As some of those he repeatedly beat to the top prize over the years make their final preparations for Nagano, four-times Olympic ski jump champion, Matti Nykanen, is busy settling into a new career in his native Helsinki.

Nykanen, it seems, is hoping to make a name for himself as a male stripper and has recently been given his own show at a nightclub in the city where he performs solo in a room of mirrors.

Things have not, as one might guess from the latest career move, gone too well for the former world number one since personal problems ended his sporting career and attempts to make it in showbusiness (well, okay, his first attempt to make it in showbusiness) and bartending (his own heavy drinking was not considered an asset by his superiors) ended in failure. Now, though, he is determined to salvage something and argues that he is merely doing what he needs to to make ends meet . . . or something like that.

"Finns understand that I'm going through some very hard times," said Nykanen, "but life is such that I need to have a job so that I do not become some social scum."

He maintains that he never removes all of his clothes while on stage, but, rather enigmatically, says of his career that "there is even more coming, it will not end here".

However, the club's owner has put some restrictions on where Nykanen's act goes from here. "We will observe the law that says spectators cannot touch the sexual organs of the artist," he said.

Nykanen might have done well to insure himself against failure outside of the sporting world, but others, sponsors to be precise, are taking out policies to guard against those they support becoming just a little too successful.

Most sponsorship deals include provisions for bonus payments to be made in the event of success. Chelsea, for example, received a seven-figure bonus from the makers of Coors beer as a result of winning the FA Cup last season.

But some of the performance related bonuses, particularly those given to unlikely winners by smaller sponsors, are disproportionately large compared to the normal value of the deal. Sponsors are now insuring themselves against their sportspeople or teams winning.

One American insurance company, SCA, received around £15 million in premiums last year, some of which was paid by major clubs covering themselves against bonus payments to players.

Among the whackier pay-outs SCA made last year was one of $50,000 to the World Pumpkin Federation which had guaranteed that amount to anybody who managed to grow a 1,000 pound pumpkin and were then rather surprised when someone actually managed to do it.

When people are being laid off in large numbers due to a widespread economic downturn, as is happening across south-east Asia just now, it seems a little unreasonable to dwell on how sport is being hit, but the crisis in the region's markets has already hit a number of major sponsorships, with companies which appeared to be thriving just a few weeks ago now pulling out of long standing deals on the basis of inability to pay.

First to go was the ninth Asian Squash Championships, which was scheduled to take place in Seoul next month but which had to be abandoned when the Korean Squash Federation informed the sport's international body. Shortly afterwards the Korean Open Badminton Championships, one of the game's biggest international events, were also cancelled.

Now, Thai telecommunications company, the Samart Corporation, has announced plans to reduce the level of its support for the forthcoming multi-sport Asian Games. Scheduled to take place between December 6th and 20th, the Games are expected to attract 10,000 competitors from around 40 countries. Samart was committed to supplying much of the equipment required for the results service, as well as some direct financial aid. They now intend to cut the value of the package from $10 million to one fifth of that amount.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has said that if the company does attempt to cut the amount of cash and product it promised, then it will take Samart to court. A spokesman for the company says that right now they have bigger fish to fry.

"We are man enough to understand that there are repercussions for our company, but I will be very strong on this issue right now," Samart Director Tom Kruesopon told Reuters earlier this week. "The survival of my company takes precedent to anything right now."

It is, perhaps, a glimpse of how the future might look for major sports organisers here who have become accustomed during the current boom to major brand names bidding to have their names associated with the big international sports events.

Okay, we were beginning to come around to the idea that the Chinese simply weren't the best cheats in the world. Hardly a day seems to pass now without another of their swimmers getting done for having some banned substance or other in their urine, while others simply try to carry growth hormones through customs by the flaskload.

Still, an item on the sports wires concerning the country's football league caught our attention here on the fourth floor during the past week.

"Twelve of China's top football clubs," reported the Press Association on Thursday, "have admitted offering bribes to referees.

"The corruption," it added, "was uncovered by a provincial newspaper which sent out questionnaires to 16 division A and B clubs."

Well, no wonder they were caught! Who, after all, could be expected to stand up to such ruthless scrutiny?

Having brought you the tale a few weeks ago of Gerry Coetzee's alleged attempt to kill somebody from a couple of feet away, with a shot gun which resulted in a minor flesh wound to the target's leg, we are proud this week to bring news of another boxer who tends to shoot below the belt.

Early in the week there were reports that former junior featherweight world champion, Antonio Cermeno, had fled his native Caracas in the wake of a shooting incident in a city centre square. The police claimed to be searching for the fighter after a 27-year-old woman complained that in the course of a violent row Cermeno had produced a hand gun and shot her . . . in the shin.

Anway, the good news is that Cermeno, who is at an advanced stage of training for a world featherweight title scheduled for the spring, showed up at home this week wondering what all the fuss was about.

He had, he said, simply been resting in the wake of his last fight in December and the woman, Heiderlen Otero, had accepted his apology for the shooting incident, along with an offer to pay her medical expenses.

American soup manufacturer Campbell's is breaking with long-standing tradition this month by including pictures of American ice skaters, Tara Lipinski, Michelle Kwan and Nicole Bobek, on their cans in the build up to the winter Olympics. They are the first women ever to feature on the company's packaging.

The New Jersey company is dubbing the trio its "Dream Team" for the Games and is altering the design of its labels, which featured in the work of Andy Warhol, in order to include people for just the third time in its history.

In 1996, ice hockey great Wayne Gretsky became the first person to be endorsed by the company and, a year later, Reggie White of the Green Bay Packers was used in a similar campaign.

After a bright start to Major League Soccer in the United States, attendances have been falling at games and organisers are already looking at ways of broadening the appeal of the league which was established as part of the deal which brought the 1996 World Cup to the country.

Now, one of the host nations for the 2002 World Cup has problems of its own at home with the J League suffering from plummeting attendances and financial troubles.

The average crowd in Japan this season has been just 10,131, compared to 16,922 in '95 and just over 19,500 in the heady days of 1994. Now clubs are slashing players' wages in an attempt to stay afloat, while several clubs seem certain to go to the wall over the coming months.

While the world bank intervenes elsewhere in the region, expect stoney-faced FIFA officials to arrive soon in Tokyo in order to deliver stern "get your act together" style messages to the game's local authorities.

When the British government was debating whether to ban some blood sports last month the opportunity to have a bit of an auld laugh was too great to resist for Bath rugby club. Now the club's officials are doing their best to track down any copies of a promotional poster (see above) bearing a picture of the club's front row players and the slogan "we're in trouble if they ban bloodsports".

Some of the posters were still going out to pubs and clubs in the city until a couple of weeks ago but plans are now afoot to destroy those remaining at the club. A case, perhaps, of " 'ere today, gone tomorrow"?

Please send any correspondence to On The Sidelines, Sports Dept, The Irish Times, 11-15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail emalone@irish-times.ie