No Sports Machine, So No Invincibility : Speedskating: Former East German women are not expected to dominate.

Speedskaters Dan Jansen and Bonnie Blair of the United States and Yvonne van Gennip of The Netherlands provided some of the most memorable stories at the Calgary Games in 1988. Four years later, they have returned to the Winter Olympics and again are among the medal contenders, perhaps even favorites, in one or more events.

Though some of the names are familiar, do not get the impression that the sport is the same. It has experienced almost as much change as the world has in the last four years. Indeed, it is because the world has changed that speedskating in the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville will be so different.

That is most noticeable in the women’s competition, which in recent years has been so dominated by East Germans that they were considered virtually unbeatable even by their competitors. After Van Gennip’s victories at Calgary in the 1,500 meters, 3,000 and 5,000, she said she had not believed she could win until Blair beat the East Germans in the 500.

But although they won a gold in only one of the five women’s events at Calgary, the East Germans still took home 10 of the 15 medals. Four years earlier at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, they won nine of the 12 medals, including golds in all four events.

The Berlin Wall, however, came down in 1990, and disappearing into history with it went East Germany’s incomparable sports system. Some of the former East German skaters who competed at Calgary are here, but they have a different look that runs deeper than the new uniforms of unified Germany that they are wearing.

U.S. Coach Peter Mueller, who coached for three years in West Germany and became all too familiar with the sports system on the other side of the border, said it is apparent to him that the former East Germans have suffered from the absence of a systematic program of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs that gave them an advantage in the past.

“I had East German coaches talk to me about what they were doing, tales that make your hair stand up on your back,” said Mueller, a gold medalist for the United States in 1976. “You can do a lot of things with good sports medicine, and they had good sports medicine.”

There are other factors, Mueller said, in the decline of the former East Germans.

“They’re learning there’s more to life than sport 24 hours a day,” he said. “They have to go to school and worry about what to do after they finish skating. Not everyone in the country is going to wait on them hand and foot like they were.”

That does not mean they will have no presence at Albertville. Although it is possible the German women will win no more than five medals in women’s speedskating, Gunda Niemann is one of the favorites in three events: the 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000.

She will have to compete in those events against Van Gennip, who had surgery two months before the 1988 Winter Olympics on her right foot but still won three gold medals. In the sprints, Blair, from Champaign, Ill., is expected to defend her title in the 500 meters, improve on her bronze medal in the 1,000 and perhaps even contend in the 1,500 if she decides to enter.

Politics will have less impact on men’s speedskating because the East German men were not as dominant as the women. Led by Johann Olav Kloss, considered a contender in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000, Norway could win more than any other country this year.

But the most anticipated race is the 500, in which Jansen and defending champion Uwe-Jens Mey of Germany, close friends off the ice, have been trading victories on the World Cup circuit this season. Jansen, from Greenfield, Wis., recently broke Mey’s world record in the 500.

Still, Jansen, 26, remains better known for the circumstances surrounding his participation at Calgary than for his skating. Only hours before he would compete in the 500, an event in which he was among the favorites, he learned that his sister, Jane, had died after a long fight with leukemia. Unable to concentrate, he fell during the race. Four days later, while on a world-record pace in the 1,000, he fell again.

“In looking back, I wouldn’t have done it any differently,” he said. “I felt I should go out and give it my best shot. I know Jane would have wanted me to do that.

“I still think about Jane very often. But I’ve accepted her death. It’s an adjustment anybody has to make when they lose someone they love. I hope some people have learned from the experiences I’ve had. But I would also like to be known for my achievements.”

He will be, his coach predicted, after the 1992 Winter Olympics.

“When he goes to that line, he won’t be thinking about his sister,” Mueller said. “He’ll be focusing on that race. I think he’ll skate the best race of his life in Albertville.”