After Hype, It Is Kwan’s Gold to Lose

Already pressed against a four-foot-high metal railing, the cream of international figure skating journalism leaned in farther, throwing elbows, jostling for position, craning their necks to catch a occasional word from the skater on the other side of the partition.

In the back of the pack, rumor had it that the speaker was Michelle Kwan.

“What’d she say?”

“Something about strawberries, I think.”

“Yeah, she said she went grocery shopping here and saw some. Really big ones.”

“She also said she knows the names of all the Snowlets.”

“Except one. She got one wrong.”

“Really?” one reporter asked, scribbling hurriedly. “Which one?”

A few minutes later, the huddled mass leaned in again, because a U.S. Figure Skating Assn. staffer told them that tiny voice, barely audible in the White Ring arena hallway, belonged to Tara Lipinski.

“What’d she say?”

“She says she’s been shopping for Snowlet dolls.”

“Really?” one writer enthusiastically replied, apparently having latched onto the angle for that day’s story. “So they both like Snowlets!”

It has been pathetic, it has been embarrassing, it is now categorically out of control, this frenzied buildup to the Olympic women’s figure skating competition.

Finally, thankfully, mercifully, it began Wednesday, with the cataclysmic opening of the short program. (Butyrskaya skates first! Ooh, tough break! Michelle goes 17th! Good placement for her!) But if saving the media’s collective sanity was ever a real concern, the competition is beginning no less than a month too late, because significant damage has been done.

Some day, CBS Sports officials will look back and shake their heads bemusedly, wondering aloud, “What were we thinking in ‘98, broadcasting figure skating practice in prime time?”

On top of hooking up Kwan with a microphone and grilling her, remote from Lake Arrowhead, on why she was missing the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk a lap around shivering sumo wrestlers at the opening ceremony.

On top of Lipinski being mobbed at her arrival at the athletes’ village as if she were John, Paul, George and/or Ringo stepping off the bus in ’64.

On top of media-organized countdowns to the timing of flight arrivals at Narita Airport--Two more days till Nicole!

So much ado . . . and all about this:

If Kwan skates 6 minutes 40 seconds and stays on her feet, she will win. No ifs, ands or Butyrskayas.

If Kwan skates a clean short program Wednesday and falls once on Friday, she will win.

If Kwan skates a wobbly short program and falls twice in her long program, well, then, Lipinski could make things interesting.

That is your 1998 Olympic women’s figure skating competition, edited down to the chase.

Kwan established herself as nearly touchable against this Olympic field when she notched seven perfect artistic scores in her short program and eight more in her long program at the U.S. championships in Philadelphia in early January.

And artistry--rather than Lipinski’s forte, technical precision--is what judges tend to favor at Olympic Games.

Exhibit A: Oksana Baiul over Nancy Kerrigan, 1994.

Exhibit B: Ilia Kulik over Elvis Stojko, just the other night.

Lipinski has beaten Kwan head-to-head only twice, at the U.S. nationals in February ’97 and at the world championships a month later, when Kwan fell three times in Nashville and stumbled once in Lausanne. When Kwan skates cleanly, as she did at Skate America last October and at Philadelphia, judges tend to score it: Kwan 9, Lipinski nil.

“These are two young women with different styles and strengths in skating,” says 1984 Olympic gold medalist and CBS figure skating analyst Scott Hamilton. “It’s a matter of whether the ISU [International Skating Union] goes after the artistry, which is Michelle’s strength, or goes after the athleticism of Lipinski.

“Right now, the ISU seems to favor Michelle. But if Tara skates clean and there are some mistakes by Michelle, it’s going to be close.”

Bigger suspense revolves around the bronze medal. Germany’s Tanja Szeczwenko, who finished second to Lipinski at last December’s Champions Series final, was an early favorite, but she withdrew Sunday because of flu.

That leaves Nicole Bobek and a pair of Russians, Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya, as the likely combatants for third place. Slutskaya and Butyrskaya have split the last three European titles--Slutskaya won in 1996 and 1997, Butyrskaya upset her last month--and will benefit from any desire by the judges to break up an all-American sweep of the medals.

But at her best, Bobek can outskate them both; Bobek outskated Lipinski during the short program at Philadelphia. Yet if anyone in this group embodies the little girl with the curl, it is Bobek.

When she is good, she wins national titles and world bronze medals. But when she is bad. . . .

Lu Chen of China and Surya Bonaly of France were contenders in Lillehammer in 1994, but that seems a generation ago. Both skaters all but slipped off the radar screen in 1996 and 1997 because of a series of injury problems.

After Wednesday’s short program, the competition will conclude Friday with the long program.

That off day in between could be a killer.