Clouds are going to start to move in, with expected highs in the middle to upper 30s. Wednesday night it will be cloudy with a 50 percent chance of snow. Lows should hover near 20.
WEDNESDAY’S ATHLETE
Alan Alborn
Ski jumping, U.S.
He has a chance to become the first U.S. ski jumper to medal in 78 years. It won’t be easy, as he sits in eighth place. Still, his improvement has been astonishing. He finished 44th at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and had a best-ever finish of 27th in the world championships. He prefers the K120 (large hill) to the K90. He can also fly in more conventional ways. He has a pilot’s license and owns a single-engine plane.
WEDNESDAY’S TV
Noon-5 p.m.
MSNBC: Biathlon (women’s 7.5k sprint), men’s curling (U.S. vs. Germany), women’s hockey (Canada vs. Russia)
3 p.m.-4 p.m.
NBC: Biathlon (men’s 10k sprint)
5 p.m.-11 p.m.
CNBC: Men’s curling (U.S. vs. Norway), men’s hockey (Belarus vs. Switzerland, France vs. Ukraine)
7 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
NBC: Alpine skiing (men’s combined), luge (women’s singles final), ski jumping (K120 individual), speedskating (women’s 500m, women’s 1,500m short-track final, men’s 1,000m short-track)
11:05 p.m.-12:35 a.m.
NBC: Daily roundup
Midnight-6 a.m.
MSNBC: Taped coverage
12:35 a.m.-4 a.m.
NBC: Taped coverage
THE SHORT HAUL
Short-track speedskating and Apolo Anton Ohno make their debuts together in the 2002 Winter Olympics on Wednesday night at Salt Lake Ice Center.
Ohno, 19, of Seattle, is poised to begin his run at four gold medals in the men’s 1,000-meter race and in the 5,000-meter relay. However, the only short-track final of the evening is the women’s 1,500.
Ohno has a chance to become the American glamor athlete of the Games. He has dominated the sport in the United States and is the reigning World Cup champion. But his image was tarnished recently when he became the focal point of a controversy that plagued the U.S. team in December and January.
After the trials ended, former Olympian Tommy O’Hare of St. Louis charged that Ohno and teammate Rusty Smith of Sunset Beach, Calif., had conspired to fix a race to help Shani Davis of Chicago make the team and block Ron Biondo of Broadview Heights, Ohio, from earning a spot in an individual event. The case went to arbitration and the skaters were cleared, but there remains a possibility that the matter could cloud any U.S. short-track achievements.
Amy Peterson, 30, of Maplewood, Minn., a five-time Olympian who carried the flag to lead the American team in Friday night’s Opening Ceremony, is the best U.S. women’s medal hope.
