Like a lot of other U.S. speedskaters these days, the Springs, Texas native, a former champion inline skater, switched to the ice less than four years ago, after watching the Salt Lake Olympics on television. While plenty of skaters have made that transition, no one has taken to the ice as swiftly or effectively as Hedrick.

In the past year, he has set world records at three Olympic distances — 1,500 meters, 3,000 meters and 10,000 meters. While two of those records have been reclaimed by Europeans, Hedrick, the 2004 world long track all-around champion, will be a medal contender in all three of those races, plus the 1,000 meters and the new team pursuit race.

Add it all up, and you're looking at a shot at Olympic immortality, with the likes of Eric Heiden, who captured five gold medals in 1980 at Lake Placid. Not bad for a guy most Americans have likely never heard of — and probably won't, until he shows up on a Turin medal stand later this month.

Hedrick, in fact, doesn't just hope for it. He predicts it, saying recently that he wouldn't be surprised if the U.S. team, which includes fellow renegade skater Shani Davis, pulls off a gold-medal sweep at all distances.

Giorgio Rocca

Italy, slalom skier

Their personalities are like night and day, but Italy's Giorgio Rocca is looking more and more like Alberto Tomba, version 2.0.

Tomba, the bombastic party-animal slalom king of yore, is a legend in Italy, where it is rumored he will light the flame at the opening ceremony on Friday. His three gold and two silver slalom medals are a unique Olympic accomplishment.

But the quieter Rocca, 30, appears to be ready to claim the slalom throne himself in front of hometown fans in Italy this month. The current World Cup slalom leader won the first five slalom races of the season — a feat accomplished only by Tomba and fellow legends Marc Girardelli and Ingemar Stenmark.

Standing in the city's central piazza with a gold medal would put Italian skiing back on the international map — and make Rocca the stuff of legend in a nation that has idolized heroes from Winter Games past.

Hot in pursuit will be America's Ted Ligety, 21, in the midst of his own surprise breakout season on the World Cup tour, where he trails only Rocca and Kalle Palander in slalom points.

Janica Kostelic

Croatia, alpine skier

Last month, it became official: Janica Kostelic skis like no woman before her. When Kostelic, 24, won her first World Cup downhill this season, she became the first woman to claim victories in six separate World Cup disciplines.

A three-time Olympian who stole the show with four alpine medals in Salt Lake City, Kostelic has battled back from multiple possible career-ending injuries to regain her place as the most versatile woman skier in the world. She will be a medal favorite in five races in Turin — and likely a crowd favorite once more, thanks to her effervescent smile and winning personality.

"You know, I'm never really sure, even when I ski good, that I can do it again," she told The Associated Press last month. "All I can do is see what happens on race day."

Race days in Salt Lake were owned by Kostelic, who won the giant slalom, slalom, and alpine combined, and took silver in the Super-G. Don't bet against her in Italy.

Silke Kraushaar

Germany, luge

You can take this one to the bank: Nobody will beat Germany's Silke Kraushaar in the women's luge at Cesana Pariol. Unless it's one of her own teammates.

The remarkable German women's luge team has placed a driver in first place in every World Cup race dating to November, 1997 — more than 60 in a row. More often than not the battle for first is between Kraushaar, the Salt Lake bronze medalist, and teammates Tatjana Huefner and Sylke Otto, the Salt Lake gold medalist.

This season, Kraushaar, more often than not, has held the crown. She leads the World Cup standings and is a prohibitive Olympic favorite. The Germans will be chased down the mountain by an American squad that appears to have weakened since placing two sliders, Becky Wilczak and Ashley Hayden, in the top eight just four years ago.

Jennifer Rodriguez

USA, long-track speedskater

Her skates do most of the talking.

In a sport dominated by big personalities, J-Rod, as she's known to friends and fans, is a quiet, kid-sister kind of presence in U.S. speedskating.

But she's a speed demon on the track, where she hopes to build on her double-bronze-medal performance in Salt Lake City with an expanded hardware collection from Turin.

She has qualified in the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters, but her specialty is the 1,000, where Rodriguez, the wife of fellow Olympic long-track speedskater KC Boutiette of Tacoma, was ranked first for much of the current World Cup season. Her teammate, Chris Witty, the 2002 gold medalist at 1,000 meters, will be gunning for the same medal.

Another inline-skating convert, Rodriguez, 29, is an unlikely hero in an ice sport: The daughter of Cuban-American parents, she grew up in Miami, where she has become a hero to many Latino youths.

She and Boutiette live and train in Utah.

Georg Hackl

Germany, luge

They call him the "Godfather of Luge," and he's a legend of truly Olympic proportions. Hackl, 39, owns five Olympic medals and three world championships. At the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, he became the first Olympic athlete in any sport to win a medal in the same individual event five times in a row.

Anyone up for six?

Less than a year ago, it appeared Hackl's storied Olympic career might be over. He had neck surgery and other nagging injuries, caught the flu, and missed the early part of the World Cup season.

But the sport's greatest-ever technician is back, threatening to spoil the home-ice medal party planned by his longtime nemesis, Italy's Armin Zoeggeler, the current World Cup leader.

"If you have a big task, it makes your life interesting, it gives it a bigger sense," Hackl told USA Today this winter. "I always told myself that I can relax when I am in the graveyard."

Hackl, who builds his own sleds, has a knack for peaking during the Olympics. His battles against Austria's Markus Prock are the stuff of Olympic legend.

In Turin, which Hackl says will be his last Olympics, probably, look for him to chase gold against Zoeggeler and a new challenger, America's Tony Benshoof.

Beckie Scott

Canada, cross-country skier

Beckie Scott's 2002 gold medal might qualify for a medal all its own: latest-arriving.

Canada's first cross-country gold medalist never got to wear that medal at the race course.

In a stirring finish to the 5-kilometer combined pursuit, Scott, who had never won a major international competition, charged onto the medal stand at Soldier Hollow by holding off a late charge from Czech skier Katerina Neumannova.

She finished third, but she and other skiers suspected the first- and second-place finishers, Russia's Olga Danilova and Larissa Lazutina, of doping. They were right: Both tested positive and were stripped of their medals, making Alberta-native Scott the winner — almost two years after race day.

A year after the Games, Scott considered retiring, but returned this winter to regain her old form, shooting back near the top of the world rankings. In Italy, Scott, now 31, will be shooting for her second gold medal — one she hopes won't arrive in the mail years after the fact.

Jeremy Bloom

USA, mogul skiing

He's a fashion model, a football star, a potential NFL draft pick and, as of this month, perhaps an Olympic gold medalist.

Bloom, 23, who played football for two years at Colorado, has put off a possible NFL career because he can't do that and chase his other dream: standing on an Olympic medal stand.

So he plans to jet to Italy, grab a gold in the moguls competition, where he is an overwhelming favorite, and fly home the same week to attend the NFL scouting combine, where he'll show off his receiving and kick-return skills, powered by 4.3 speed in the 40-yard-dash.

It's all a gamble years in the making: Bloom decided to forgo his final two years of college football and ski full time after a ruling that he couldn't play and accept ski sponsorship cash.

A gold medal and an NFL contract in April would be a fine payoff, indeed.

Hermann Maier

Austria, alpine skier

If he were human, he wouldn't even be walking. But the "Herminator," as he was known even before nearly severing his right leg in a 2001 motorcycle accident, is back for one last gold-medal fling.

Maier, the 33-year-old Austrian superstar and four-time World Cup champion, reserved a spot in Olympic lore at the 1998 Nagano Games, where he went airborne in the downhill and crashed spectacularly — only to win the Super-G gold medal three days later.

He continued to dominate World Cup skiing after those Games, until the motorcycle accident in Austria nearly took his leg, keeping him out of the Salt Lake Games.

Doctors questioned whether he'd ever regain full mobility. But Maier, after learning how to walk again, was back skiing the same year. He not only regained his form, but went on to capture his fourth overall World Cup overall title.

This season, Maier, who clearly wants another medal to cap his career, has skied conservatively at times in World Cup races. But he began to let it all out again recently, winning the Super-G on ski-racing's most storied course, the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuehel, Austria.

He's back. Again. And he won't be leaving Italy happy without some metal around his neck.

Lindsey Jacobellis

USA, snowboarder

Don't hold that insufferable Visa commercial against her. You know, the one where her coach, trying to calm her nerves before takeoff, tells her to act like her credit card has just been stolen, at which point she relaxes and kicks butt.

It's a reach, for sure. But the Turin medal hopes for Jacobellis, 20, of Stratton, Vt., are anything but.

She's the lone U.S. female competitor in snowboardcross, a new, X-Games-style event that's bound to draw plenty of prime-time attention. She's also the world's top-ranked snowboardcross rider and reigning world champion.

The race course spits four riders out of the starting gate, side by side, to negotiate a course filled with turns and whoop-de-doo jumps — motocross style. It's clearly an attempt to inject a shot of youthful vigor into the staid Games.

And it's the perfect showcase for Jacobellis, who's also a halfpipe rider. Teammates say she's the perfect killer combination: A sweet, cutesy look suitable for television, and a merciless work ethic as soon as she leaves the starting gate.

She'll be a strong medal favorite when snowboardcross takes over your television set on Feb. 17.

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