LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : Big Three of Skating Melt on Ice

One year after winning the men’s figure skating gold medal in the 1988 Winter Olympics, Brian Boitano became so bored with the mundane life of one-night stands on the ice show circuit that he crusaded for a rule so progressive--in a sport that usually moves at the speed of a glacier--that it was named for him.

Upon passage of the Boitano Rule two years ago, which allowed professionals to return to serious competition, he turned his attention to becoming the first man in the event since Dick Button 40 years before to earn a second gold medal.

Fifty seconds into that attempt Thursday night in the Olympic Amphitheatre, Boitano’s comeback was on its knees, and so was he, the victim of a wayward triple axel that cost him dearly with the judges for the technical program.

Boitano will skate in Saturday night’s freestyle program, which counts toward two-thirds of the final score, but looking up from eighth place, he has virtually no chance to win a medal.

If it was any consolation to Boitano, the two men mentioned most often as his rivals for the gold, defending champion Viktor Petrenko of Ukraine and four-time world champion Kurt Browning of Canada, were in even more distressing situations, Petrenko in ninth and Browning in 12th.

Browning was so disgusted with his performance, which included falls on two required jumps, that he all but quit on the spin at the end of his program.

“Unbelievable,” he muttered to himself while taking his obligatory bow.

Indeed, it was that. Now, the most likely gold-medal contenders are first-place Alexei Urmanov of Russia, second-place Elvis Stojko of Canada and third-place Philippe Candeloro of France. Fourth-place Scott Davis, who upset Boitano to win the U.S. championship last month, also could win if he finishes first in the freestyle program while Urmanov slips to third or lower.

Those contenders will take some getting accustomed to, considering that none has ever won a major international title, Stojko and Urmanov coming closest with their second- and third-place finishes, respectively, behind Browning in last year’s World Championships.

“This is a new generation that came here ready, armed and dangerous,” said Stojko’s coach, Doug Leigh. “They can step up to the plate, too. There’s more than one bat in this game.”

But almost everyone else in the sport had been looking forward to a showdown among the sure Hall of Famers--Boitano, Petrenko and Browning.

“I’m bummed,” said Paul Wylie, one of their contemporaries as the silver medalist in 1992 at Albertville, France. “I don’t think Urmanov is extraordinary and I don’t think Candeloro is extraordinary.

“The extraordinary skaters all blew up under the pressure.”

Boitano, Wylie allowed, was not helped by the crowd, or the lack of one, as only about half of the 6,000 seats were filled when the American skated onto the ice as the first of 25 competitors. It was the bad luck of the draw.

“Brian opened with one of the most incredible jumps in the sport, the Tano Lutz, and it was met with polite applause,” Wylie said. “When that happened, it was like he said, ‘What am I doing here?’ It looked like he was somewhere else. That’s the worst feeling you can have.”

But Boitano’s coach, Linda Leaver, said he was so pumped for the triple axel that he jumped too high, throwing himself off balance.

“I don’t know what happened to me,” said Boitano, 30, of Sunnyvale, Calif. “It’s like a blur now. You’re like, ‘This can’t be happening.’ It’s like you’re not really there.”

Midway through the technical program, the Olympic Amphitheatre was almost filled because of the late arrivals, including Michelle Kwan, 13, of Torrance, who reached Norway earlier Thursday and will begin practicing near Oslo today as the United States’ first alternate in the women’s competition.

So the atmosphere inside the building was much enhanced for those who skated later, including Misha Shmerkin, a Russian emigre who became Israel’s first competitor in the Winter Olympics. He is in 15th place.

Six of the last seven skaters landed their triple axels, which requires 3 1/2 revolutions. Browning, who drew the enviable 25th position, was one of them.

Then, inexplicably, he fell on his easiest jump, a triple flip, and later turned his required double axel into a single, joining Boitano and Petrenko among the also-rans.