones in Schinegger’s saliva. They examined further and discovered that Schinegger had male sexual organs.

Schinegger underwent corrective surgery, married and became a father. He is now Eric.

Schinegger gave his gold medal to Goitschel in 1988, but the sport’s governing body never got around to changing the result until recently.

What next? Rex Reed returns his fee for impersonating a man in “Myra Breckenridge?”

No ringing endorsement from Parcells

The question arose innocently enough, but it drew a sharp correction from Bill Parcells when a reporter tried to compare quarterback Drew Bledsoe to Dallas star Troy Aikman.

While Parcells obviously likes Bledsoe, he holds Aikman in the lofty spot he puts all players who’ve won Super Bowls. Parcells emphasized that Bledsoe needs one of those big gaudy rings before he’s in Aikman’s class.

“I don’t think you can compare the two at all,” he said. “I don’t think you can compare him to Drew …. There’s a wide disparity in experience, a wide disparity in big games. Aikman has a lot more jewelry.”

At least Izzy’s name didn’t come up

So what would you like to see emblazoned across advertisements and displays as the name of the 2002 Winter Games’ mascot?

Outside magazine has a few suggestions. How about, “Salty,” “Brigham the Busy Bee,” or even - with a tweak of the abstinence prized in predominantly Mormon Utah - “Tommy ‘n’ Tammy Teetotal?”

The magazine’s January 1997 edition also illustrates the suggestions with drawings of a skating salt shaker, a skiing bee and a dour-looking pioneer couple waving a pistol and a rolling pin.

A decision on an image is expected from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee early next year. The mascot, which will be selected later, will make its debut at the closing ceremonies of the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

Committee spokesman Mike Korologos said he took the magazine’s ideas with a grain of salt.

And this franchise eliminated the Sonics?

How low have the Nuggets tumbled? Newsday NBA writer Shaun Powell put it this way: “A little over two years ago, John Elway grabbed the mike during the playoffs and yelled to the Nuggets’ crowd: ‘Let’s get ready to Mu-TOM-bo.’

“Today, we offer an updated paraphrase to capture the state of the Nuggets: ‘Let’s get ready to CRUMble.”’

The last word …

“Deceiving runner. He’s slower than he looks.”’ - Television commentator and former major league catcher Joe Garagiola describing himself in a scouting report