Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994 TAG: 9401230086
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Two years after Albertville, the marquee stars of ice and snow get an encore opportunity in the mountains and valleys of Norway as the Winter Olympics settle in for 16 days of skiing, skating and sledding around picturesque Lillehammer.
The Games will showcase familiar stars like Alberto Tomba, Bonnie Blair, Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt, winners of multiple medals in previous Olympics. Overshadowing them all, however, could be Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, main players in a figure skating soap opera that reads like the script of a television movie.
The frightening attack on Kerrigan that knocked her out of U.S. national championships and the subsequent arrest of three men, including Harding's bodyguard, took figure skating from the sports pages to the front pages in the days leading up to the Games.
Figure skating already was guaranteed center stage even without the Harding-Kerrigan affair. Under a rule change that allowed professionals to return to international competition, Boitano and Witt, the gold medalists at Calgary in 1988, and Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, the electrifying dance winners at Sarajevo in 1984, were reinstated for the Lillehammer Olympics.
Boitano, 30 and troubled by a chronic knee injury, finished behind Scott Davis at the national championships and faces a field crowded with talented skaters. Back again are 1992 Olympic champion Viktor Petrenko of Ukraine and four-time world champion Kurt Browning of Canada, out to make up for a sixth-place finish at Albertville.
Also considered medal threats are acrobatic jumper Elvis Stojko of Canada, Davis and highly regarded Alexei Urmanov of Russia and Philippe Candeloro of France.
Boitano is not worried.
"I don't think anything can tarnish the legend," he said. "I'm a risk-taker. I'm the '88 Olympic champion. You've got to put another log on the fire sometimes."
Witt, who also won at Sarajevo in 1984, should command much of the attention in the women's field, the Harding-Kerrigan drama notwithstanding. On the ice, though, the German skater faces formidable competition from skaters like 16-year-old world champion Oksana Baiul of Ukraine, Lu Chen of China, Surya Bonaly of France and Yuka Sato of Japan. All have programs with dramatic jumps that Witt may have trouble matching.
Then there is Kerrigan and her recovery. A bronze medalist at Albertville, she slumped badly at the '93 world championships but felt she was skating better than ever before the attack that left her with a severely bruised knee at the national championships. She faces a major physical and psychological challenge at Lillehammer.
"It's hard to say how long I'll look over my shoulder and look who is behind me," Kerrigan said. "But if my leg is strong enough, I'll be able to compete. I want to prove I can do all of this."
Perhaps the most anticipated event in figure skating will be the return of Torvill and Dean, whose sultry interpretation of "Bolero" was a clean-sweep gold performance at Sarajevo.
"We're taking a risk coming back," Torvill said. "But we couldn't ignore the challenge."
Maia Usova and Alexander Zhulin, the world champions, will be the biggest challengers to the British champions. In pairs, the last two Olympic champion couples, 1988 winners Yekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov and '92 gold medalists Natalia Mishkutienok and Artur Dmitriev, return to face world champions Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler of Canada.
While the figure skaters concentrate on the grace and artistry of their sport, the speed skaters concern themselves with one thing - speed.
With no winds to bother them at the newly constructed, state-of-the-art indoor oval at Hamar, look for the skaters to attack the electronic digital score clocks with a vengeance.
Among the women, American Bonnie Blair, winner of three golds and a bronze in the past two Games, returns on a roll with three World Cup wins this winter after a mediocre 1993 season. Waiting for her will be China's Ye Qiaobo, barely beaten by Blair at Albertville.
Blair needs one more gold to tie diver Pat McCormick, swimmer Janet Evans and sprinter Evelyn Ashford as the only American women to win four gold medals. If she wins two, the record would be hers alone.
"I don't think about those things; other people do," Blair said. "If I start thinking about those things, that's really going to take away from me."
Also back is Germany's Gunda Niemann, who won gold in the 3,000 and 5,000 at Albertville and who has dominated at those distances in the current World Cup season.
While Blair keeps winning medals, teammate Dan Jansen keeps missing them. He was the centerpiece at Calgary, when his sister died on the eve of his competition. He fell in the 500 and 1,000 races there and then struggled badly on Albertville's slushy outdoor ice in 1992.
Jansen already has conquered the ice at Hamar, breaking the 36-second barrier for the 500 with a 35.92 clocking in December.
"I had a great race on fantastic ice," he said. "This must be the best ice in the world. It's perfect for the sprints."
And the sprints are his specialty.
Norway's Johann Olav Koss will be favored on his home ice in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. An attack of pancreatitis just before the 1992 Games weakened him for the long-distance races at Albertville, but he won the 1,500. At Hamar in December, he cut more than a second off the world 5,000 record, finishing in 6:35.53.
Rintje Ritsma of the Netherlands is the 1,500 favorite after setting a world-record 1:51.60 in Hamar on Jan. 9.
In short-track speed skating, America's Cathy Turner defends her 1992 gold medal and anchors the women's relay team, which took silver at Albertville. Eric Flaim, a 1988 silver medalist in the 1,500-meter long track, has switched to short-track competition for these Games.
Like Blair on the ice, Alberto Tomba of Italy has dominated the Alpine ski slopes. He was the slalom and giant slalom gold medalist at Calgary in 1988, and he made Olympic history when he won the giant slalom at Albertville in '92, becoming the first Alpine skier to win consecutive golds.
Tomba has more records on his mind as he tries for a fourth gold - and maybe more - at Lillehammer.
"I could make it five," he said boldly, "but let's forget about miracles and be realistic. A fourth title would be a sensational achievement anyway."
It will not be easy. Norway claims skiing was invented there, and the Scandinavians are waiting on the slopes for these Games. Tomba's chief competition could come from Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway, perhaps the best all-around skier in the world, and Norwegian slalom specialists Finn Christian Jagge and Ole Christian Furuseth. Sweden is sending Thomas Fogdoe and Fredrik Nyberg.
America's hopes ride with AJ Kitt, a bronze medalist in the downhill at 1993 world championships, and Tommy Moe, who's done well in this year's World Cup downhills.
Among the women are Canadian teammates Kerrin Lee-Gartner, the 1992 Olympic downhill gold medalist, and Kate Pace, who won the event at the 1993 world championships. Also back is American Hilary Lindh, a silver medalist in 1992.
Other returnees include Vreni Schneider of Switzerland, winner of the slalom and giant slalom in 1988, and defending overall World Cup champion Anita Wachter of Austria.
America's top slalom skiers include Julie Parisien and Diann Roffe-Steinrotter, both silver medalists at Albertville. Parisien and Picabo Street also won silver medals at last year's world championships.
Nordic skiing, a headline event in this corner of the world, could attract huge crowds at Lillehammer, where the Birkebeiner Stadium venue is within walking distance of the main railway station.
In the 1992 Olympics, Norwegian men won five gold medals, three silver and one bronze in Nordic events. Vegard Ulvang and Bjorn Dahlie each won three races, including the relay.
This time, Vladimir Smirnov, a former Soviet star now skiing for Kazakhstan, is the main man. He has won five of six World Cup races for a commanding overall lead going into Lillehammer and will be after his first individual Olympic gold.
Elena Valbe and Lyubov Egorova, two other former Soviet stars competing for Russia, are expected to continue their domination of the women's events.
In the luge, the United States' team heads for the Games after the nasty episode during training in Germany, where Duncan Kennedy was roughed up by neo-Nazi skinheads as he protected black teammate Robert Pipkins. Kennedy battled back from the attack and, going into the Olympics, leads men's luge World Cup standings.
Teammate Wendel Suckow won the gold at last year's world championships, defeating 1992 Olympic champion Georg Hackl of Germany.
Cammy Myler, who was fifth at Albertville - best ever for a U.S. luger - returns after winning her fifth U.S. title and third straight last year.
Other medal contenders include Gustav Weder of Switzerland, who is adding the four-man race after winning gold in the two-man event at Albertville, Pierre Lueders of Canada and Germany's Wolfgang Hoppe, who will try for a record-tying third bobsledding gold.
Brian Shimer drives America's four-man bobsled team, which won last season's World Cup overall title and a bronze at the world championships.
Jamaica's bobsledders, celebrated by Hollywood in the film "Cool Runnings," return for a third Winter Games. They're veterans, compared with Hungary's first-time entry, the Paprika Bobsled Club.
Russia remains the favorite in hockey, although the gap seems to have narrowed because of players who have left for the pros.
From 1956 through 1988, the Soviet Union won seven of nine hockey gold medals, missing only in 1960 and 1980 when the Americans won. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, comprised entirely of Russians, won again in 1992, beating Canada with Czechoslovakia third.
"The playing field is probably a little more level," U.S. coach Tim Taylor said. "There are nine teams that could contend for medals and probably five or six that could contend for the gold medal."
Contending with Russia for the gold will be Sweden, the United States, Canada, Finland and the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the two teams created from the breakup of Czechoslovakia.
"I am not in favor of forecasting the future," said Russia's Viktor Tikhonov, who has coached the past three Olympic champions. "However, I always try to develop the psychology of a winner in my players."
by CNB