‘94 WINTER OLYMPICS / LILLEHAMMER : Some of Other Events Bear Watching Too

Yes, America, there is more to the Winter Olympic figure skating competition than Tonya vs. Nancy.

A brief look:

MEN

This will be the first time that two Olympic figure skating champions have faced one another. The United States’ Brian Boitano won in 1988, Ukraine’s Viktor Petrenko in 1992, and both enjoyed the spoils as professionals before the International Skating Union passed a rule enabling them to return to serious competition. The other leading contender is Canada’s Kurt Browning, a four-time world champion.

Petrenko has emerged as the favorite, considering that neither Boitano nor Browning won his national championship this winter. Boitano, unable to fully recover from a knee injury, was second to Scott Davis. Browning finished behind Elvis Stojko. Elvis does live.

PAIRS

It’s a Russian intramural affair. And just like the Bolshoi vs. the Kirov, it’s Moscow vs. St. Petersburg. The Muscovites, 1988 Olympic champions Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, appear to have the edge over Natalia Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriev, the 1992 gold medalists.

The reigning world champions, Canadians Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler, Russians Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, Germans Mandy Wotzel and Ingo Steuer and Czechs Radka Kovarikova and Rene Novotny, who train at Lake Arrowhead, are medal contenders. So are U.S. champions Jenni Meno and Todd Sand of Costa Mesa, who could finish anywhere from third to seventh. Fifth place would be considered outstanding.

DANCE

Ten years after they wowed the figure skating world with “Bolero” in winning the gold medal at Sarajevo, Great Britain’s great Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are back. But they had some difficulty in their first major competition last month, barely winning the European championship ahead of two Russian teams, Oksana Gritschuk and Evgeny Platov, and Maia Usova and Alexander Zhulin. Expect another close decision.

The only U.S. team is Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow, a married couple who will be competing two weeks after her father was stabbed to death by her brother. Competing so that they can take their family’s mind off the tragedy, they would be satisfied with a top-10 finish.