IN BRIEF : Tax Checkoff Asked for Olympians

PORTLAND, Ore. — The U.S. Olympic Committee, beaten once in Congress, is going back to press for taxpayer help to “level the playing field a little” against government-funded Soviet and East German athletes.

“That is our No. 1 priority,” John Krimsky Jr., the USOC’s deputy secretary general, said Thursday in an interview at the start of the organization’s quadrennial meeting.

A $1 checkoff donation on federal tax forms could produce a $160-million windfall over four years for America’s Olympic program, Krimsky said.

Executive Director Baaron B. Pittenger said the USOC has never asked for government support “but we think this (optional donation) is a reasonable, justified way to allow the American public to make a contribution to its Olympic team. We plan to pursue it with all vigor.”

The USOC already has checkoffs on state income taxes in California, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Colorado.