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Copyright 1994 The Associated Press

Oksana Baiul fell twice. Nancy Kerrigan completed only one triple jump. Ice Wars didn't exactly bring out the best in the 1-2 finishers at the 1994 Winter Olympics - or other figure skating stars.

That doesn't mean there won't be a sequel.

Many of the eight skaters who competed in the made-for-TV event said they liked the concept of international team competition, and with a few adjustments, would welcome an Ice Wars II.

"We all want to legitimize professional skating," Kristi Yamaguchi said Saturday night after she and her teammates on the United States team won the competition 230.7 to 228.1 over the World team.

"This is so much more fun," said Canada's Kurt Browning, who struggled at the Olympics in 1992 and this year. "It's a whole team versus a whole team ... All my life I've been doing a certain kind of competition."

Fashioned after the Ryder Cup of golf and the Davis Cup of tennis, Ice Wars was held over two days last week. Four of the top skaters from the United States were pitted against four who comprised a world team.

Team USA, which held a slight edge after the technical program in New York Wednesday, also won the artistic competition Saturday at the Providence Civic Center. The winners split $ 400,000.

Even though the skaters appeared relaxed and seemed to lack the intensity displayed in the Olympics or World Championships, most of them said they took the two-day event seriously and felt it was a legitimate competition.

But Baiul, whose performance fell far short of the one that earned her the gold medal at Lillehammer, Norway, didn't agree. Baiul, who recently underwent surgery on her left knee, fell once each night. She was the only skater to fall throughout the entire competition.

"It's less a competition and more of an exhibition," she said. "I like either one. I like to be in front of the public."

Browning acknowledged that the bottom line was entertaining the fans.

"I think that's why I was brought here," he said. "Coming in first instead of second, that would be great, but that's not my job. My job is entertaining the fans, and I think I fulfilled that."

Browning, like some other skaters, said international team competition was a good idea, and that Ice Wars was a good way of embarking on the "New Era" of figure skating.

"I think it's going to evolve," Browning said.

Some of the skaters didn't like the lighting used during the artistic program, while others had trouble adjusting to the time constraints of live television.

Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion who gave one of the better overall performances at Ice Wars, didn't like the spotlights used Saturday.