Olympic sports at a glance

By Times staff
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 8, 2002

SHORT TRACK/SPEED SKATING

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THE BASICS: Races are split into two disciplines -- short track at the Salt Lake Ice Center and long track at the Utah Olympic Oval. There are four events each for men and women in short track and five events each in long track. Long track pairs two skaters at a time racing against the clock. Short track is more like a roller derby race.

U.S. FORECAST: Here's a tip. If you want to impress your neighbors, start talking about Apolo Anton Ohno in the next day or two. Because, by next week, the rest of the world will have discovered him.

A 19-year-old Japanese-American who was raised by his father in Seattle, Ohno is outgoing, attractive and about to be a star. He should place in all four short-track events and could even sweep gold, becoming this year's Eric Heiden or Bonnie Blair.

The one drawback? He still will hear questions about accusations that he gave less than a full effort in a recent qualifying race so his friend, Shani Davis, could leapfrog another skater and make the Olympic team.

American men do not look as good in the long track. Casey Fitzrandolph finished sixth in the 500 and seventh in the 1,000 at the Nagano Games. Derek Parra is a contender at 1,500.

Amy Peterson, a four-time Olympian, is the U.S.'s best hope in women's short track. She won silver in a relay at the '92 Games, won bronze in the 500 and a relay in '94 and finished fourth in the 1,000 in '98.

Miami native Jennifer Rodriguez is the top hope in long track after setting the American record in the 3,000 at the Olympic trials. Chris Witty won a bronze and a silver in '98, but has been slowed by mono.

WORLD FORECAST: Kim Dong-Sung of South Korea, a defending Olympic and World Cup champion, stands between Ohno and Olympic fame. Women's long track should be dominated by two veterans. Canadian Catriona LeMay Doan, in her third Olympics, is coming off a gold (500) and bronze (1,000) at the Nagano Games. She recently set the 500 world record at the Salt Lake City track. Germany's Annie Friesinger won the 2001 World All-Around Championship.

THROUGH THE YEARS: Long track speed skating has been America's greatest medal commodity. Since 1980, Heiden, Blair and Dan Jansen have combined to win nine gold medals. Witty was the only U.S. medalist in Nagano with a silver in the 1,000 and a bronze in the 1,500.

Short track is a newer discipline, making its Olympic debut in '92. Cathy Turner won gold for the U.S. in '92 and '94 at 500 meters. No American male has won an individual medal in short track.

DATES: Short track -- Wednesday-Feb. 23; Long track: Saturday-Feb. 23.

MEDAL EVENTS: Short track -- Men: 500 meters, 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters, 5,000-meter relay. Women: 500 meters, 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters, 3,000-meter relay. Long track -- Men: 500 meters, 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters. Women: 500 meters, 1,000 meters, 1,500 meters, 3,000 meters, 5,000 meters.

BOBSLED

THE BASICS: Women's bobsledding makes its debut in the Games with two-woman teams. The women will make two runs on a single day and their place is determined by their combined time. Men have two-man and four-man sleds and each has two days of competition with two runs per day. The combined time in the four runs determines the winners.

U.S. FORECAST: Driver Jean Racine was the world's dominant sledder in 1999-00 but dropped brakeman Jen Davidson in December after a yearlong slump. With bodybuilder Gea Johnson as her new partner, Racine still is a medal contender. Driver Todd Hays was having a strong World Cup season, but his team could be unnerved by the loss of push-athlete Pavle Jovanovic, who was suspended after a drug test this month.

WORLD FORECAST: Germany has been the dominant country in bobsled in recent years and that should not change in Salt Lake City. Christoph Langen won the gold medal in last year's world championships in both two-man and four-man events. German drivers Sandra Prokoff and Susi Erdmann could go 1-2 in the women's race.

THROUGH THE YEARS: Unless Hays has a total meltdown, unless Racine made the biggest mistake of her life, the U.S. should end the drought of a generation. The last time the U.S. won a medal in the bobsled was in 1956.

DATES: Feb. 16-23.

MEDAL EVENTS: Two-man and four-man team in men's competition and two-man team in women's competition.

LUGE

THE BASICS: In men's and women's singles competition, each athlete makes four runs over two days and the combined time is their final score. In doubles, there are two runs made on the same day and the fastest total time is the winner. There is only one doubles competition with no differentiation for gender. Traditionally, doubles teams have been made up of two men.

U.S. FORECAST: There is little hope for gold, but the Americans could sneak in a silver or bronze. The best hope appears to be in doubles where 1998 Olympic bronze medalists Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin return as a team. Chris Thorpe won a silver in doubles in Nagano and returns with new partner Clay Ives. Becky Wilczak has never finished higher than eighth in a World Championship event but had a pair of fourth-place finishes on the World Cup circuit. Tony Benshoof was the top American on the World Cup circuit but won only one medal during the season.

WORLD FORECAST: Germany's Georg Hackl would be a fairly safe bet for a medal. He has won gold in men's singles at the '92, '94 and '98 Olympics. Austria's Markus Prock finished December atop the World Cup standings, followed by Italy's Armin Zoeggeler. Germany, led by Sylke Otto, is expected to dominate the women's competition.

THROUGH THE YEARS: The doubles medals won by Thorpe and Gordy Sheer and Grimmette-Martin in '98 were America's first Olympic medals in the luge.

DATES: Sunday-Feb. 15.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men's singles, women's singles and doubles.

SKELETON

THE BASICS: Each athlete gets two runs down the course and their combined time determines the order of finish. Using the same course as the luge and bobsled, competitors lie on their bellies on the sled and go face-first down the hill at speeds of up to 80 mph with no brakes.

U.S. FORECAST: The U.S. men's team could win multiple medals. Jim Shea Jr. won gold in the Skeleton World Cup in 1998 and was ranked third in the world at the end of 2001. Chris Soule, a part-time actor, finished 2001 ranked No. 2 in the world. Lincoln DeWitt was third in the World Championships last year and won the World Cup points standings in 2000-01.

The women's team is not quite as strong, although Lea Ann Parsley has consistently placed in the top five in events the past three years.

WORLD FORECAST: Switzerland's Gregor Stahli is a two-time world champion who was retired for five years but decided to make a comeback when skeleton was added to the Salt Lake City Games.

THROUGH THE YEARS: Skeleton has appeared in the Olympics only twice before. It debuted in 1928, and American brothers Jennison and John Heaton won gold and silver. Skeleton disappeared for 20 years before returning in 1948 when John Heaton repeated with another silver medal. This is the first time women will compete in the skeleton in the Olympics.

DATES: Feb. 20.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men's and women's.

FIGURE SKATING

THE BASICS: The singles competition is divided into short and free programs. The short program counts 33.3 percent of the final score and the free skate is worth 66.7 percent. Pairs competition also is divided into short and free programs. The dance competition involves two compulsory routines, one original and one free dance.

U.S. FORECAST: Women's figure skating drives the Winter Games in the U.S., and Michelle Kwan has been at the wheel for nearly a decade. An alternate on the '94 Olympic team -- she would have been called if Tonya Harding had been given the heave-ho -- Kwan has been chasing Olympic gold since she was a child.

Expected to win at Nagano in '98, the 17-year-old Kwan was upset by 15-year-old teammate Tara Lipinski. Now 21, Kwan has endured a rough year -- she fired her choreographer and coach and is skating on her own -- but was brilliant in the Olympic trials last month.

A four-time World Champion, this should be Kwan's year for Olympic gold.

The idea of a U.S. sweep in women's singles is not preposterous. Teenagers Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes finished second and third in the trials and are capable of repeating at the Games. Hughes won bronze at the '01 World Championships and Cohen was fourth in the '01 Goodwill Games.

Veteran Todd Eldredge won the U.S. trials but is not considered a gold medal contender. His biggest competition will likely come from teammate Tim Goebel for the bronze medal.

The U.S. looks shamefully weak in pairs and dance competition.

WORLD FORECAST: If Russian Irina Slutskaya looks familiar, it is because you probably have seen her standing next to Kwan -- on the silver platform.

Although Slutskaya has a winning record in head-to-head competition with Kwan, she has come up short in the biggest meets. She finished second to Kwan in three (1998, '00 and '01) of the past four World Championships. So with the Olympics coming up, as if on cue, she lost last month's European Championships.

The good news for the Russians is Alexei Yagudin and Yevgeny Plushenko are expected to win gold and silver, although not necessarily in that order. Yagudin is a three-time World Champion, although Plushenko won the last two.

THROUGH THE YEARS: This arguably has been the U.S.'s best event at the Winter Games, particularly on the women's side. The women have won a figure skating medal every Olympics since 1968, including four golds (Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Kristi Yamaguchi and Lipinski). U.S. men won two golds, a silver and a bronze between 1980-92, but have been shut out since then.

DATES: Saturday-Feb. 22.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men's and women's singles, pairs and dance.

BIATHLON

THE BASICS: There are four races each for men and women combining cross-country skiing with rifle shooting. Competitors race to specified areas and then must hit targets with a precise number of bullets. Each miss of a target means the athlete is either assessed a penalty lap or has a minute added to their time.

U.S. FORECAST: It's not good. Jay Hakkinen, who became involved in biathlon when he went to Norway as a foreign exchange student, won a Junior World Championship in 1997 in the sprint event and has the best chance for a top-10 finish among American men. Kristina Viljanen Sabasteanski was a 1998 Olympian and finished 15th on a relay team and 33rd in the 7.5km sprint in Nagano.

WORLD FORECAST: If Americans had any interest in the biathlon, they would be preparing to lionize Sweden's Magdalena Forsberg. The dominant female biathlete of the last four years, she could potentially win three golds. France's Raphael Poiree and Norway's Ole-Einar Bjorndalen are expected to contend for the three individual men's titles.

THROUGH THE YEARS: When it comes to biathlon, the U.S. is -- how can we say this? -- awful. The next medal the U.S. wins in the biathlon will also be the first. There have been 105 Olympic medals awarded in the sport since 1960 and the U.S. is 0-for-105. And it's not like the U.S. has had some narrow misses. There have been two top-10 finishes by Americans -- sixth place in a men's relay in 1972 and eighth place in a women's relay in '94.

DATES: Monday-Feb. 20.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men -- 10km sprint, 12.5km pursuit, 20km individual, 4 X 7.5km relay. Women -- 7.5km sprint, 10km pursuit, 15km individual, 4 X 7.5km relay.

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

THE BASICS: There are two styles of cross-country skiing -- classical and freestyle. Classical requires athletes to keep their skis straight and parallel to each other. Freestyle has no restrictions and athletes can push off on their skis as if skating. Between the two styles and varying distances, there are six men's and six women's cross-country events.

U.S. FORECAST: Somewhere between hopeless and bleak. Nina Kemppel is on her fourth U.S. Olympic team, although her best finish was 27th in a 30km classical in 1994. Justin Wadsworth, a two-time Olympian, is the U.S.'s best bet for a top-10 finish. He was eighth in a 30km freestyle race in a World Cup event held on the Olympic course.

WORLD FORECAST: Per Elofsson is the Jeff Gordon of cross-country skiing. Or something like that. The Swede has a chance to win five medals and could break the cross-country record of three Olympic golds.

THROUGH THE YEARS: Not since Bill Koch won a silver in the 30km in 1976 has an American won a medal in cross country. Actually, other than relays, the U.S. has not had a top 10 finish since Koch.

DATES: Saturday-Feb. 24.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men -- 1.5km sprint, 15km classical, combined pursuit, 30km freestyle, 50km classical, 4 X 10km relay. Women -- 1.5km sprint, 10km classical, combined pursuit, 15km freestyle, 30km classical, 4 X 5km relay.

HOCKEY

THE BASICS: The men's tournament begins with 14 teams. The top six teams from Nagano -- the Czech Republic, Russia, Finland, Canada, Sweden and the U.S. -- automatically advance to the final round. That leaves eight teams in the preliminary round playing for two open spots in the final round. The women's tournament has eight teams and includes a preliminary and playoff round.

U.S. FORECAST: Plan on sitting in front of the TV on Feb. 21. That should be the night the U.S. women defend their Olympic gold in a rematch with Canada. Captain Cammi Granato returns, along with 14 other members from the gold medal squad in Nagano. Among the newcomers are 16-year-old Lyndsay Wall.

The U.S. and Canada are far ahead of the rest of the field in the women's game. And while the U.S. won the first Olympic gold for women, the squad has lost to Canada in seven straight World Championship tournaments. Confidence is high on the American side, however, after going 31-0 in a pre-Olympic tour that included eight straight victories against Canada.

The last two times the Winter Games were in the U.S., the American men won gold -- in 1960 in Squaw Valley and the Miracle on Ice in '80 in Lake Placid. It would take another miracle for a U.S. gold in 2002.

The U.S. squad, with captain Chris Chelios of the Red Wings, is a medal contender, but a darkhorse for the gold.

WORLD FORECAST: The Czech Republic is the defending Olympic champion and, with Dominik Hasek in goal, is a good bet to return to the gold medal game. Russia and Canada also are expected to contend for the gold.

The U.S. may have a lot of pressure living up to the 1980 squad, including having coach Herb Brook back, but Canada also is under the microscope. The Canadians have not won Olympic gold in a half-century. Wayne Gretzky, who was on the fourth-place team in '98, was brought in as an executive to revitalize the Canadian program. Mario Lemieux will be making his Olympic debut with Canada. He was retired during the Nagano Games.

THROUGH THE YEARS: In the past 10 Olympic Games, the U.S. has managed just two medals -- the gold in '80 and a silver in '72. Men's hockey has been dominated by Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic in recent years.

DATES: Saturday-Feb. 24.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men's and women's titles.

CURLING

THE BASICS: In a crude but not entirely inaccurate comparison, curling has been described as shuffleboard on ice. It involves a little more strategy and physics, but the basic concept is the same. Players take turns pushing a 42-pound stone toward a series of circles on the other end of the ice. Teammates can help direct the stone's path by sweeping the ice. There will be 10 men's and women's teams in the curling competition.

U.S. FORECAST: Tim Somerville is the team skip, or captain, and could deliver the U.S. its first curling medal in the Olympics. He was the skip when the U.S. placed third in the '92 Games when curling was a demonstration sport. He also guided the team to a fourth-place finish in Nagano.

The American women are led by Kari Erickson, who returns to the sport after sitting out nearly two years. Erickson took her team to fifth in the '01 World Championships.

WORLD FORECAST: Although curling has its roots in Scotland, the sport thrives today in Canada. It is estimated there are 1.5-million curlers in the world, and 1.2-million of them are in Canada. The Canadians took the women's gold and the men's silver in '98. Sweden's men also could be contenders with skip Peter Lindholm, who won the '01 World Championships.

THROUGH THE YEARS: Curling was a demonstration sport four times between 1924-92 before becoming a medal event in Nagano.

DATES: Monday-Feb. 22.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men's and women's titles.

SKI JUMPING

THE BASICS: Individual competition is broken into normal hill (295 feet) and large hill (394 feet) categories. Team competition is from the large hill only. Athletes get two jumps off a hill and are scored for distance and style. The highest combined score for the two jumps is the winner.

U.S. FORECAST: The good news is that Alan Alborn is coming off the best season by an American in a dozen years. The bad news is that he still is not expected to win a medal. Alborn had three top-10 finishes during the World Cup season but never reached the podium.

WORLD FORECAST: Germany's Sven Hannawald was considered something of an underachiever before a remarkable two-month stretch leading into the Games. Hannawald swept all four legs of the prestigious Four Hills event in Berlin in January, the first time the feat has been accomplished. He will be heavily challenged by Poland's Adam Malysz, who leads the World Cup points standings.

THROUGH THE YEARS: The event was largely dominated by Nordic countries before Japan's Kazuyoshi Funaki took two golds and a silver in Nagano. In the last 20 years, the U.S. has had two top-10 finishes, including Jeffrey Hastings placing fourth in 1984. America's only medal in the event was a bronze in 1924.

DATES: Today-Feb. 18.

MEDAL EVENTS: Individual-normal hill, individual-large hill, team.

FREESTYLE SKIING

THE BASICS: Divided into men's and women's moguls and aerials. In moguls, skiers move quickly and precisely down a slope that includes large bumps (i.e. moguls). Scores are rewarded for aggressive turns and impressive jumps. In aeriels, competitors perform various twists and flips after taking off from a jump that puts them 40-60 feet above the snow.

U.S. FORECAST: The X Games attitude of Americans has paid off nicely in freestyle skiing. The U.S. won three of the four golds awarded in Nagano and again are in good shape in Salt Lake City.

Defending aerials champion Eric Bergoust is in position to become the first two-time gold medalist in freestyle. Bergoust, who has the three highest freestyle scores in history, won the past two World Cup events before heading to Salt Lake City. Defending moguls champion Jonny Moseley returns, but some unorthodox new moves may not go over well with judges. Jeremy Bloom, a Colorado football recruit, may be a safer pick than Moseley.

U.S. women Shannon Bahrke and Hannah Hardaway are contenders in moguls.

WORLD FORECAST: Kari Traa of Norway was the bronze medal winner in Nagano in women's moguls and is now considered the favorite. The favorite in women's aerials is Jacqui Cooper, who grew up near a beach in Australia and, a dozen years ago, had never been on skis. She was recruited by an Australian official who had heard about her proficiency on a trampoline and figured she could parlay those skills into aerials.

THROUGH THE YEARS: Freestyle moguls became an Olympic sport in '92 and aerials followed in '94. The U.S. has won four of the 10 gold medals awarded.

DATES: Saturday-Feb. 19.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men's moguls and aerials. Women's moguls and aerials.

NORDIC COMBINED

THE BASICS: Combines ski jumping with cross-country skiing. Athletes do their ski jumps on the first day of competition. Based on their scores, they are staggered for the start of a cross-country race on the second day. The first one across the finish line is the winner. The individual event has two jumps from the normal hill and a 15km race. The sprint is one jump from the large hill and a 7.5 km race.

U.S. FORECAST: Better than it was two months ago. Although the U.S. has had little success historically in the nordic combined, there is reason for slight optimism. Bill Demong won a World Cup event three weeks ago and moved into the top 10 in the season standings. Todd Lodwick also won a World Cup event in January and has numerous top-10 finishes. Matt Dayton had a strong December, with a fifth and a sixth in a World Cup event.

WORLD FORECAST: Austria's Felix Gottwald and Germany's Ronny Ackermann are expected to go 1-2 in both the individual and the sprint.

THROUGH THE YEARS: The Nordic combined has been a part of every winter Games, but the U.S. has never won a medal. The only top-10 finish by an individual was in 1932. Team competition was added to the Olympics in 1988 and the sprint makes its debut in Salt Lake City.

DATES: Saturday-Feb. 22.

MEDAL EVENTS: Individual, sprint and team.

SNOWBOARDING

THE BASICS: Snowboarding is divided into two disciplines -- halfpipe and parallel giant slalom. The halfpipe is held in a half-cylinder shaped course, along the lines of a NASCAR track with its banked walls. Athletes pick up momentum on a slope heading into the track and then slide above the walls and perform aerial tricks. The parallel giant slalom is like an alpine event with competitors snowboarding on side-by-side courses.

U.S. FORECAST: Neither the men nor the women have a gold-medal favorite, but there is enough talent to keep things interesting. Ross Powers won the Olympic bronze in '98 in the halfpipe and was the Goodwill Games gold-medal winner in 2000. Tricia Byrnes and Kelly Clark are medal contenders in the halfpipe and Rosey Fletcher, a silver medalist in the '01 World Championships, and Shannon Dunn, the '99 World Champion, are the top Americans in the parallel giant slalom.

WORLD FORECAST: France's Karine Ruby, a five-time world champion, won the gold medal in Nagano in the slalom event and plans to retire after her appearance in Salt Lake City. Led by Ruby, the French are capable of winning three of the four golds available.

THROUGH THE YEARS: Snowboarding, which began in the U.S. in the 1960s, made its Olympic debut in '98. In Nagano, the alpine event was a traditional giant slalom. It has changed to the parallel course with head-to-head competition for Salt Lake City. Powers and Dunn won bronze medals in the halfpipe in '98.

DATES: Sunday-Feb. 15.

MEDAL EVENTS: Men's and women's halfpipe and parallel giant slalom.

ALPINE SKIING

THE BASICS: Alpine skiing is divided into five events each for men and women. The downhill competition features one run down a course and the fastest time is the winner. The slalom is the shortest course with the quickest turns. Skiiers take one run each on two different courses. The combined time determines the winner. The giant slalom has fewer and easier turns than the slalom. It also involves one run each on two courses. The super-G, which stands for super giant slalom, is a loose combination of a downhill course and a giant slalom. The combined event has one downhill race followed by two slalom courses. The three times are added to determine the winner.

U.S. FORECAST: The polite word to describe America's recent history in men's alpine events is disappointing. The more accurate word is pitiful. In the last three Games, the men have combined for one gold and one silver.

That should change this month. Bode Miller is a talented, albeit reckless, slalom racer who could emerge as one of the American heroes at the Games. Miller attacks slalom events as if he were in a downhill race. The results can be either spectacular or disastrous. He is a legitimate medal contender in the slalom, giant slalom and combined.

Daron Rahlves won a World Championship in the super-G last year and is a contender in the downhill.

U.S. women won back-to-back golds in the super-G in '94 and '98 but will be hard-pressed to repeat with a gold in any event in Salt Lake City.

Picabo Street will not get the chance to defend her super-G gold after failing to qualify in that event but will end her Olympic career with a turn in the downhill. Street is coming off a devastating knee injury and has not finished in the top three in any pre-Olympic events, but she has a history of defying the odds in big events.

Kristina Koznick may be peaking at the right time. She split from the U.S. team to train on her own last year and had limited success before winning the slalom at a World Cup event in Germany in late January.

Any other medals for Americans would be considered upsets.

WORLD FORECAST: Austria is without the great Hermann Maier, who broke a leg in a motorcycle accident last year, but it is not without talent. There is a possibility Austria could sweep all three medals in the men's downhill. Stephan Eberharter could be the man to beat in the downhill and super-G.

Germany's Hilde Gerg, who won the women's slalom in Nagano, could add either the downhill or the super-G to her resume this month.

THROUGH THE YEARS: America's heyday in alpine skiing was brief. It lasted a couple of weeks in 1984. That was when Bill Johnson, Phil Mahre and Debbie Armstrong won gold at Sarajevo, and the U.S. also added two silvers.

There have been four Winter Olympics since. The Americans have won a grand total of three more golds and four silvers.

DATES: Sunday-Feb. 23.

2002 Olympics: Today's coverage

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