Putting Patriotism On Ice

Russian figure skaters can take a patriotic turn to Tchaikovsky. Americans can glide to Gershwin. But nobody in the skating community has heard of Xian Xinghai, one of China's premier composers. And that's a problem for Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, the skating duo who rank among China's top medal hopes for the Salt Lake City Games. "If we choose to skate to the most famous Chinese music," says Zhao, "no one will even recognize it, which puts us at a big disadvantage. It isn't really fair."

Two-time world champion runners-up, Shen and Zhao possess an awesome array...