LILLEHAMMER / ’94 WINTER OLYMPICS : Leading Figures Collide : Skating: Baiul needs stitches in shin, Szewczenko bruised after crash in practice. Kerrigan in control.

It seemed like a normal figure skating practice, the first in more than a week for Nancy Kerrigan. She was on the ice Thursday inside the Olympic Amphitheatre, rehearsing with the other medal contenders for tonight’s decisive freestyle program in the Winter Olympic women’s competition, and Tonya Harding was not present, having been relegated into a group of also-rans.

But although one Tonya had at least temporarily moved out of figure skating’s epicenter, another was about to move into it. When she did, Tanja Szewczenko of Germany collided with Oksana Baiul of Ukraine, casting doubt on whether they will be able to perform at their best to-night, if at all. Baiul, con-sidered one of only three women with a chance to win the gold medal, appeared to be more severely injured. The 16-year-old world champion, who was second to Kerrigan after Wednesday night’s technical program, needed three stitches to close a two-inch long, half-inch deep cut on her right shin, and also reported shoulder and lower back pain.

The 15-year-old Szewczenko, a surprising fifth after the technical program in her big-time debut, had the wind knocked out of her and suffered a bruised right hip and right side.

Both were helped to their feet by two-time gold medalist Katarina Witt of Germany. Baiul remained on the ice for a few moments before discovering that her shin was bleeding and then departing to seek treatment. Szewczenko left immediately, returned nine minutes later, and then quit again because of an upset stomach.

Salim Al-Bazaz, a German team physician who examined both women in the athletes’ village Thursday night, said they will be evaluated again after a practice this morning. He predicted that they will have even more soreness when they return to the rink than when they left Thursday afternoon, but he was optimistic that they will be able to skate their four-minute freestyle programs tonight.

“We’ll see tomorrow,” said 1992 men’s gold medalist Viktor Petrenko, who trains with Baiul in Odessa.

Rehearsing her freestyle program to a medley of Neil Diamond music, Kerrigan was so intent that she did not even pause when the collision occurred less than 20 feet from where she was skating.

Baiul and Szewczenko were moving backward at full speed to set up triple jumps when they realized they were in each other’s path. They each turned around and made a move to avoid an accident, but rotated in the same direction and hit head-on.

When Kerrigan approached her coaches, Evy and Mary Scotvold, afterward, she told them she did not see the accident but heard it.

Asked about it later by reporters, Kerrigan said: “Scary.”

Even though practice sessions at major competitions involve six women who are not particularly familiar with each other’s speed and routines skating at the same time, collisions are infrequent.

The most recent such accident in a major competition involved Japan’s Midori Ito and France’s Laetitia Hubert during the warm-up for the technical program in the 1991 World Championships at Munich. Ito, the favorite, was so shaken that she stumbled over the sideboard after a triple jump in her technical program and never fully recovered, finishing fourth after the freestyle program.

That was the year Kerrigan ascended to the victory stand at the international level, finishing third behind U.S. teammates Kristi Yamaguchi and Harding. One year later, in the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France, Kerrigan won the bronze medal behind Yamaguchi and Ito.

Now, Kerrigan, 24, of Stoneham, Mass., is poised to become the gold medalist.

She seemed relieved Thursday that the focus was on skaters other than herself and Harding for the first time in seven weeks. When she returned to practice two weeks after sustaining injuries in a Jan. 6 assault, reporters and photographers camped outside the Cape Cod rink where she trains.

The coverage was even more intense here, especially after she and Harding began practicing in the same group for the week leading up to Wednesday’s technical program.

After that, however, the 24 skaters remaining in the competition were separated into groups based on their standings, and Harding, who is in 10th place, practiced earlier Thursday. Harding, as usual, skated her freestyle program in bits and pieces. She will perform to music from “Jurassic Park.”

Later, Kerrigan performed her freestyle program as flawlessly as she had her technical program the night before, when she won first-place marks from seven of nine judges. The other two judges preferred Baiul, while France’s Surya Bonaly was in third place.

That was their order after the technical program in the 1993 World Championships at Prague. But Kerrigan, as has often happened in the past, folded in the freestyle program, landing only two triple jumps, and finished fifth.

“I just want to die,” Kerrigan told her coaches afterward.

As an alternative, they suggested that she see a sports psychologist to help her overcome her nerves. The Scotvolds believe that was the answer.

“Before, she would lose her focus and wonder what was going on,” Evy Scotvold said Thursday. “Now, she just digs in and keeps on going.

“She’s very confident in her freestyle program. For her, Friday is easier than Wednesday.”

If she wins the freestyle program, which counts toward two-thirds of the final score, she will win the gold medal. But the same is true for Baiul or Bonaly.

* MASS APPEAL

CBS’s coverage Wednesday, highlighted by the women’s figure skating, was the third highest-rated sporting event in television history. Stories, C3, F1