Short Story Is Two Good

Fifty stars, 13 stripes, five rings, two minutes and 40 seconds and “billions” of people watching her every move.

Once Michelle Kwan did the math, she reacted like every other 17-year-old schoolgirl when confronted with her final exam.

She looked a nervous wreck.

She kept shaking both hands in the air, frantically, trying to wring out the extra adrenaline. She slapped both thighs, trying to knock the jitters out of them. She took a drink of water, put the bottle down, took a few steps and then circled back for another swig, trying in vain to hydrate a desert-dry throat.

“Nerve-racking” was Kwan’s assessment of the situation as she warmed up for the most important short program of her life.

“I have butterflies before every competition, but nothing compared to this. . . . But, then I had to realize: We’re all in the same boat.”

A nice sentiment, but, no, not really.

That’s a two-woman boat bobbing in the sea of flop-sweat and tears that flooded out the Olympic women’s figure skating short program Wednesday night.

There is Kwan, who overcame her nerves to skate a cautious, conservative yet precise routine that yielded nine presentation scores of 5.9.

There is Tara Lipinski, who hit all four of her jumps and was so happy about it, she nearly screamed out for joy mid-routine en route to second place.

And then there is the rest of the field, plowed under and trampled underfoot, so far removed in skill from the top two Americans that they might as well hold Friday’s long program at two different venues.

Kwan versus Lipinski for the gold medal at White Ring arena.

Twenty-two other warm bodies trying to remain upright for four minutes while scuffling for the bronze medal at some far-flung public rink.

Russia’s Maria Butyrskaya is currently third, by default, followed by a too-slow Lu Chen of China, a too-heavy Irina Slutskaya of Russia and a none-too-popular-with-the-judges Surya Bonaly of France.

Nicole Bobek?

Don’t ask.

Bobek turned in a performance significantly closer in style to luge than figure skating, falling on her triple lutz, failing to try her combination double toeloop, doubling her triple toeloop and stepping out of the landing on her double axel.

In other words, Bobek had four jumps in her routine, tried only three and did not land one cleanly.

The judges hit her with technical scores ranging from 4.2 to 4.7, presentation scores from 5.0 to 5.5 and an overall standing of 17th place--of 28 skaters.

There will be no U.S. sweep of the medals in Nagano.

But there will be, in all likelihood, a 1-2 finish by American women at an Olympics for the first time since 1956, when Tenley Albright won the gold medal and Carol Heiss took the silver.

Kwan has set herself up well for the gold medal. Wednesday’s short program was decidedly more deliberate than her rousing performance last month at the U.S. championships--no seven perfect scores of 6.0 this time--but it was smooth and it was clean, enabling Kwan to clear an important emotional and mental hurdle, one that has leveled her before.

Traditionally, Kwan is better late in a competition than early; if she were a baseball pitcher, she’d be Nolan Ryan--get her past the second inning and she’s fine. Kwan stumbled in her short program at the 1997 world championships just enough to lose the title to Lipinski, even though she won the long program two days later.

In fact, Kwan is 3-0 in her last three long programs against Lipinski--winning at Lausanne last March, at Skate America last October and at the U.S. championships six weeks ago.

But this short program was more pressurized than anything Kwan had come across in her 17 years, and she skated more deliberately, she said, because she was acutely aware of the stakes at hand.

“I don’t think this is comparable to any other competition,” Kwan said. “I saw all the American flags waving the crowd, the five rings in the middle of the ice--I was a little overwhelmed in warmups.

“But then I took a deep breath, got into my starting pose and said, ‘Ready or not, here I go.’ ”

As she started to skate, Kwan was jarred out of her jitters by the roar of the largely American crowd.

“I heard all this cheering and screaming, there’s billions of people watching--I thought, ‘God, I’m in heaven,’ ” Kwan said.

“After that, I was all by myself skating, just me and ice. When I’m out there on the ice, I don’t think there’s anything that can stop me.”

Not even a performance by Lipinski that was, in the fractured grammar of an excited 15-year-old figure skater, “the best short program that I’ve ever done ever!”

Lipinski hit all four of her required jumps but backed away from a scheduled triple lutz-triple loop combination and performed a triple lutz-double toeloop instead.

However, her approach into the combination flirted with--and just skirted--danger and all of her jumps were low-altitude, leading to four technical scores of 5.6 and two 5.7s

Lipinski didn’t much seem to mind. After nailing her final jump, the double axel, she said she was so happy she wanted to yell.

“After the double axel, I was wishing this could have been a four-minute program, so I could just keep going and enjoy the moment,” Lipinski said.

Beyond Kwan and Lipinski, however, there was not a memorable routine among the bunch--and far too many of the forgettable variety.

Butyrskaya, the 1998 European champion, opened the competition with an energetic program performed to “Fever,” but she dragged her second foot while landing a triple lutz, resulting in technical marks ranging from 5.3 to 5.6.

Then came Chen and Bonaly, who placed 1-2 at the world championships as recently as 1995, yet were received at White Ring on Wednesday as if they were skaters from another generation.

Don’t trust anyone over 21--that seemed to be judges’ mantra for the evening. Chen and Bonaly skated pleasantly but less than engagingly, both receiving grades of 4.9 from the Australian judge.

That did more than crack the door open for Bobek--it ripped the thing off the hinges. A more provocative skater than Butyrskaya, all Bobek had to do was stay on her feet and third place was hers.

Fed a looping softball, Bobek swung and missed so badly she wound up sitting on the ice. Her performance left her in tears and when reporters tried to get her attention for a few words in the mixed zone, Bobek offered only one.

“Nope,” she said as she hurried out of view.

“Obviously, she was nervous,” said Bobek’s coach, Christa Fassi. “More nervous than she has ever been, for sure. She has not been able to train as well as she should have.

“She is very upset and does not want to speak to anybody, as you could well understand.”

Kwan and Lipinski were saddened to see the much-hyped potential U.S. sweep swept away in such agonizing fashion.

“It’s hard to see a skater work hard and have a disappointment like that,” Kwan said.

“I know [Bobek] as a friend,” Lipinski said, “and it was hard to watch.”

Actually, there are only two skaters worth watching in this competition. Reserve the gold and the silver medals for Kwan and Lipinski.

As for the bronze, the best strategy at this point would be to leave the title vacant.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

MICHELLE KWAN’S SCORECARD

JUDGES (BY COUNTRY): REQUIRED ELEMENTS, PRESENTATION, POS.

Australia: 5.8, 5.9, 1

Hungary: 5.7, 5.9, 1

Austria: 5.8, 5.9, 1

Germany: 5.7, 5.9, 1

U.S.: 5.8, 5.9, 1

Russia: 5.8, 5.9, 1

Ukraine: 5.8, 5.9, 1

Poland: 5.7, 5.9, 1

France: 5.6, 5.9, 2

TARA LIPINSKI’S SCORECARD

JUDGES (BY COUNTRY): REQUIRED ELEMENTS, PRESENTATION, POS.

Australia: 5.8, 5.8, 2

Hungary: 5.6, 5.6, 2

Austria: 5.6, 5.7, 2

Germany: 5.6, 5.8, 2

U.S.: 5.8, 5.7, 2

Russia: 5.8, 5.8, 2

Ukraine: 5.7, 5.8, 2

Poland: 5.6, 5.8, 2

France: 5.7, 5.9, 1