The Olympic singles figure skating competition will likely come down to a duel between the United States and Russia.
Michelle Kwan and teammates Sasha Cohen and Sara Hughes will take on Russia's Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya in the ladies' competition and Americans Todd Eldredge and Tim Goebel hope to surprise Alexei Yagudin and Yevgeny Plushchenko.
In the pairs and ice dancing, the Russians will try to continue their domination but will find stiff competition from the French and Canadian teams.
Kwan has been dazzling the skating world for years with her smooth, musical style. She has won four World Championships and just about every other competition several times over, but was thwarted in the 1998 Nagano Olympics by the high-flying Tara Lapinski.
The 21-year-old Kwan had to settle for silver that year and has been somewhat inconsistent in the past few seasons. She split from long-time coach Frank Carroll just two days before winning Skate America this October but placed third at Skate Canada.
Kwan prepared for what could be her final Olympics by capturing her fifth straight and record-tying sixth U.S. Figure Skating Championship.
"The desire has always been there," she said. "I watched Brian Boitano win the '88 Olympics. I went to Lillehammer to watch and soak it all up. This is my third trip. I don't feel like I'm over the hill at all. I'm an experienced skater."
Kwan could be excused for having to defend her age as she will be joined in Salt Lake City by the 17-year-old Cohen and 16-year-old Hughes.
Cohen missed the majority of the 2000-01 season due to a fractured vertebra in the lower right part of her back. Although she did not need surgery, she had to undergo extensive physical therapy to regain flexibiltiy.
The Californian returned to action at the 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia and placed fourth, and won the Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki.
In October, Cohen announced that she was working on a quadruple salchow -- no woman has ever completed a quadruple jump in competition -- and tried the jump at Skate America but came out after just one rotation.
Hughes might be the youngest of the trio but has made a steady climb through senior competition. She was second behind Kwan at the 2001 nationals and Skate America and took the bronze behind Kwan and Slutskaya at last year's World Championships.
Russia's top women are veterans and as different as night and day.
Slutskaya is technically superior, even inventing a signature move (the double Biellmann-spin with foot change) but mentally frail, while Butyrskaya depends on her artistry but is a gritty competitor.
The 22-year-old Slutskaya became the first Russian lady to win the European title in 1996, the first of four wins at that competition. In 2000, she was the first woman to land a triple lutz-triple loop combination in competition and a year later at the Worlds, she became the first woman to land a triple-lutz, triple-loop, double-toeloop combination.
When she made her Olympic debut in 1996, Slutskaya still was sporting a girlish look, and her performance, while good enough for fifth place, lacked conviction. After being left off the national teams for Europeans and Worlds in 1999, she came back more mature -- both physically and emotionally.
Slutskaya went on to win several competitions last year, including two European Championships, the Cup of Russia twice, the ISU Grand Prix Final and the Goodwill Games.
Butyrskaya is considered a late bloomer. Dropped by her coaches as a teen, she has had to take charge of her own career and picks her own music and does much of her own choreography.
In 1999 at the age of 26, the Moscow native became the first Russian woman and the oldest from any nation to win the World Championships. She also has claimed the gold medal at three European Championships and the last two Trophee Laliques.
"I think the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City will be, for me, my last competition in my career. I want so much to win a medal," said Butyrskaya, who was fourth in Nagano. "I think it doesn't matter which kind of medal -- gold, silver or bronze."
However, no Soviet or Russian woman has ever won the ladies' singles title.
This most likely will be Eldredge's final Olympics. A steady but not spectacular performer, the 30-year-old American has medaled at almost every competition, taking the gold at the 1996 World Championships, but always has come up short at the Olympics.
While hampered by a back injury at the 1992 Games in Albertville, Eldredge bungled an easy double axel and came in 10th. He was ill and failed to make the team for Lillehammer.
At Nagano, Eldredge was third after the short program but failed to complete his difficult combinations at the beginning of his free skate and fell to fourth.
Goebel originally made his name as a jumper. He was the first skater to land a quadruple salchow in competition and also the first to make three quadruple jumps in competition. But the 21-year-old has worked on his artistry since working with Carroll.
Last year, Goebel placed fourth at the World Championships and first at Skate America.
However, Yagudin is the favorite for the gold medal. He has dominated international competition over the past several years, faltering only when injured, as in last year's World Championships, when he came in second.
Yagudin made an inauspicious Olympic debut in Nagano. Then 17, he caught the flu shortly after arriving in Japan. Vomiting and suffering from dehydration, he was given intravenous fluids just so he could perform, but he fell on a quadruple toe loop and a triple axel to come in fifth.
Yagudin's prime rival is Plushenko. The two are old training partners in St. Petersburg, working under Alexei Mishin until late 1998, when Yagudin went to the United States to train with Tatyana Tarasova.
Only 19, Plushenko has won three World Championship medals, including gold in 2001. He captured seven major event titles last year, defeating Yagudin to win the Grand Prix Final, the Russian nationals, the Europeans and the Worlds, but missed this year's European Championships with a groin injury.
Yagudin might be the more all-around polished performer, but Plushenko is men's skating most flamboyant competitor. Either one is a good bet to come away the winner as skaters from the former Soviet Union have claimed the men's Olympic gold medal three straight times.
Soviet Union or Russian skaters also have won the last 10 Olympic gold medals in pairs. Anton Sikharulidze and Yelena Berezhnaya, who took silver in Nagano, will attempt to keep the streak going.
Their biggest competition should come from fellow Russians Maxim Marinin and Tatiana Toatmianina, the 2002 European champions, and last year's World Champions, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada.
John Zimmerman and Kyoko Ina are the top Americans.
The 2000 world champions, Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France, are the favorites in ice dancing, hoping to become the first non-Russian team to win since Canadians Barbara Wagner and Robert Paul took gold at Squaw Valley.
But the French duo maintain a Slavic connection as Anissina's mother, Irina Chernieva of the Soviet Union, was sixth in pairs in 1972.
Canadians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz defeated Anissina and Peizerat in the Grand Prix final and are expected to medal.
The top American team, Peter Tchernyshev and Naomi Lang, would need to gain a tremendous boost from the hometown crowd to vie for a spot on the podium.
