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Sporting News, The, Feb 9, 1998 by Mike Penner

Every fourth February, a sports fan's fancy, along with his television, turns from those annual winter favorites -- college basketball, NBA and NHL -- to combined-pursuit cross-country skiing, two-seater luge, 500-meter short-track speed skating and the 4-by-7.5-kilometer biathlon relay. And don't forget downhill skiing, figure skating and women's hockey. The 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, are hurtling this way like a German bobsled, household-bound in mere days, courtesy of CBS and TNT.

The are new sports to learn, like snowboarding, curling and women's hockey and new names to learn, replacements for the long-since graduated Class of '94.

For example, the key figures in the women's figure skating at Lillehammer -- Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan and Oksana Baiul -- are all gone, now preoccupied by motherhood, professional touring or banishment from the sport. Both of speedskating's pre-eminent American stars of '94, Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen, are retired. So too are such familiar names from Lillehammer as Vreni Schneider of Switzerland, Petra Kronberger of Austria, Diann Roffe-Steinrotter of the U.S. and Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg.

Here are 10 athletes who may replace these legends as the heroes keeping you in front of the television -- and on the edge of your seat.

CAMMI GRANATO

Granato, younger sister of Tony Granato, grew up in a hockey-crazed household, scrambling to keep up with her brothers during recreations in the family basement of the 1980 "Miracle On Ice." Today, Granato is a forward on the Olympic hockey team and its all-time leading scorer. With Granato leading a veteran bunch, the U.S. is expected to push Canada for the first gold medal in women's hockey.

MIKE JACOBY

Also making its medal debut is snowboarding, bringing with it a youth culture and, most likely, a slew of American medals. Jacoby is the Alberto Tomba of this Gen X rival to alpine skiing. He's a two-time winner of the World Cup giant slalom title and was runner-up at the 1997 World Championships.

KRISTINA KOZNICK

Out of nowhere, an American medal contender in the women's alpine technical events has emerged during the last couple of months in Koznick, a slalom specialist from Burnsville, Minn. She had never placed better than 10th at a World Cup event until November, when she began a run of four consecutive top-six finishes. With the competition wide open, Koznick is hitting stride at the perfect time.

ILIA KULIK

If Alexei Urmanoy is unable to defend his 1994 gold medal, Kulik and Alexei Yagudin become Russia's foremost threats to Elvis Stojko and Todd Eldredge for the men's figure skating title. Kulik, second in the world championships in 1996, won the Champions Series Final in Germany.

HERMANN MAIER

Beginning the 1997-98 Alpine World Cup season as merely another ruddy face on the Austrian "Wonder Team," Maier has blown past his better-known countrymen to the top of the World Cup overall standings. Maier is ranked first in super-G, second in giant slalom and second in downhill. He is bidding to become Austria's first World Cup overall champion since 1970.

LIZ McINTYRE

A silver medalist in women's moguls skiing in 1994, McIntyre has long been regarded as a American gold-medal threat in Nagano -- provided she made it. McIntyre tore knee ligaments before the 1995 World Championships. A year later, she bolted the team and began training in Canada, upset at the firing of several top U.S. coaches. A truce was forged and McIntyre returned to the American team, placing sixth in the 1997 World Championships.

WENDEL SUCKOW

Nicknamed "Bullet Man" by the Japanese media after winning the gold medal at a World Cup event at Nagano in 1997, Suckow could challenge for the United States' first Olympic medal in luge. Not as publicized as Duncan Kennedy, Suckow has produced superior results. He was world champion in 1993 and a fifth-place finisher in Lillehammer -- the best U.S. showing at an Olympic luge competition.

TANJA SZEWCZENKO

Szewczenko recently returned to competitive figure skating after an 18-month absence because of a viral illness. Germany's top female skater, Szewczenko felt so tired and sluggish in 1996 she feared she was dying of cancer before doctors diagnosed the infection and commenced treatment. Last summer, Szewczenko returned to the ice and placed second to Tara Lipinski at last month's Champions Series final.

MICHAEL VON GRUENIGEN

The defending men's giant slalom world champion, Switzerland's Von Gruenigen is the lone non-Austrian presently leading one the four men's disciplines on the World Cup circuit. Von Gruenigen has yet to make his mark at the Olympics, placing 15th in the slalom in 1994 and seventh in 1992.

CHRIS WITTY

Christened the next Bonnie Blair, Witty has begun to justify such formidable hype. Bronze medalist at the 1997 World Sprint Speedskating Championships, the native of West Allis, Wis., broke the 1,000-meter world record in November in Calgary.