What people are talking about in the Olympic world

	American upstart Alissa Czisny cleanly landed four triple jumps in her gold medal-winning routine at Skate America. AP

By Craig Neff, SI.com

1) Alissa Czisny

The little-known Bowling Green sophomore is suddenly the talk of figure skating. Her breakthrough came two weeks ago, when she was added to the Skate America competition in Atlantic City, N.J., as a late replacement for injured star Sasha Cohen. Czisny finished second and brought the crowd to its feet with the event's most scintillating free-skating performance.

Last weekend she was even better -- cleanly landing six triple jumps -- in winning Skate Canada in St. John's, Newfoundland. With only three spots for women's skaters on the U.S. Olympic team, and the list of bona fide contenders now up to at least five (Czisny, two-time world silver medalist Cohen, five-time world champ Michelle Kwan and two gifted 16-year-olds, Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes, younger sister of 2002 gold medalist Sarah), the U.S. trials in St. Louis in January should be far more dramatic than they looked to be just a few months ago.

2) Bode and the Hermanator

Skiing's most compelling rivals, Bode Miller and Hermann Maier, opened their season by going one-two (with Maier winning) in a World Cup giant slalom in Austria. But that's only part of the story. Maier moved past Italy's Alberto Tomba into second place all-time in career World Cup titles with 51 (leaving him behind only Ingemar Stenmark) and, at age 32 -- four years removed from a motorcycle crash that nearly cost him his right leg -- looked ready to challenge Miller, the defending champ, for this season's World Cup overall title.

Meanwhile, the iconoclastic Miller drew flak from everyone but BALCO founder Victor Conte by telling reporters that he thinks the use of some performance-enhancing drugs (particularly those available to the general public) should be permitted. Even the IOC's athletes commission, which rarely goes after a fellow Olympian, plans to send one of its members, Swedish skiing great Pernilla Wiberg, to talk to Miller and politely ask, "What were you thinking?"

3) Tanith Belbin

Can this potential gold medal-winning ice dancer obtain U.S. citizenship in time for the Turin Games? The Senate last week approved a measure that could make the difference. If passed by the full Congress, the appropriations-bill amendment would speed up citizenship for "aliens of extraordinary ability," including the 21-year-old Belbin, who moved to Michigan from her native Canada six years ago but under current law won't become a citizen until 2007. (Michigan senator Carl Levin sponsored the amendment.)

Belbin is potentially the greatest female ice dancer the U.S. has ever had; she and partner Ben Agosto, a Chicago native, placed second at the 2005 worlds. Unfortunately, they haven't been pushy enough to demand citizenship for Belbin in the name of patriotism, medal counts and NBC ratings. Don't they know the American way?

4) German Lawsuits

After a long legal fight, former East German swimmer Karen König -- who says she has suffered health problems from the drugs she was forced to take as part the GDR's sports doping program in the 1980s -- has won the right to sue Germany's Olympic committee for damages. The financial implications could be huge: Though König, whose case opens this week, is seeking a relatively modest 10,225 euros ($12,334), a group of 137 other former East German athletes have announced plans to file a million dollar-plus class-action suit against the German Olympic committee, which is already strapped for money.

5) Elizabeth Jackson & Co.

It's lonely being the national champion in the only major track and field event excluded from the Olympics because of gender inequity. But Jackson, a pioneer of the women's steeplechase, received a present for her 28th birthday last week when her specialty -- a men's Olympic event since 1900 -- was added to the 2008 Beijing Games. Now the BYU graduate (who once explained that she took up the steeple because "it looked a lot more fun than just running in circles") can focus on how to catch the reigning world champion, Docus Inzikuru of Uganda, who beat her by nearly 30 seconds in this year's world final in Helsinki, Finland.