Mike Celizic

TURIN, Italy - We’ve got our story, the one we look forward to every Olympics, the one built on grace and emotion and beauty that makes women melt and ratings swell, the one that could make even 'America Idol' sweat out the overnights.

America’s women figure skaters have come through again, just as they have in every Olympics since Peggy Fleming won America’s only gold medal in the 1968 Games. Since then, by the time the last tear was shed in women’s figure skating, there has never been a medal ceremony without at least one American — and sometimes two — on the medal platform. Four years ago, it was Sarah Hughes with the gold and Michelle Kwan with the bronze. In 1998, it was Tara Lipinski and Kwan finishing one-two.

Now, after Tuesday’s short program, it seems certain to happen again.

Sasha Cohen came down from the mountain — or wherever it was she had been hiding for the past week — and absolutely nailed her program to enter Thursday’s long program in a virtual dead-heat with Russian favorite Irina Slutskaya. Kimmie Meissner was in striking distance in fifth place, and Emily Hughes, who took Michelle Kwan’s place on the team, was in seventh, probably too far out to medal, but close enough to make fans watch to see if she can pull off her own miracle on ice.

The women’s finals are always full of more drama than a year’s worth of soap operas. This year is no different, with story lines sprouting like weeds in a neglected garden.

You’ve got the Russian angle. Never in the history of the Winter Olympics, which began in 1924 in Chamonix, France, has one country won gold in every figure-skating discipline. That was true when there were just three events — men’s, women’s and pairs. It remains true now that ice dancing has added a fourth event to the menu.

But the Russians have already banked gold in the men’s, pairs and dance. And the effort to stop that from happening, takes this show-down back to the good old days of the Cold War, when nuclear tension slathered delicious condiments on athletic competitions between the world’s two superpowers.

It’s not just about winning for America, it’s about beating the Russkies.

But Slutskaya has a pretty good story going for her. First is her age — 27, which for a figure skater is ancient. These are her third Olympics, and she took fifth in her first try and second in Salt Lake City. She had a two-year battle with vasculitis, a circulatory disease that nearly ended her career.

Slide show   Short and sweet A look at the fine performances from the U.S. women figure skaters in the short program.

Now, her mother, with whom she is very close, has kidney failure and is on dialysis while waiting for a transplant. On top of that, only one other Russian woman has ever won a medal in women’s skating.

If she were an American, all of that would make her an overwhelming emotional favorite. Since she’s a Russian, Americans aren’t moved all that much. Besides, their girl, Cohen, is a lot cuter than Slutskaya.

The deal with Cohen is her inability in the past to deal with the pressure of the free skate. She stumbled right out of what looked to be a certain medal in Salt Lake City, and this year she’s shunned the crowds and the interviews, concentrating on winning the gold.

Slide show   Emotional Moments Feb. 26: See photos of athletes' highs and lows from Sunday.

Then there are Meissner and Hughes. Meissner is just 16, the minimum age for the Olympics, and a rising star who could do just about anything in the free skate. And Hughes, whose sister, Sarah, won the gold four years ago, is a fresh kid who was doing her math homework little ten days ago when she got a phone call asking if she could possibly catch a plane to Turin because Kwan was hurt and couldn’t go on.

America’s dominance in women’s figure skating is something of an anomaly in the Games. Winter sports traditionally weren’t an America specialty, and its skating performances have been erratic for everyone but the women.

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