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...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
