SHORT-TRACK SKATING

MEN’S 1,500-METER

* Where: Palavela.

* When: Feb. 12.

* Best of U.S.: Apolo Anton Ohno of Seattle and Alex Izykowski of Bay City, Mich.

* Best of the rest: South Koreans Ahn Hyun-Soo, Lee Ho-Suk and Song Wuk-Woo; Canadians Mathieu Turcotte and Jonathan Guilmette; and China’s Li Jiajun and Li Ye.

* U.S. chances to medal: Ohno won a controversial gold in this event in 2002 in Salt Lake City and stands an excellent chance of again winning a medal. South Korea’s Ahn has won the last three world championships in this event.

* Little-known fact: Stamina counts. The heats, semifinals and finals of this race are contested on the same day; each race is almost a mile.

WOMEN’S 500-METER

* Where: Palavela.

* When: Feb. 15.

* Best of U.S.: Hyo-Jung (Halie) Kim of Colorado Springs, and Allison Baver of Reading, Pa.

* Best of the rest: China’s Wang Meng and Fu Tianyu, and Bulgaria’s Evgenia Radanova.

* U.S. chances to medal: The last U.S. medalists in the 500 were Cathy Turner (gold) and Amy Peterson (bronze) in 1994 at Lillehammer.

* Little-known fact: China’s Yang Yang (A), the 2002 gold medalist and 2005 world champion, was not picked for one of that country’s two slots in this event at the 2006 Games. She is due to start in the 1,000- and 1,500-meter events.

MEN’S 1,000-METER

* Where: Palavela.

* When: Feb. 18.

* Best of U.S.: Apolo Anton Ohno of Seattle and Rusty Smith of Sunset Beach.

* Best of the rest: South Koreans Ahn Hyun-Soo and Lee Ho-Suk; Eric Bedard of Canada; and Li Ye and Li Jiajun of China.

* U.S. chances to medal: Ohno is the 2005 world champion and the 2002 silver medalist in Salt Lake City.

* Little-known fact: Australia’s Steven Bradbury won that nation’s first Winter Games gold medal in this event in 2002,

when all four of the other skaters in the race crashed. Bradbury had been so far behind he was unaffected by the crash

and cruised to victory.

WOMEN’S 1,500-METER

* Where: Palavela.

* When: Feb. 18.

* Best of U.S.: Allison Baver of Reading, Pa., and Hyo-Jun (Halie) Kim of Colorado Springs,.

* Best of the rest: South

Korea’s Jin Sun-Yu, Choi Eun-Kyung, Kang Yun-Mi, Byun Chun-Sa; China’s Wang Meng, Yang Yang (A) and Cheng

Xiaolei.

* U.S. chances to medal: It would be a surprise if Baver or Kim reaches the finals.

* Little-known fact: South Korea and China have won every Olympic and world championship gold medal in this event since 1994.

WOMEN’S 3,000-METER RELAY

* Where: Palavela.

* When: Feb. 22.

* Best of U.S.: The American

record in this event, set in

October, is 4:17.724 -- far behind the Olympic record, 4:12.793,

set in 2002, and the world

record, 4:11.742, set in 2003,

both by South Korean

squads.

* Best of the rest: South Korea, China, Canada and Italy.

* U.S. chances to medal: The U.S. has not won an Olympic medal in this event since 1994 in Lillehammer, a bronze.

* Little-known fact: Canada is the only country to have won a medal in this event at all four Olympics in which the relay was held.

MEN’S 500-METER

* Where: Palavela.

* When: Feb. 25.

* Best of U.S.: Apolo Anton Ohno of Seattle and Anthony Lobello of Tallahassee, Fla.

* Best of the rest: Ahn Hyun-Soo of South Korea, Li Jiajun of China and Francois-Louis Tremblay of Canada.

* U.S. chances to medal: Excellent, if Ohno can stay on his feet. Crashes and disqualifications are common in short-track speedskating.

* Little-known fact: Lobello was named one of Cosmopolitan magazine’s most eligible bachelors of 2005.

WOMEN’S 1,000-METER

* Where: Palavela.

* When: Feb. 25

* Best of U.S.: Hyo-Jun (Halie) Kim of Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Kimberly Derrick of Caledonia, Mich.

* Best of the rest: Choi Eun-Kyung, Byun Chun-Sa and Jin Sun-Yu of South Korea; and Wang Meng and Yang Yang (A) of China.

* U.S. chances to medal: Derrick was a surprise qualifier and probably will not contend for a medal; Kim is an outside contender.

* Little-known fact: The (A) after Yang Yang’s name was put there years ago to help distinguish her from another Chinese skater, Yang Yang (S). In Chinese, their names are written differently and mean different things -- Yang Yang (A) means “flying flag,” Yang Yang (S) “sunshine.”

MEN’S 5,000-METER RELAY

* Where: Palavela.

* When: Feb. 25.

* Best of U.S.: Apolo Anton Ohno of Seattle. But he can’t win a relay by himself.

* Best of the rest: South Korea, China, Canada and Italy.

* U.S. chances to medal: The Americans took bronze at the 2005 world championships and figure to be in the chase for an Olympic medal.

* Little-known fact: Italy’s Fabio Carta, leader of the silver medal-winning squad in the 5,000-meter relay in Salt Lake City, hails from Turin.

*

-- Alan Abrahamson