US figure skater Michelle Kwan
© AFP Yuri KadobnovTURIN, Italy (AFP) - As the American duo attempt to hold off an Austrian assault in the men's downhill, their team was coming to terms with the realisation that Kwan, who has pulled out of the Games, will probably never win an elusive Olympics skating gold.
The 25-year-old figure skater, a five-time world champion, came into Turin with a crippling groin injury and after two tentative visits to the ice, she confirmed that it would be impossible to take part.
"Taking myself off the team is the most difficult decision I've ever had to make," said Kwan Sunday, who has a silver and a bronze Olympic medal in her collection.
"But it's the right decision. The injury prevents me from skating my best and I've said all along that if I couldn't skate to the level that I expected from myself I'd withdraw from the team."
High up in the Italian Alps at Sestriere, America finds itself in the unusual position of having two men at the top of the list of favourites to win downhill skiing gold.
Miller, the bad boy of the piste, might be attracting all the attention but the 28-year-old reigning world downhill champion is not being tipped as the favourite to succeed Austria's Fritz Strobl.
That honour has been handed to 32-year-old Californian Daron Rahlves, the winner of three World Cup rounds this year, who is the man the Austrian machine fears most.
The four Austrians expected to push for podium places are reigning Olympic champion Fritz Strobl, former world champion Michael Walchhofer, Hermann Maier and Kraus Kroell.
Eight golds will be decided on Sunday with another American Apolo Anton Ohno defending his controversial short-track speedskating 1,500m title in a race that has all the makings of another outrage.
Ohno captured the 1,500m title at Salt Lake City in 2002 when South Korean Kim Dong-Sung was disqualified for blocking Ohno. Koreans protested the decision in vain but Ohno received death threats from Koreans as a result.
Plenty of new faces will contend for 1,500m gold, including 19-year-old Korean Lee Ho-Suk, making his Olympic debut and finishing second to Ahn in the World Cup season.
On the ski-jumping normal hill at Pragelato, Czech Jakub Janda heads into the final with a narrow overall World Cup lead over five-times world champion Janne Ahonen of Finland.
In cross-country skiing, the women's 15km and men's 30km pursuits take place but with both events devastated by the temporary suspensions handed out to 12 athletes because of high haemoglobin levels.
The men's singles luge title will be decided with 39-year-old German Georg Hackl, three-times an Olympic champion, struggling to catch Italy's Armin Zoggeler, the reigning world champion.
Golds will be also decided in the men's snowboard half-pipe and women's 3,000m short-track.
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