Two to tango

Americans, Russians headline figure skating

Michelle Kwan won the 2002 U.S. National Championships. Mike Powell/Getty Images

NEW YORK (AP) -- Suddenly, Michelle Kwan is skating consistently and her top rivals are plagued by uncertainty. Just as suddenly, there are more questions surrounding world champion Yevgeny Plushchenko than Russian rival Alexei Yagudin.

The predicted Russian sweep of the individual gold and silver medals might be in jeopardy. American figure skaters are contenders at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Beginning with Kwan, by far the biggest star of a U.S. team that includes medal threats in Sarah Hughes and Sasha Cohen, and Todd Eldredge, Tim Goebel and Michael Weiss.

"We've had some very strong American ladies in the Olympics," said veteran coach John Nicks, who works with Cohen. "But I've never seen a ladies team as strong as this in the past 10 Olympics.'

Kwan, of course, will be the focal point. A six-time U.S. champion, including the last five, and four-time world winner who took silver at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the 21-year-old Californian struggled for much of the season.

But after a shaky victory at Skate America, a third place (her first so low since 1996) at Skate Canada and a second to Russian nemesis Irina Slutskaya at the Grand Prix finals, Kwan found herself at nationals. While she didn't approach her perfection of four years earlier at the Olympic trials, she was good enough to win.

"Grace under pressure," Nicks called it. "She has the ability to handle anything that comes along. That is a tremendous talent."

Kwan seemed to be wasting that talent and throwing away her chance for Olympic gold when she dismissed -- and didn't replace -- longtime coach Frank Carroll in October.

Still, in handily defeating the 17-year-old Cohen and 16-year-old Hughes at nationals, Kwan appeared ready for the Winter Games. Oh, she'll need to nail down a triple-triple jump combination before the Olympics, but does anyone still think a coachless Kwan has no chance?

"I don't think the way I skated should mean anything about coaching at all," she said before turning her attention to the pressure of skating in Salt Lake City.

"I think every American is going to be the favorite. It's home turf."

Hughes was third at last year's world championships and has a far stronger international resume than the spunky Cohen. If Hughes can overcome a penchant for sloppy technique on her jumps, she is a threat for any medal.

Cohen hopes to unveil a quadruple jump at the Salt Lake Ice Center (the Delta Center's name during the games), something no woman has attempted in competition. After missing the 2000-01 season with a back injury, she's made a remarkable return.

"It's the chance of a lifetime to perform in the Olympics in your own country," she said. "It makes it a double whammy."

The whammy has been on Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya recently.

Slutskaya's perky disposition didn't fade even while she struggled to win the Russian championships and was second to countrywoman Butyrskaya at Europeans. Her unusual technical mistakes at both competitions are fixable.

"It may be good experience to have it now, not in a couple weeks," she said.

Perhaps all she needs is some rest, which Slutskaya is getting before the games. The pre-Olympic schedule, including the Grand Prix finals, the Russian nationals and the Europeans, has been tough.

"It is hard to do three important competitions," she said. "And they are important, not just for places, but important psychologically."

Slutskaya often has had a mental edge on Kwan heading into the world championships, yet has never beaten her on that significant stage.

Butyrskaya has, in 1999, but she has been fragile since. At the Russian championships, she was mediocre. In winning Europeans, Butyrskaya had an error-filled free skate, and her psyche often is fragile at bigger events.

"I believe the Olympic Games will be very hard," she said. "Among the four events, the only event the Americans have a realistic chance to win a gold medal is in the ladies' event."

That probably is true, but the top two Russian men have been playing a strange game of avoiding each other this year. Skipping big competitions at this point might not be wise, even if both supposedly were sidelined by injuries.

Yagudin was hurt last season, and Plushchenko took advantage by winning all the major events, including his first world championship. That broke Yagudin's three-year string of gold at worlds.

Yagudin snapped his rival's hot streak at the Grand Prix finals - barely - and then skipped the Russian nationals. Plushchenko won those, but he didn't compete at Europeans, surprisingly changing his free skate program instead.

After Yagudin beat a diluted field at Europeans, he turned his attention to the pressure of being the Olympic favorite.

"That's what scares me," he said. "It's not the worlds, when you can lose the title and come back the next year and fight for that. The Olympics are a special event.

"I think that you have to be born as Olympic champions."

Americans don't seem to have much of a chance to win the gold, although one should skate off with bronze and could get higher.

The 30-year-old Eldredge is in his third games. After a two-year hiatus following a fourth-place showing at Nagano, he returned to finish third at worlds and win this year's U.S. crown, his sixth. But unless he comes up with a quad, he'll need others to stumble to get on the podium.

Weiss has skated poorly all season. Goebel, the only American who can jump with the Russians, could be the biggest U.S. challenger.

"I think you need the jumps to compete with them," he said.

Pairs and ice dancing probably won't feature any American medalists. Three-time U.S. champions Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman improve every year, but Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Russia's Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, and China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo are on another level.

Same thing for four-time U.S. dance champs Naomi Lang and Peter Tcherynshev. They are, by far, the best American dancers, but a top five finish would be impressive against favorites Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio of Italy; Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France; Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh of Russia; and Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz of Canada.

 

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