Brian Boitano

SI: I've heard that some of the women's coaches tell the skaters to have breast reductions and other cosmetic surgery.

BB: Definitely. Oh, definitely. And the women do it. It's like modeling. You hear talk behind the scenes: She skates like a dream, but she's not attractive. They want to mold you into something. I don't understand that, because in my mind it's a sport, and to worry about being five pounds overweight or having a big nose never made any sense.

SI: Let's talk about some of the skaters who'll be competing in Albertville. Canada's Kurt Browning is the three-time world champion.

BB: Kurt's strength is he's such a great competitor. He's gutsy. He'll look like he's off-balance going into a jump, and he'll be crooked in the air, but he'll still pull it off. So it's exciting in that way.

SI: What about his weaknesses?

BB: Triple Lutz. It's an important triple, too. He has a lot of trouble with it. The triple Lutz is considered the second most difficult triple, after the triple Axel. It's a big gun. It's pretty amazing he's won three world titles without it.

SI: His chief competition is Viktor Petrenko of the Unified Team.

BB: Who I like. He was third in the Olympics in '88, so he was groomed before Browning. I don't know why he doesn't perform better. He's a beautiful skater, a beautiful spinner, a beautiful jumper—he's got everything. But he must feel the pressure more than Kurt.

SI: What about the U.S. men? Todd Eldredge is a two-time national champion, and the new champ, Christopher Bowman, you've competed against.

BB: If you believe all the things they say about Bowman not training, then I would say he's an amazing competitor. I keep thinking to myself, If he did train, he would be just awesome.