High Flyers

By Martha Duffy

In an Olympics where the women's practice sessions grabbed the headlines, an important change of guard took place in skating. The kids -- relatively speaking -- took over the men's field four years before they were expected to claim dominance. Lillehammer was heralded as the final showdown among veteran champions. Instead they fell away, and the gold went to Russia's 20-year-old Alexei Urmanov, a fledgling classicist who was not tipped to win anything. The silver skater was an aerial whiz from Canada, Elvis Stojko, 21. Philippe Candeloro, 22, a blithe and showy Frenchman, took the bronze after an incendiary program to Godfather music ended with a fall on a triple Axel near the end.

The established masters did not disgrace themselves. Viktor Petrenko, Kurt Browning and Brian Boitano had virtually lost their medal hopes two days earlier by skating weak short programs. But experience still counts: each was able to draw on reserves of seasoning in international competition to deliver a smooth, clean long routine. They placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. That kind of finesse was what U.S. champion Scott Davis, 22, could not summon. Nervous and spill-prone, he wound up eighth.

The jumps told the story, and Urmanov had them -- all eight of his planned triples. Stojko achieved higher elevation, and Candeloro's leaps were mighty, but both had bobbles. As two-time Olympic champion and TV commentator Dick Button put it, "The judges consider first whether you've completed your triples. After that, the overall impact of the program. Last of all comes skating: footwork, spins and musicality." If these priorities prevail, there will be more and more Stojkos and Candeloros at the top. Only the sky is their limit.

The young gun with the gold was the most balletic in his approach, triples notwithstanding. Urmanov is no firecracker, but his program had pleasing balance. A native of St. Petersburg, he trains with one of his country's best, Alexei Mishin. For his efforts, Urmanov gets about $30 a month. Not for long.

Stojko and Candeloro provided the color in the competition: theirs should develop into a rich and fervent rivalry. Stojko is not so handsome as his eponym or so graceful. But could the Pelvis jump like a cat? Stojko can. And he shares Presley's taste for loud music and louder costumes. But at the rink he is determined. "I'm very hungry for what I want," he says. "Nothing's going to stand in my way." His parents, Steve and Irene, emigrated from Eastern Europe to Ontario in the mid-1950s. Maybe his flair has been inherited; they named their first son Attila. At age 2, Elvis looked at skating on TV and announced that he wanted to do that. It was nearly three years before the Stojkos relented, but the rest is history: Elvis has been in high-level competition for six years.

Candeloro fancies himself a young Corleone. His approach to a program is freer-than-freestyle, and he is the most crowd-pleasing male skater to come along since Browning, radiating a cheeky sense of the ridiculous. At one point Candeloro's answering-machine tape told callers to leave a message because he might be with a beautiful young woman. At the moment he sports a tiny cross in his ear, "so small," he says with relish, "the judges can't see it."

Veterans did prevail at the pairs event. In the best competition in years, experience told the story, with returning Russian pros still setting the standard for grace and synchronization. The gold went to Ekaterina Gordeeva, . 22, and her husband Sergei Grinkov, 27. Not much to quarrel with on that score, because the couple delivered a long program of seamless beauty.

Still there was some old-fashioned second-guessing afterward. Another returning Russian pair, the 1992 Olympic winners Natalia Mishkutienok, 23, and Artur Dmitriev, 26, rated silver for a showier, sexier program. One sequence resembled gymnastics on ice, lacking only the parallel bars and pommel horse. The couple's coach, Tamara Moskvina, plotted the splashy routine to draw attention to her underdog pair with "a single piece of theater." As for the winners' chaste presentation, she said enigmatically, "Some prefer the priest; some prefer the priest's wife."

The bronze went to Canadians Isabelle Brasseur, 23, and Lloyd Eisler, 30, but as far as Eisler was concerned, they won gold too. A tireless critic of the rule change that allows professional skaters into the Olympics, he declared, "We feel bad for the younger ones who came in fourth and fifth, because the pros came back."

It was an exciting week, that is, if world-class skating is what you're looking for. This week promises more -- and less. In the dance competition, which Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean turned into a glamour event, the distance between the three top couples is minuscule. Then comes the real showdown, the ladies' championship. At last the world can judge whether Nancy Kerrigan came back all the way from the clubbing attack. Often depicted as a fragile blossom, she showed a formidable dramatic streak when, on her first practice with Harding, she wore the white costume in which she was attacked. "I want her to see me in it again," she told her startled coach. Now that's infighting. As for Harding, she will have to demonstrate that her triple jumps equal her superb media balance. A pesky ankle has bothered her lately. In Hamar a silver cross was swinging from her neck, and at a press conference she invoked God in her cause.

But don't get too distracted by the Americans. Keep your eye on Surya Bonaly of France, Chen Lu of China and Oksana Baiul of Ukraine. They may hold the whole Olympic world in their hands.

With reporting by Susanna Schrobsdorff/Hamar