2 Out Of 3 Ain’t Bad Top U.S. Skaters Dazzle

Gold, silver, black and blue.

Michelle was nearly perfect. Tara, too. But, oh, Nicole, what happened to you?

So went the wild dream of an Olympic sweep by U.S. women’s figure skaters.

Michelle Kwan imagined herself in heaven and skated like an angel in the short program Wednesday.

Tara Lipinski summoned the vision of a cartoon princess, soaring gaily in her own ice palace.

Nicole Bobek? She didn’t know what to think when her first triple klutz wrecked any hope of a sweep. It was a bomb of a show that left her sobbing, stunned and speechless.

The 1-2 punch of Kwan and Lipinski virtually guaranteed one of them will win the gold, the other the silver in the best showing by the United States in 42 years.

It wasn’t so much their position in the standings that separated Kwan and Lipinski from No. 3 Maria Butyrskaya of Russia, No. 4 Lu Chen of China, No. 5 Irina Slutskaya of Russia or No. 6 Surya Bonaly of France.

It was the way Kwan and Lipinski, the past two world champions, blended their artistry and athletic leaps so much more fluidly than everyone else.

Kwan, silky in a red and pink sequin dress, melded her skating in perfect sync with piano concertos by Rachmaninoff as if the composer had written them just for her.

“Before I started,” the 17-year-old Kwan said, “I heard people cheering and I thought, ‘I’m in heaven.’ People clapping, billions of people watching on TV and I’m skating. It’s just me and the ice. When I’m on the ice, I don’t think anybody can stop me.”

She had “butterflies” in the warmup, but she put them to rest by thinking, “‘I’ve done this so many times, I can do it now. I’ve done everything possible. I’ve trained hard.’ I kind of knocked some sense into myself.”

She breezed through the eight required elements flawlessly, from her first combination - a triple lutz-double toe loop - to her final spiral. Her fine, quick footwork, her strong, graceful lines put her in a class by herself.

The judges rewarded Kwan with a solid string of 5.9s for artistry, and 5.7s and 5.8s for technical merit.

Kwan smiled and waved, not in any exuberant manner, but as if she merely did what she was expected to do and was saving emotion for the free skate Friday night. She came in as the reigning U.S. champion, and is 4 minutes away from leaving as the Olympic champ.

American women have won the gold and bronze in the same Olympics twice, in 1992 and 1960, but captured the gold and silver only once when Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss did it in 1956.

No country ever swept the women’s figure skating medals, and none will this year. Bobek’s botched performance - a spill on a triple lutz 20 seconds into her program, and mistakes on every other jump - assured that. The 1995 U.S. champion cried as she waited for her marks, 4.2 to 4.7 for technical merit, 5.0 to 5.5 for artistry, and was still crying when she left the arena in 17th place. She declined to talk about it afterward.

The 15-year-old Lipinski clutched her head in her hands and nearly cried with joy at the end of her portrayal of Princess Anastasia to the music from the animated movie. Calling her performance her best ever “technically and emotionally,” she felt the tension melt away when the music stopped.

“This is the first time I felt like I wanted to cry,” said Lipinski, who looked even lighter than her 82 pounds as she floated in a dress of lemon yellow brocade with a light blue bodice. “It seems so hard … and when you do it, it’s like a miracle.”

When she landed a double axel with 45 seconds left in the 2-minute, 40-second routine, she pumped her fist and smiled broadly, looking as if she wanted to shout in delight.

“I did,” she said, her eyes wide with happiness. “I just felt great. After the double axel, I was thinking, ‘I wish this was a 4-minute program.’ I just wanted to keep going.”

Lipinski’s coach, Richard Callaghan, called her skating “her best emotional and artistic performance,” and he was especially impressed by the speed she generated.

Lipinski drew marks of 5.6 to 5.8 for the required elements, and 5.6 to 5.9 for presentation.

Butyrskaya, the European champion, came out garbed in a low-cut white top and revealing fringed black skirt as she kicked off the night with a sexy rendition of “Fever.”

It was an alluring, if imperfect, performance - she two-footed a triple lutz and her spirals were weak - but good enough to keep her at the top until Lipinski skated.

Chen, the bronze medalist at Lillehammer and 1995 world champion, skated superbly to move behind Butyrskaya.