NOTEBOOK

Peter Mueller, the choice of Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair as U.S. Olympic speedskating coach, said he is quitting because he’s “just fed up with a lot of things.”

Mueller was quoted by the Milwaukee Sentinel in Oslo as saying he decided not to wait for a new contract from U.S. Speedskating.

“People in positions of power aren’t helping the skaters and I’m tired of dealing with them,” he said.

His contract expires at the end of April. He declined to say which officials displeased him.

“When you get results, you’re not appreciated,” he said. “You would think that, after the past three years, that they would want to have you. I love speedskating. It has been my life, but I don’t need these people.”

Mueller, 39, of suburban Mequon, is a three-time Olympic medal winner.

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The Games drew about two million visitors, nearly half the population of Norway. Eighty-eight percent of the tickets were sold, breaking the Olympic record of 83% sold at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

Petter Roenningen, deputy managing director of the Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee, said the biggest problem in a nearly trouble-free Olympics was not having a recording of the Ukrainian national anthem ready when Oksana Baiul won the women’s figure skating. A Ukrainian team member provided a cassette of the anthem so the medals ceremony could take place.

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this notebook.