LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : TECHNICAL PROGRAM : The Trick Is to Stay on Feet for Chance to Perform a Feat

The technical program that 27 women will skate tonight in the Olympic Amphitheatre is less a competition than it is a survival test. Those who combine the most challenging jumps, spins and footwork, remain on their feet and look elegant keep their dreams of winning a medal from the Winter Olympics alive for another 48 hours.

Although Friday night’s freestyle program counts for more, two-thirds of the final score, skaters say they become more nervous before the technical program.

“If you miss something, you get nailed,” Brian Boitano says.

Although he is considered one of the best technical program skaters ever, his chance to win a gold medal in the men’s competition here last week ended 50 seconds after he had stepped onto the ice when he fell on a required combination jump.

“You can’t win the gold medal in the technical program,” says Nancy Kerrigan’s coach, Evy Scotvold. “But you can lose it.”

There are eight required elements in the 2-minute 40-second program, including two footwork sequences, two spins and a spin combination, two jumps and a jump combination.

Failure to perform any of them requires an automatic 0.5 deduction by each of the nine judges. There are less severe deductions for lesser errors. Unless they commit major mistakes, the most accomplished skaters often are separated by how well they perform the jumps, especially those in combination.

Except for Germany’s Katarina Witt and Japan’s Yuka Sato, the contenders here all plan the same combination jump, a difficult triple lutz-double toe. Witt’s triple toe-double toe and Sato’s triple toe loop-double toe are considered less challenging.