In This Chess Game, Next Move is Russia’s

How’s this for a double-headline doubleheader?

Russians Threaten To Take Their Olympics And Go Home.

Humankind’s Faith In Figure Skating Judges Restored.

Suddenly, Belarus over Sweden in men’s hockey is looking like a routine day at the office.

Who’d have expected the Russians, pushed around from pairs skating to cross-country skiing for two weeks, to reach into their moth-eaten bag of old Cold War tricks and threaten to boycott the last three days of the 2002 Winter Olympics and possibly the entire 2004 Summer Olympics as well?

The Salt Lake Winter Games were still shaking their heads over that one when, a few hours later, the women’s figure skating long program commenced ... and the long-assumed coronation of Michelle Kwan got waylaid by an unexpected outbreak of judicial common sense and fair play.

Kwan and her family aren’t going to feel any better hearing this, but Thursday night at the Salt Lake Ice Center, five judges very well may have saved the sport of Olympic figure skating.

You knew the story line, the one that threatened to engulf this city whole: Kwan, cruelly deprived of her career-capping gold medal in Nagano in 1998, had done her time, put in an extra four years, waited patiently, worked diligently, charmed the figure skating community and audience according to the textbook. Thursday night she would get her just rewards.

Kwan might have been outskated by Irina Slutskaya and Sasha Cohen in Tuesday’s short program, but the judges propped her up for her golden moment, awarding Kwan first place at the intermission break while sending her one final, unspoken order: Stay on your feet Thursday and the championship is yours.

Even after Sarah Hughes, fourth place in the short program, produced a historic free skate performance--hitting two triple-triple combinations, a first for an Olympic woman skater--the buzz remained in the air: If Kwan skates cleanly, she still should win.

But Kwan did not skate cleanly. She two-footed a landing on the first jump of her first combination. She all but sat on the ice as she stepped out of a triple flip.

The judges scored her appropriately-- second in the free skate behind Hughes, with one competitor, Kwan’s longtime Russian rival Slutskaya, remaining.

Slutskaya was far from perfect as well. She left out a planned triple jump and she barely held her landing on a triple flip that left her wobbling precariously near the dasher boards.

What would the judges do? They had three choices:

* Protect Kwan by underscoring Slutskaya.

* Finesse the marks in favor of Slutskaya, tossing the Russians a gold medal so they’ll take their scheduled place in the closing ceremony.

* Score Slutskaya and Kwan 2-3 and give the gold to Hughes.

It was close, a 5-4 vote that did little to dissolve perceptions of bloc favoritism, but the judges, in a shocker, did the right thing. They awarded Hughes the gold medal.

How about that: The skater who skated the best Thursday night actually won the competition.

Hughes, obviously, was more than a little surprised. Appearing dazed as she stepped onto the ice for the medals ceremony, Hughes paused in front of the podium and took a few curious looks around before Kwan, the old veteran, graciously showed her how to climb to the top level.

It’s a result that should sit well with America. As for the Russians and silver medalist Slutskaya, it’s still too early to tell. But give them a break. After all, it can’t be easy, being Russian in Salt Lake City.

Your pairs figure skaters win the gold medal, a glittering singular achievement in most places.

But not here, not in the valley of the screaming-banshee media, who keep crying “Foul” and “Scandal” until the International Olympic Committee, just to get them to shut up, commission the minting of a second set of gold medals--tossing the things around as if they were Olympic pins or bus schedules. Here, a Roots Team USA beret was a tougher get than a pairs figure skating gold medal.

Then, your vaunted men’s hockey team finishes third in its four-team round-robin group and is thrown into a daunting quarterfinal match against 1998 gold medalist the Czech Republic. The Czechs receive a total of six minutes in penalties. Your players are hit with 22 penalty minutes, including three two-minute penalties in the last 2 1/2 minutes of the first period. You still don’t know how you won that one, 1-0.

Then, your most decorated athlete at these Games, cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina, is disqualified from the women’s 20-kilometer relay because abnormal levels of hemoglobin were detected in a pre-race blood test. The test result not only knocks your four-time defending Olympic champion squad out of the event, but costs Lazutina her chance at a record-tying 10th career Olympic medal.

It’s enough to drive you to drink, until you remember how long a drive it is to the nearest state liquor store.

What can you do?

Thursday, the Russians came up with something, and you have to admire the initiative, if not the sheer chutzpah.

They threatened to pull out of the Olympics if the IOC didn’t address their complaints and didn’t stop disrespecting Team Russia.

Not-so-subliminal message: Slutskaya skates against the Americans tonight, our hockey team skates against the Americans tomorrow. You’d better give us an even shake.

Slutskaya placed better than Kwan but not Hughes, so it’s hard to predict the Russians’ next move.

But there’s a big hockey game scheduled at the E Center this afternoon. The Americans will be there. The Russians might want to be there too.