SOME people say that Missy Giove is intense. Others say she is

downright weird.

Giove is among the USA's top mountain bikers, a hard core group of

competitive cyclists who careen down precipitous hills and race along

rocky trails and wooded paths. In a sport that calls for large amounts

of aggression, Giove is the most aggressive of all.

At last year's Reebok Eliminator, the sport's flagship event, Giove

crashed on the final turn while among the leaders and had to get 22

stitches in an arm. The previous year, she was disqualified for spitting

in the vicinity of a race official.

''I did spit,'' said Giove, ''but she was downwind. I think she was

just horrified that I'm a woman and I spit. After my suspension I came

back and won three races in a row. It was my way of saying, 'You can't

get rid of me.' ''

They can't get rid of her and they can't fail to notice her. Giove

wears her hair spiked and dyes it purple ''or whatever I feel like in

the morning.'' She wears a ring in her nose, carries a dried-out piranha

fish named Gonzo around her neck, and has a habit of sprinkling the

ashes of her cremated dog, Ruffian, around mountains where she competes.

For all that, Giove insists: ''I'm not an idiot. You have to be

grounded, down to earth.''

* THE unusual is commonplace in the USA, but by anyone's definition

dachshund racing is downright unusual.

Possibly that's the reason why it is catching on. One recent event

drew 1000 entrants, while another, staged during half-time at a San

Francisco 49ers football game, received rave reviews.

The idea gained momentum following a television beer commercial which

featured strange sports ideas. Now dachshund races are being staged in

40 cities and have even gained a following at some greyhound tracks.

Larry Sorenson, president of the Dachshund Club of America, claims the

little dogs can really fly. ''They flex their backs and catapult out

like an inch worm.''

But the sport may be destined for a short lifespan. ''There's no money

in it for them,'' says Sorenson sadly. ''Not now, anyway.''

Some players

don't add up

JACK Chambless is a man that baseball players are either going to love

or absolutely detest, depending on who they are.

Chambless is an economist at Valencia Community College in Orlando,

Florida, who has figured out a way to calculate how much a professional

player is worth to his team.

Using an algebraic equation, Chambless calculates how a player's

on-field exploits generate income from spectators. Obviously, by then

seeing how much that player is being paid, an idea can be gained of

which side is getting the better deal, the player or the team's owner.

Len Dykstra, of the Philadelphia Phillies, may have greatest cause for

complaint. He earns a mere $2.87m a year from his team, but generates

$10.69m for them. Similarly, Barry Bonds, of the San Francisco Giants,

receives $4.2m, but produces $9.83m.

Then, of course, there's Darryl Strawberry, the man who has alienated

many fans with his drink and drug exploits. He is paid $3.8m, but

generates just $772,000. Time to renegotiate?

* BRITISH royalty has long enjoyed great popularity in the USA, and

the Princess of Wales firmly is at the top of the heap.

The promotions people at Prince Sports, makers of tennis rackets among

other things, were particularly intrigued when they saw a photograph of

the princess holding a Prince racket in front of her face in order to

shield herself from photographers.

Creative geniuses that they are, someone observed that she had traded

in her frog for a real prince, and an entire promotional campaign was

born.

Last week the company began swopping tennis rackets for frogs. The

first 200 children sending in anything related to frogs will receive in

return a Prince Junior tennis racket.

All of the frog stuff will be donated to the Toys for Tots programme.

So, even though she may never know it, the Princess of Wales' story had

a happy ending.