Memories of ’84 Suffice for Carruthers Team : Figure skating: Olympics not in the plans of silver medalists of eight years ago.

Like other former Olympic figure skaters, Peter and Kitty Carruthers can apply for reinstatement as amateurs and compete in the 1994 Winter Olympics. After years of sharing the ice with Mickey Mouse, Snow White and other adorable latex creatures, will the Carrutherses jump at this opportunity to do some serious skating again?

“Absolutely not,” said Peter, a 33-year-old Westlake Village resident who teamed with his sister to win a silver medal in pairs skating in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

“The ’84 (medal) was our dream come true,” said Kitty, 31, who lives in Houston. “I don’t think we can top that emotionally.”

It’s not age that deters the Carrutherses from mounting an Olympic campaign. “It’s the commitment,” Peter said. “Five hours a day of hard training.”

After becoming the first U.S. pair since 1952 to win an Olympic medal, the Carrutherses turned pro, giving up big-time competitive skating, which is strictly amateur. The only major outlets for their talent were ice shows, family-oriented entertainment that features skating exhibitions rather than competitions.

After the ’84 Games, the Carrutherses performed with the Ice Capades for five years but quit because of the grind--tours run 30 weeks a year--and joined Stars on Ice, a whirlwind 33-city blitz compressed into two months. They also put on their own shows in small markets.

“Neither one of us thought we’d still be this active (eight years after the Olympics),” Kitty said.

While performing in ice shows, the Carrutherses stay in shape but don’t hone their competitive skills. Once or twice a year, however, they go into training for the Challenge of Champions, an international pro competition. Since 1984, they have entered 15 of the events--all in Europe except the recent Challenge of Champions at the Forum.

The siblings won in Moscow, Paris and L.A. At the Forum last Thursday, they were first among four pairs, beating their nemeses, Elena Valova and Oleg Vassiliev, who won the gold in Sarajevo. The Carrutherses earned two perfect scores for artistic impression and one for technical merit and took home $40,000.

The Carrutherses didn’t put any pressure on themselves to win. “I approached (the Forum event) as a nice opportunity for Kitty and I to skate in L.A.,” Peter said before the contest. “Our goal is for people to say, ‘They still look good. They still skate well.’ ”

The Carrutherses have been skating well almost as long as they have been skating. Growing up in Burlington, Mass., they were “active kids who went at it hard,” Peter said. Their parents built a 40-by-60-foot rink in their back yard, complete with outdoor speakers. When Peter turned 13, he and Kitty skated as a team for the first time.

“There was something powerful about it,” he said. “We were skating faster and better as a team than as individuals.”

Although siblings are common in pairs figure skating, the Carrutherses are unusual because they were adopted.

“It’s a tremendous coincidence that we’re able to skate and have the size matchup we have,” Peter said. Indeed, he is a strapping 5-foot-11 and can easily lift his 100-pound sister.

With their acrobatic, athletic style, the Carrutherses won four consecutive U.S. Nationals and also placed fifth in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. Both married after the ’84 Games and moved a long distance from each other.

Being apart “did slow us down,” Peter said, “but we make a (conscientious) effort to get together” to train for competitions. To get in shape for the Forum event, Peter went to Houston in September and worked out with Kitty for a month and a half.

In 1987, Peter married Dina Pitts, an Ice Capades chorus skater who lived in Woodland Hills, and he decided to buy a house in Westlake Village “to have a place to put my suitcases.” Having worked as a skating commentator for cable stations, he would like to get into broadcasting when he hangs up his skates. But retirement is a ways off, especially with their Olympic memories still burning brightly.

“We’ve had a storybook career,” he said.

His sister agreed: “I wouldn’t change anything.”