Kurt vs. Elvis

EDMONTON - If anyone but Brian Boitano were to win the U.S. men's figure skating title, they said, it would have to be the greatest upset since David hit Goliath between the eyes with a loaded Salchow.

But guess what? His God-like status in American figure skating circles not withstanding, the 30-year-old Boitano was placed second by the judges last week in Detroit, behind younger, faster Scott Davis, 21 - a dizzying jumper and spinner from Great Falls, Mont.

The lesson? Nothing is guaranteed in skating. Well, maybe just one thing.

Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko are going to the Olympics. But in what order? Will the 1994 Royal Bank Canadian figure skating championships - Canada's Olympic trials - beginning today at Northlands Coliseum, provide the stage on which Elvis, like Davis a 21-year-old with seemingly unlimited athletic potential, upsets the King?

"It is inevitable that someone that good will have his day. He's just too good not to win," said Browning. "But my job is to make sure it doesn't happen while I'm skating."

The two-night stand in Hamilton a year ago was arguably the greatest duel in figure skating since Boitano aced Canada's Brian Orser at the Calgary Olympics in 1988, and the '93 national championships were the highest-grossing, best-attended in history. This week's event could reach even higher numbers, with Browning skating before what amounts to a home crowd, four weeks before the Olympics.

The Kurt-and-Elvis story line seems to be pushing both skaters to new heights. In the long program at Hamilton, Elvis ripped off eight clean triples including two Axels, and got six 5.9s and a 6.0 for technical merit, but Browning's wonderful Casablanca program, his best ever, earned unbeatable artistic marks and Stojko lost in an excruciatingly close calculation of the numbers.

A month later, they were standing together on the medals podium at the worlds in Prague - again: Browning first, Stojko second.

Browning has changed last year's dynamic but physically-hazardous short program to Doc Severinsen's slower St. Louis Blues but has retained the essence of his long program.

Stojko has changed his short program to something very much like Browning's in 1993 - at least, it seems that way to the champ - and his long will be a martial-arts tribute to music from The Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story.

And yes, the quad is slotted in Stojko's program. Indeed, it's a quadruple-triple toe loop combination.

If he tries it, and lands it, he'd be the first in history.

Either Edmonton's Marcus Christensen, 10th in the world, or challenger Sebastien Britten of Brossard, Que., are favored to collect Canada's third berth in Lillehammer behind Kurt and Elvis - or Elvis and Kurt.

"In Hamilton, the crowd was nuts," says Browning. "I don't want to say this about Edmonton - maybe I've been at too many Oiler games - but I can't believe it's going to be like that again. But maybe it will. So surprise me."

Surprises come in all shapes and sizes.