Judd's Notes: Expectations are cause of U.S. winter "slump"

TURIN, Italy — Don't blame Bode. Blame Salt Lake.

Well, go ahead and blame Bode Miller a little. But most of all, blame Utah's highly successful Olympics for the U.S. team's current supposed funk.

Simple reasoning: That 2002 Wasatch-Front homecourt advantage helped U.S. athletes nab 34 medals in the previous Winter Olympics, smashing all records.

And it set up the U.S. for an inevitable letdown in Turin, where America has garnered 18 medals with four days of competition remaining.

Amid all this bleating about the failure of America's would-be winter sports stars, it's easy to overlook the fact that the U.S. medal count already is the best the nation has ever done in a Winter Games away from its home turf.

America brought back only 13 medals from Nagano in 1998, the most recent Winter Games contested outside America with a similar slate of events (including snowboard.) America won 13 medals in Lillehammer in 1994, 11 in Albertville in 1992, six in Calgary in 1988, and eight in Sarajevo in 1984.

The nation never attained Winter Games powerhouse status until Salt Lake City.

U.S. Olympic Committee officials didn't set public medal goals for these Games. But privately, based on results from recent World Cups, they believed the team was capable of posting a medal count somewhere between 25 and 30.

Barring a fantastic, furious finish, that's not likely to happen. But the one thing the Turin Games has shown is that the U.S. winter squad finally has something it never has had before: Depth.

Think about it: The 18 medals have come in spite of the fact that most of the supposed sure-thing medalists here have face-planted.

Michelle Kwan pulled up lame before the Games even began. The aforementioned Mr. Miller, America's most talented skier, has posted a big zippo that's emblematic of the entire U.S. Alpine team's performance here.

Daron Rahlves has fared no better; the women's Alpine team has thus far been skunked. Only slalom master Ted Ligety has come through, winning gold in the combined. This from a squad that was boasting of up to eight medals coming into the Games.

The U.S. expected at least one medal in luge, and got none. It hoped for more from long-track speedskating, especially from the women, than it has received.

But new stars emerged to fill in the gaps: Shani Davis in speedskating; Toby Dawson in men's moguls; Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto in ice dancing; and Shaun White, Seth Westcott, Hannah Teter, Gretchen Bleiler and Lindsey Jacobellis in snowboard, although the latter medals were hardly surprising.

All things considered, the U.S. already has cinched its second-greatest winter medals haul ever: A sign that winter programs beefed up financially for Salt Lake are paying dividends far beyond.

It's the expectations that have changed.

Since you didn't ask

The scoop on Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, silver medalists in ice dancing. Yes, she has a boyfriend. Yes, he has a girlfriend. No, they're not each other. Don't even ask what we had to go through to find this out.

And yes, we agree with observant readers who say the woman needs to slug down some gelato and about 12 pounds of gourmet cheese before she leaves.

Dance drama, cont.

As most of you no doubt saw, it turned out that Italian ice dancer Barbara Fusar Poli, she of the Frozen Stare of Death in the original dance the other night, did not pull a stiletto from her boot and slay her partner, Maurizio Margaglio, at center ice after the free dance, after all.

They skated cleanly, then sort of kissed and made up, which frankly was a little gross because Fusar Poli described the two as being "like brother and sister."

OK, then. Moving right along:

Not spoken here

We dare anyone visiting Italy — anyone, anywhere — to successfully make a coffee-shop order for decaf.

Late arrivals

Nothing says Winter Olympics quite like a guy with the world record in the butterfly. Somehow, while we weren't looking, some corporate-sponsor minions slipped six-time gold medalist Michael Phelps into town to "meet with the public" Tuesday.

That explains what all those people have been doing every night down at Piazza Castello — clamoring for Flipper boy from Athens. We've decided it's OK if he's here. But if that blasted Athens security zeppelin comes with him, we're filing a protest with the Court of Sport.

Ron Judd: 206-464-8280 or rjudd@seattletimes.com.