OlympicsFUND-RAISER FOR GAMES HOPEFULS: A dozen Olympic and U.S. national team athletes -- including 1998 gold medalist Eric Bergoust and Olympians Trace Worthingon, Carrie Sheinberg and Sean Smith -- have donated equipment and apparel that will be sold at a fund-raiser today at the Utah Winter Sports Park.
Times are 10:30 a.m. to noon, and 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. During the noon break, a national team of athletes will present a freestyle aerials show at the splash pool. Park entry fee is $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and $1 for children under 12.
Proceeds will benefit current Olympic hopefuls in training and youth development programs at the park. Equipment to be sold includes skis, parkas, race suits, warm-up pants, hats and Olympic pins.
Hockey
GRIZZ SIGN 3: The Utah Grizzlies signed three players for the 1999-2000 season -- goalie Ian Gordon, center Greg Parks and defenseman Mark Streit.
Gordon, 24, spent last season with the Grand Rapids Griffins and finished 16-19-3 with a 3.43 goals-against average and a .880 save percentage. His best season was 1997-98 when he went 23-16-4 with a 2.68 GAA and a .907 save percentage.
Park, a 32-year-old NHL veteran, played in 32 games for the New York Islanders. He is expected to play No. 1 center or a second-line leader. Most of his career has been with the American Hockey League and as a player on the Canadian National Team. His best season was 1991-92 when he tallied 36 goals and 57 assists in 70 games.
Streit, 21, was not drafted in the NHL despite being named an all-star during the 1997 World Junior Hockey Tournament. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound defenseman played in 51 games with the Swedish National Team. He had 13 goals and 18 assists.
ARBITRATION FOR PENS: Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Alexei Kovalev and Martin Straka have filed for arbitration, meaning they won't be holdouts when training camp opens in six weeks.
If they can't agree to a contract with the Penguins for next season, an independent arbitrator will set their salary by mid-August.
However, nearly all arbitration-eligible NHL players settle before their cases are heard by an arbitrator. Both sides usually prefer to avoid hearings in which teams must make negative comments about their own players.
STARS SIGNINGS: The Dallas Stars signed centers Pavel Patera and Roman Lyashenko, a pair of draft picks who played overseas last season.
Golf
HAILES OUT AT PUBLINX: The bid by West Bountiful's Scott Hailes to win another USGA event fell short Friday when he lost in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Alton, Ill.
Hailes, who won the 1995 U.S. Junior Amateur, lost 4 and 3 to Hunter Haas of Norman, Okla., at the Spencer T. Olin Community Golf Course. Haas advanced to the final round of match play by defeating Adam Scott, 19, Las Vegas, Nev., 3 and 2 in the semifinals and will meet Michael Kirk of Las Vegas in the finals. Kirk defeated Nicholas Loar, 19, Rockwall, Texas, 1 up in the semifinals.
The champion of today's final round will receive an exemption into the 1999 U.S. Amateur Championship and an invitation to the 2000 Masters.
SHORTS FOR CADDIES ON A HOT DAY: The PGA Tour is about to see a lot more skin.
Caddies on the tour will be allowed to wear khaki shorts on extremely hot days during a test period that starts with next week's John Deere Classic.
"We haven't decided to allow it," said John Morris, vice president of communication for the PGA Tour. "The idea is to give us a chance to see how well it works, how it looks, the player reaction and the caddie reaction."
Morris said that the shorts would only be allowed when the heat index, which is a gauge of temperature and humidity, rises above 100.
The PGA Tour's policy board will decide in September whether to retain the new policy, Morris said.
Boxing
VARGAS-MARQUEZ BOUT: Fernando Vargas has a world title and a perfect record. Raul Marquez, who used to hold that IBF junior middleweight title, says he'll prove tonight that Vargas is just an overhyped fighter.
Vargas, a 1996 U.S. Olympian, has won by knockout in each of his 16 pro fights. The resident of Oxnard, Calif., will be making his second defense of the 154-pound title he captured last December.
Marquez, a 1992 Olympian from Houston, is 30-1 with 20 knockouts. He held the title for eight months in 1997.
EUROPEAN CHAMP SENTENCED: Rene Weller, the former European lightweight boxing champion, was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday after being convicted of selling cocaine.
Prosecutors in the Karlsruhe state court said that from 1992 until his arrest in June 1998, Weller sold about 33 pounds of cocaine with a street value of about $390,000.