CYBERSPORTS WHERE THERE'S SMOKE, THERE'S A FIRESTORM WAITING.

Byline: - Tom Hoffarth

Who's to blame for all the misinformation on the Kobe Bryant case that's been swirling around on the World Wide Web the past week? Start your investigation by looking at The Smoking Gun, but you won't be able to pin anything on them.

This site (www.thesmokinggun.com), owned by CourtTV since 2000, uses the Freedom of Information Act and an array of government and law enforcement sources to obtain and publish court documents and legal contracts that otherwise would take much longer to produce and make available to the public.

For instance, the four-page document outlining Bryant's charge for felony sexual assault was posted July 18, the same day it was announced by Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert. It lists lists witnesses - detectives, hospital nurses and a criminal lab expert - that supposedly will be used in the case.

But if you're looking for the identity of the alleged victim, it ain't here.

``Like nearly every news organization, we do not post the names and photos of alleged sexual-abuse victims - we do not post rumors, and every document on the site is real,'' managing editor Daniel Green said. ``We only post documents related to newsworthy cases, and we will do a story, as we did with Tom Leykis revealing the alleged victim's name on his radio show (www.thesmokinggun.com/archive

eykis1.html).''

Claiming also to have the stuff that's ``cool, confidential and quirky - that can't be found anywhere else on the Web,'' the site also is a great resource for clicking through actual booking photos saved under the ``Arresting Images'' link. More than two dozen athletes are there, including Bryant, Dennis Rodman (1999, assaulting wife Carmen Electra in Miami), Sergei Fedorov (2001, driving while impaired in Michigan) and Darryl Strawberry (1999, possession of cocaine and soliciting a prostitute in Tampa, Fla.).

--The official Web site of the FIFA Women's World Cup (www.fifaworldcup.yahoo.com) launched this week, available in seven languages. It will include play-by-play matchcast when the tournament begins at the Home Depot Center in Carson in September.

--The 17th annual Nautica Malibu Triathlon at Zuma Beach, scheduled for Sept. 14, accepts registration at its official Web site (www.nauticamalibutri.com). Fee is $85 for individuals or $110 for a three-person relay team. There's a $10 late fee if registering after Aug. 3.

The race, which consists of a half-mile ocean swim, an 18-mile bike ride along Pacific Coast Highway and a four-mile beach run, usually sells out at 2,000 participants. Proceeds expected to reach $100,000 benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (www.pediads.org).

--The L.A.-based Amateur Athletic Foundation recently added to its Web site (www.aafla.org) the five-volume Official Report of the Games of the XXV Olympiad held in Barcelona in 1992, detailing all aspects of the planning and staging of the event as well as complete competition results.

With this addition, the site has post-Game reports of 15 summer and winter Olympics, including Los Angeles in '84 and '32 and going back to Athens in 1896. All reports are stored as PDF files for Adobe Acrobat Reader and are free.