Russian stars Yevgeny Plushenko and Irina Slutskaya will be leading their country's bid for an historic figure skating title sweep at the Winter Olympics starting on Saturday.

Russia gave warning by capturing all four titles at last month's European championships for the second year in a row after sweeping all events last year at the Palavela rink, the venue for the Olympic competition.

And as Slutskaya and Plushenko both look to go one better than their silver medals last time out, figure skating officials will also be keen to show that the 2002 pairs judging scandal is a thing of the past.

In the men's event, if he remains healthy, three-time world champion Plushenko will be hard to beat.

To succeed compatriot Alexei Yagudin as the men's champion, Plushenko will be up against world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland.

The Russian comfortably beat Lambiel twice this season including on his way to claiming a fifth European title, with 2004 world silver medallist Brian Joubert of France finishing third.

All three have the ability to take gold, although Lambiel is still recovering from a right knee injury he picked up in training.

Canadians Jeffrey Buttle and Emanuel Sandhu, and Americans Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek are also in the title chase.

But Plushenko's agent Ari Zakarian believes the Siberian-born skater will be tough to beat after coming back from injury.

"I can't remember when I've seen him skate better," admitted Zakarian.

Meanwhile, Slutskaya will be looking to become the first Russian woman to capture gold after having to settle for silver behind surprise winner Sarah Hughes in 2002.

She has come back strong after being sidelined for most of the 2003-04 season through illness. Her only loss in the past 18 months has been to Japan's Mao Asada, who is too young to compete in Torino.

The United States will be looking to five-time world champion Michelle Kwan and US national champion Sasha Cohen to carry their hopes.

Kwan, 25, missed the nationals with a groin injury, but was given a medical bye to bid for the elusive gold.

Although she has skated sparingly over the last few years and may not be the same skater who went to Nagano (silver) and Salt Lake City (bronze) as favourite, Kwan remains a contender despite finishing fourth at the worlds.

Cohen, who won silver at each of the past two world championships, can challenge if she skates two clean programmes.

But while Slutskaya lacks the polish and grace of Cohen, she is a very strong jumper and also gets extra credit for high levels of difficulty in her spins and spiral sequences.

If Japan's Shizuka Arakawa produces a peformance that won her the 2004 world title she could also feature along with Italy's home hope Carolina Kostner, the world bronze medallist.

Slutskaya has also history on her side - at four of the past five Olympics, the reigning world champion has won ladies' gold.

But the seven-time European champion admitted that the winner could be down to who is most up for it on the night as Hughes proved four years ago.

"I can't answer how I'll feel psychologically (at the Olympics). It's ice you know, very slippery you never know what will happen," said Slutskaya.

In pairs skating, two-time world champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin will attempt to give Russia their 12th consecutive Olympic gold medal. They have taken every gold since 1964, including the disputed gold they shared with the Canadians in 2002.

China's world bronze medallists Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang are among the challengers, along with Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy, Russians Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov and China's Qing Pang and Jian Tong.

But another Chinese pair - Olympic bronze medallists and two-time world champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo - could prove to be the dark horses. They have not competed since Zhao ruptured his Achilles last August.

Ice dancing looks set for a battle between two-time world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia, and world silver medallists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the United States.

But Yelena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov of Ukraine upset Navka and Kostomarov in the compulsory dance at Europeans last month.

Lithuania's Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas are also challengers after coming out of retirement after a four-year break to take bronze at Europeans.

Italy's Olympic bronze medallists Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio have also come out of retirement.

The judging will also come under scrutiny as the International Skating Union has adopted a new accumulative-points system.

The computer-based system was implemented in June 2004 and scraps the maximum 6.0 mark used for more than a century. The computer selects nine of the 12 judges whose scores will count, then discards the highest and lowest marks. The seven remaining scores are then averaged.

The aim is to prevent vote rigging after French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne claimed she had been under pressure to put Russian pairs skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulizde ahead of Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier in Salt Lake City.

How the new system fairs will be seen on Saturday when the competition kicks off with the pairs short progarmme.

Emmeline Moore

AFP