BRIEFLY : SAMARANCH GROUNDS MEMBERS OF IOC.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

Frequent flying is no longer an Olympic sport.

In a dramatic step to combat the worst ethics scandal in International Olympic Committee history, committee members have been banned from visiting cities bidding to be Olympic hosts.

The move was announced Monday by IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who also called a special executive board meeting for next month to act on the Salt Lake City bribery scandal and consider changes in the system for selecting Olympic host cities.

``I can tell you that the trips of IOC members to candidate cities, these are terminated,'' Samaranch told the Swiss newspaper Le Matin.

Samaranch didn't elaborate, but the visits by IOC members to bidding cities have long been considered fraught with the dangers of corruption.

The members fly first-class, stay in the best hotels and are wined and dined - all in an attempt to win their vote.

The IOC and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee are investigating possible rules violations by the Utah bid. The U.S. Olympic Committee is expected to announce its own probe today, and has chosen former Senate majority leader George Mitchell to head the investigation.

Meanwhile, Robert Helmick, the only panel member ever to quit in an ethics scandal, said a small group of IOC members are willing to turn over blocks of votes in return for ``extravagant gifts and favors.''

Helmick, who resigned from the IOC and as president of the USOC in 1991 amid conflict-of-interest charges, said the gifts could range from fur coats to shopping sprees for members' wives where thousands of dollars were spent on clothing.

SKIING: In a startling display of power before a roaring home crowd, Austria's men made skiing history by capturing the top nine places in a World Cup super-G event.

Led by Hermann Maier, the Austrians did what no other team - men or women - had ever done. Until now, the best team showing in World Cup racing was in 1968 when French women took the first six places in a downhill at Abetone, Italy.

Austrians last month swept the top five places in a super-G at Aspen, Colo.

BOXING: The referee whose action led to Mike Tyson's temporary banishment from boxing for biting Evander Holyfield's ear is calling it quits.

Mills Lane said he's ending his 31-year career as a referee because he wants to devote more time as a national-television boxing analyst.

``I think it would be a conflict of interest to make public comment (about boxing) and at the same time be an active referee,'' he said. ``Sure, I'll miss it, but I feel I'm going out on my own terms. I'm not as good as I was five years ago. You don't hear the bell as well and move as well when you're 61.''

Lane refereed fights involving nearly every boxing great of recent decades, including Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Larry Holmes and Roberto Duran.