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Wednesday, February 20, 2002

By Lori Shontz, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

SALT LAKE CITY -- Five top contenders for Olympic gold. Five clean programs. Even five blue dresses, in varying shades. There were plenty of similarities in the ladies short program last night at the, but one thing stood out.

	Michelle Kwan skates a clean short program to take the lead in her quest for women's gold. (Lionel Cironneau, Associated Press)

When Michelle Kwan skates well, it's tough to beat her.

Russian Irina Slutskaya had bigger jumps. American Sasha Cohen had at least as much energy. But the leader after the short program -- by a 5-4 vote -- was Kwan, not completely because of her technical skill, but because she received all 5.9s for artistry.

"I trained hard and let it all go," Kwan said. "It's not worth holding back. I've seen what could happen."

Slutskaya, who is in second place overall, is a stronger technical skater than Kwan, and the short program is the technical part of the figure skating competition. There are eight required elements, and if a skater misses one there is a deduction. And the tiebreaking mark is the technical one.

But she still was not able to win the short program, even though her jumps were bigger than Kwan's, and her entire presentation more athletic. She did receive the other four first-place votes, but three judges had her in third place.

Cohen, who was placed second by three judges but is third overall, charmed the Olympic crowd as she did at the U.S. nationals. She skated fast, landed all of her jumps with ease and appeared not to be even remotely fazed by her first Olympic appearance.

"When I got onto the ice it was totally different than I thought," she said. "I was nervous before I got on the ice, but once I got on the ice, I was not nervous at all. I just felt absolutely calm, no pressure. I just thought to myself, 'You have one chance, I don't want any regrets and fight for everything.' "

Any of the women in the top three can win the Olympic gold medal tomorrow night by winning the long program, which counts for two-thirds of the overall score.

The other two top medal hopes, American Sarah Hughes, who is in fourth place, and Russian Maria Butyrskaya, who is fifth, skated clean programs with only tiny technical errors but were unable to skate with the speed or power of the top three skaters.

Of the contenders, Hughes skated first, a disadvantage because the judges have to leave room in the marks for later skaters.

She appeared nervous, doing a double axel that was a bit sideways and coming perilously close to the boards on her triple lutz, double loop combination. In addition, she drifted onto her inside edge on the lutz, a deduction.

Next to skate was Cohen, who wore a powder blue and white dress and skated a high-energy program to a selection called "My Sweet and Tender Beast." That she skated with such confidence and poise didn't surprise her coach, John Nicks, who said as she came off the ice, "I told you you'd stick that."

Her triple lutz, double toe loop was flawless, as was her triple flip. She got so high on her double axel, causing a bit of a delay, that it almost appeared as if she were going to attempt a triple axel.

The other elements of the program -- less noticeable because they are less prone to obvious error, were beautiful as well -- spirals, spins, footwork. She received marks ranging from 5.5 to 5.8 for technical and 5.6 to 5.8 for artistry.

Butyrskaya, who won the European championship heading into the Olympics, skated slower and with less emotion than any of the others. Her technical marks were quite low, including one 5.0, and although her artistic marks were higher, they weren't good enough to move her past Hughes.

Immediately after Butyrskaya came Slutskaya, wearing light blue with sequins and skating to "Serenade" by Schubert.

Like Hughes, she did a more difficult triple lutz, double loop combination, and her double axel and triple flip were flawless. Her footwork was more difficult, with one pass of the rink made on one foot, and she also was the only skater to perform a Bielmann spin -- in which the skater pulls her foot behind her head -- on both feet.

The last of the contenders was Kwan, who is so beloved that some fans got to the feet and cheered as she entered the ice. "I was like, 'Wait, I didn't skate yet,' " she said.

When she did skate, she did so as usual, with grace and poise. Wearing a blue Vera Wang dress, she performed the same short program she did in Nagano, to Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 3" and conjured memories of the perfect programs she performed that year at the U.S. nationals.

She did a less difficult triple lutz, double-toe-loop combination, and she fought for the landing of her triple flip, but she still received mostly 5.7s for technical merit -- along with one 5.9. All of her artistic marks were 5.9.