Predictions

Men

500: If American Casey FitzRandolph is to win a medal, it figures to be in this race. Canadian Jeremy Wotherspoon looms as the favorite, on the strength of four World Cup victories this season, but FitzRandolph, a veteran from Verona, Wis., ranks second to Wotherspoon in the standings and has four second-place finishes to his credit.

Four years ago at Nagano, FitzRandolph was third after the first of two heats but got a starter’s warning, then false-started in the second and finished out of the medals.

Among the contenders will be Gerard van Velde and Jan Bos of the Netherlands, Michael Ireland of Canada and defending champion Hiroyasu Shimizu of Japan.

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1,000: The 500 is his better event but FitzRandolph will race the 1,000 as well. Wotherspoon, Ireland and Bos all rank ahead of him in the World Cup standings and no one would be surprised to see them finish that way.

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1,500: Derek Parra, at 31, gets his first shot at an Olympic medal in this race. Parra, a former inline roller skater who grew up in San Bernardino, switched to speedskating in 1995 and has cracked speedskating’s elite. He has won a World Cup race this season and is second in the standings, behind Canadian Dustin Molicki. Defending champion Aadne Sondral of Norway, his countryman, Petter Andersen, and Erben Wennemars of the Netherlands figure as other strong contenders.

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5,000: Parra is entered in this race as well but it pretty well belongs to the long-striding Dutchmen--Gianni Romme, Bob de Jong and Carl Verheijen. Parra, at 15th, is the highest ranking American in the World Cup standings.

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10,000: Dutch treat here too, with Romme, De Jong and Verheijen in the world’s most boring race. Romme is the defending Olympic champion in both the long races.

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Women

500: Catriona LeMay-Doan of Canada won this race in 1998 at Nagano and probably will repeat here. She has been flawless in six World Cup races this season and is well ahead of runner-up Sabine Volker of Germany in the standings.

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1,000: The 1,000 is normally Chris Witty’s best race, but the American silver medalist of 1998 has been lagging this season--she only recently learned she has mononucleosis, a strength-sapping disease--and there is no telling how she will skate. Teammate Jennifer Rodriguez, on the other hand, is having the season of her life. The former inline roller skater from Miami, of all places, has won a World Cup race at this distance and is second in the standings to Germany’s Volker. LeMay-Doan also poses a distinct threat.

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1,500: Rodriguez is the top American at this distance, but Anni Friesinger of Germany and Cindy Klassen of Canada outrank her in the World Cup standings. Claudia Pechstein of Germany and Maki Tabata of Japan will be in strong contention.

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3,000: Friesinger is the class here. She has won all five of the World Cup events she has raced this year at 3,000 or 5,000 meters. Pechstein looks like a good bet to reprise her Nagano silver-medal performance. Tabata, Klassen and Renate Groenewold of the Netherlands figure to be in the running for medals.

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5,000: Pechstein is the defending champion but Friesinger is the new long-distance power.

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Mike Kupper