A winning formula/ Artistry, rather than difficulty, works for Kwan

SALT LAKE CITY - From the moment she first stepped on the ice the night belonged to Michelle Kwan.

"It was crazy out there," Kwan said. "I saw people standing and I thought 'I haven't skated yet.'"

A sold-out Salt Lake Ice Center crowd of 15,600 was still on its feet at the end of a performance that left Kwan leading the Olympic women's figure skating competition after Tuesday's short program and 4 minutes away from the gold medal that eluded her four years earlier.

Kwan, bolstered by an American flag waving crowd that included Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, edged Russia's Irina Slutskaya in the short program with a 5-4 split from the judges panel. It was a moving, if cautious, performance that seemed to grow more confident as it progressed.

"I felt America behind me and that was incredible," said Kwan, second to Tara Lipinski at the 1998 Games in Nagano.

American Sasha Cohen also put herself squarely in the gold-medal hunt going into Thursday's long program with a self-assured display full of charm and elegance in her first major international competition that placed her third. Three judges had the 17-year-old second on their cards, ahead of Slutskaya.

"Everything is on track so far," Cohen said.

The same couldn't be said for two other contenders, Sarah Hughes, another U.S. teen-ager, or Russia's Maria Butyrskaya, the 1999 World champion.

Hughes, the 2001 World bronze medalist, was fourth in the short program with a performance that was tight in the beginning and was never able to launch the fireworks present in the other three's programs. Russian judge Tatiana Danilenko gave a Hughes a 5.1 for technical merit.

"It was a clean program," Hughes said. "No major flaws. But I'm not a judge."

Butyrskaya was fifth for a program that was unable to overcome a ragged landing on a triple flip in its opening seconds.

Unlike Hughes, who skated before her, Cohen showed no signs of being intimidated by perhaps the deepest women's field in Olympic history.

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

There had been some concerns that Cohen, the only contender without Olympic or World championships experience, might face an uphill battle with a judging panel unaccustomed to rewarding unknown skaters. Cohen's early spot in the skating order, seventh out of 27, didn't figure to help her marks either.

"I didn't really worry about the judging," she said, "because it's not something I have control over."

After opening with a pair of triple jumps, by the time she flowed through a spiral series, one leg shooting straight up above her head, it was obvious Cohen would have to be reckoned with.

"My Olympic moment was finally here," Cohen said, "and to skate so well was a dream come true."

Cohen led until Slutskaya skated, seven skaters later. In the weeks leading up to the Olympics, the Russian media had repeatedly questioned Slutskaya's ability to cleanly land the triple flip, a jump she had struggled with in finishing second to Butyrskaya at last month's European championships.

Tuesday Slutskaya opened with a triple lutz-double loop combination, hit a double axle, then emphatically answered her critics with a triple flip.

"It's like a warmup to me," Slutskaya said. "The triple jump was not a problem for me."

But although her jumps were highest and the cleanest of the competition, her program the most challenging, she received a pair of 5.7s and a 5.6 for technical merit.

"It's judges," Slutskaya shrugged. "My program was much more harder. I had much more harder jumps. I had much more harder speed."

Two skaters later, Kwan stepped into the star-spangled spotlight.

"I felt really calm out there," she said.

She had one nervous moment, wavering upon landing a triple flip jump midway through the program.

"I had to fight through it," Kwan said.

"I was leaning a little forward. I didn't feel like I was hanging by a thread. I was just a little forward."

The landing secure, Kwan thrust out her arms, the night firmly in the grasp of her clenched fists. She will have to wait two days and another night to see if she grabs the gold medal as well.

Copyright 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.