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Copyright 1994 The Associated Press

Imagine getting the women's gold medalists from each of the last four Olympics into the same event. Spice it up with the men's winners from 1988 and 1992, plus a four-time world champion and perhaps the most popular skater in America.

Put them together in a United States vs. The World spectacular, and you have Ice Wars, which begins tonight at Nassau Coliseum with the technical programs.

The finals will be held in Providence on Saturday night. Both sessions will be televised live.

"This is a kind of concept that figure skating is embracing, because of the popularity of the sport," said Kurt Browning of Canada, the four-time world champion. "We've kind of reached a time when we can take advantage of that popularity with competitions like this.

"It's a great opportunity for us to build on what the Olympics started," added Browning, who will join Germany's Katarina Witt (1984 and '88 Olympic gold medalist), Baiul (1994 winner) and Petrenko (1992) of Ukraine on the World Team. "And we can get something special started with the team competition."

Representing the United States will be Olympic gold medalists Kristi Yamaguchi (1992) and Brian Boitano (1988) and silver medalists Paul Wylie (1992) and Nancy Kerrigan (1994).

This will be Kerrigan's first major appearance since the Lillehammer Games and the Tonya-Nancy circus. She spent the last few months in an ice show for Disney, making a workout video and "trying to get back to normal."

"I'm not sure when it will be normal again."

It is normal for a sport - and television - to build on the kind of attention figure skating received last winter. An unofficial tour of competitions is underway, with CBS involved in a handful of them.

The enhanced schedule for the professional skaters has left some of them uncertain about how to arrange their personal itineraries.

"It's definitely the busiest year I've had," said Wylie, whose popularity since finishing runner-up to Petrenko at Albertville in 1992 has continued to rise. "We've never been faced with so many competitions.

"It's a bit difficult to be rehearsing for our tour and competing, working on programs for competition and on our numbers for the shows," he said. "It would be easier if we pushed the tour back if these competitions are being held so early, or vice-versa.

"But it's a great opportunity for our sport. It's growing so rapidly and we have to be prepared to grow with it.

"This is an uncertain time because of all the new competitions. We're trying to find a balance, and it could take a few years."