BRIEFLY : EX-IOC MEMBER CALLS FOR RESIGNATIONS.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

The leadership of the IOC, including president Juan Antonio Samaranch, should resign because of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, according to the only person ever to quit the committee in a corruption case.

Robert Helmick, who resigned as an IOC member and president of the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1991 amid conflict-of-interest allegations, said Samaranch should take responsibility for the biggest ethics-violation case in Olympic history.

He also said Tuesday the IOC president apparently had violated the committee's ethics code by accepting firearms from Salt Lake worth almost 10 times the $150 limit on gifts.

``He set the rule and he violated it,'' Helmick said in a telephone interview. ``You'd expect the president of the IOC to adhere to a higher standard. He should resign. The IOC's officers should resign.''

AUTO RACING: Driver Robby Gordon said he's formed his own Indy-car team and will compete on the CART circuit. John Menard, a car owner in the rival Indy Racing League, will be a partner in the new Team Gordon.

BASKETBALL: Former Texas player Luke Axtell, who ignited a revolt that led to the ouster of basketball coach Tom Penders, is suing the Austin, Texas, radio station which broadcast a report about his academic status.

BOXING: Jimmy Bivins was one of six living inductees chosen for enshrinement in the International Boxing Hall of Fame on June 13. Also honored were promoter Bob Arum, featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza of Panama, bantam Khaosai Galaxy of Thailand, publicist Irving Rudd and English manager Mickey Duff.

SOCCER: Johan Cryuff and Pele were voted the top soccer players of the century in a poll of soccer writers and historians.

HORSE RACING: Escena, winner of the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff last fall, was sold for a record $3.25 million at the January Horses of All Ages Sale at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

TENNIS: Marcelo Rios, No. 2 in the world and the defending champion at the Auckland Open in New Zealand, made a controversial first-round exit. The Chilean led Romania's Andrei Pavel 7-5, 0-2 when he retired, citing a lingering hamstring injury.

No. 4-ranked Patrick Rafter, the two-time U.S. Open champion, lost 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 to teen-ager Lleyton Hewitt in the first round of the Sydney International in Australia.

RUNNING: British runner Jim Peters, who broke the world marathon record four times in the 1950s, died Jan. 9, according to news reports. He was 80.

WINTER SPORTS: Olympic champion Hermann Maier of Austria overtook rookie teammate Benjamin Raich on the final run and won a World Cup giant slalom race in Adelboden, Switzerland.