Commentators favor Kwan in short program

By SHARON GINN
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 19, 2002

[AP photo] Michelle Kwan of the U.S. ties her skates during practice on Sunday.

NBC's figure skating analysts say the women's event, which begins tonight with the short program, could be a tough call -- and not necessarily because of the unprecedented scrutiny now placed on international judges.

"I believe the ladies' event will be judged straight," Sandra Bezic said.

"And it's going to be a tough event to judge," chimed in Scott Hamilton. "Their strengths are so unique to them, and they're so good at being who they are on the ice, when you get all four of (the favorites) out there with a clean performance, it's going to be really difficult."

Not surprisingly, Bezic and Hamilton count Michelle Kwan as the favorite over fellow Americans Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes, and Russian Irina Slutskaya. The fact that Kwan is competing without a coach doesn't alarm either of them, especially Hamilton, who said by the time he won his gold medal in 1984 he needed little to no outside input. "Everything Michelle needs, she has," he said.

"It's a wonderful thing that she's taking full responsibility and control of her career and making her own decisions, and truly doing this for herself," Bezic said. "I'm not surprised at all at her strength. We've seen it for years and years."

With little news left to wring out of the pairs skating controversy, the women's event comes at the ideal time for NBC.

The network is averaging an 18.3 prime-time rating, slightly higher than what it told some of its advertisers to expect. That's about 10.2 percent higher than the ratings through 10 days in Nagano, but far less spectacular than the ratings after six days, which were up 19 percent over Nagano's.

Traditionally, though, ratings peak for the women's figure skating event, and with an American sweep possible, even casual Olympic fans should tune in.

For the uninitiated, Hamilton offered a way to tell whether Kwan would go home with gold.

"You look for the triple-triple" jump, he said. "If she does that, she's definitely up to her technical mark. The way she skates is purely Michelle. It's something that makes her an icon in this sport.

"If she wins this Olympic gold medal, she'll be arguably the greatest American skating champion in history."

WEST COAST WOES: If the Olympics were in Lake Tahoe, would the Games be live on the West Coast? While NBC is coming close to delivering on its promise to make 50 to 60 percent of its prime-time coverage live on the East Coast, everything in the Pacific time zone is on tape delay. Even Saturday's U.S.-Russia hockey game, which started at 8:30 p.m. Pacific time, was tape delayed by three hours to occupy the Saturday Night Live time slot it held live on the East Coast.

NBC Olympics chairman Dick Ebersol argued against the tape delays, but the network bowed to its West Coast station managers, who wanted the Games shown in prime time locally.

HELLO, CARILLO: John McEnroe gets The Chair, Mary Carillo gets ... luge and bobsled. Given that Carillo is the superior commentator in tennis' best on-air doubles team, it hardly seems fair that McEnroe has his own ABC prime-time show and Carillo has to slug around in ice and snow.

But it's nice to see Carillo adding to her resume. In the past year, she has done more work not related to tennis, reporting for HBO shows Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and Inside the NFL.

Staking out the luge and bobsled runs might not be the most high-profile showcase for Carillo's sharp wit, but just by being in Salt Lake City she got one over on McEnroe. Mac openly campaigned for a shot as an Olympic hockey analyst, but never got the call from Ebersol.

2002 Olympics: Today's coverage

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