Fame heightens expectations

Figure skater Michelle Kwan again will compete.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- There's a skater named Apolo, a skier named Bode, football player turned freestylist Jeremy Bloom and the ever-resilient Michelle Kwan.
The athletes the United States will take to Turin in 50 days are, with little argument, the best-known Americans to compete on the snow and ice in the history of the Winter Olympics.
What does that all mean? High expectations. Some pressure. And, of course, the chance for another history-making celebration, this time on another country's turf.
"We think there's an opportunity for a performance that could come close to or match what the athletes achieved in Salt Lake City," says Jim Scherr, chief executive officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee. "We hope they'll be able to achieve at that level. We'll tell you after the games how we did."
Unlike some of his predecessors, Scherr refuses to be pinned to a magic number.
Dropoff likely
But the USOC is focusing on one figure that ultimately will be used as the benchmark for success: Traditionally, teams that host Winter Olympics experience a 41 percent drop when they head overseas four years later.
The Americans won 34 medals at Salt Lake City in 2002. A 41 percent fall from that would be 20, although there's every reason to believe the U.S. team could win more than that.
"We'll feel pretty good if we get north of the low-20 threshold," Scherr said.
In many ways, the USOC never has been in better shape, both financially and in its ability to support athletes.
The streamlining of the organization, a result of scandals that enveloped the USOC earlier this decade, has allowed it to focus more attention and spend more money on athletes.
Gone are the days of a board of directors of 120-plus members, many of whom had to be wined and dined at the Olympics and also given a spot with the American delegation during the march into the stadium for the opening ceremony.
Now, the board consists of 11 people. As was the case at the Athens Games, no administrators will be seen mingling with athletes when they march.
Recent victories
Another good sign for the Americans: In the last full season before the Salt Lake City Olympics, Americans won 15 medals in various winter sports. In the season before these games, they won 25.
Of course, the crucible of pressure at an Olympics is much tighter than that of an off-year World Cup schedule. But the signs are good.
Even better is the list of well-known athletes who will be going for those medals.
There is Bode Miller, the recalcitrant superstar who has been fighting the powers on issues such as prize money, competition conditions and, most notably, doping rules.
A two-time silver medalist in 2002, Miller plans to live in his motor home while in the mountains of Sestriere. The defending World Cup overall champion, some wonder if the off-the-slope issues that consume him will affect his performance in Italy.
Bloom also has outside interests. He finished ninth at the last Olympics, but set a record last season by winning six straight moguls events on the World Cup circuit -- a tremendous feat considering the fickle nature of his sport. He has one day of competition in Sauze d'Oulx, then he's back to the United States, where he'll partake in the NFL scouting combine.
At 25, Kwan has done it all -- except, that is, win Olympic gold.
A five-time world champion, Kwan no longer is a favorite. The new judging rules haven't helped her. She also has been dealing with an injured hip.
Then there is Apolo Anton Ohno, the soul-patched 23-year-old whose two medals in Salt Lake City were part of 11 the Americans won in speedskating, an emotional set of victories at an Olympics that came only a few months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.