Bode Miller (USA)

Defending Alpine World Cup champion Bode Miller of the United States has looked smooth descending the finest slopes of the ski world, but has swirled up a snowstorm of controversy with his comments on skiing while drunk and doping.

The 28-year-old American admitted racing while drunk, having hit the slopes after a night of celebrating a World Cup victory, and would not rule out doing so again. Under pressure from US and global ski bosses, Miller apologized.

Double world champion Miller also raised eyebrows in October when he suggested that banned blood-booster erythropoetin (EPO) should be allowed.

And in December, Miller was fined 643 euros for refusing to take a boot test during a World Cup event.

Miller won two silver medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics on home snow and is touted as one of the top US gold medal hopes at the Turin Games, but said he feels no burden of expectations.

Apolo Anton Ohno (USA)

American short track speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno won a 1500-meter Olympic gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games and in the process became what one Korean newspaper called "the most hated athlete in South Korea".

Ohno, a 23-year-old whose father Yuki is from Japan, crossed the finish line behind South Korea's Kim Dong-Sung, but Kim was disqualified and a Korean protest was rejected.

Kim's backers said Ohno, who raised his arms in protest as he tried to cut past Kim on the inside, fooled Australian referee James Hewish into making a bad call.

Ohno received e-mail death threats from South Korea after that, prompting the US team to skip a 2003 World Cup event in Seoul.

But Ohno competed at a World Cup event in Seoul last October and received cheers after winning the 1,000m and 3,000m finals.

With the bumping and grinding of short track speedskating and judges' calls or non-calls of disqualification so crucial, the sport itself is a controversy just waiting to happen and one likely will again at Turin.

Ohno could be hero, villian or victim - maybe even all three.

Janne Ahonen (FIN)

Finnish ski-jumper who is currently second in the World Cup standings behind great Czech rival Jakub Janda aiming to improve on a fourth place on the nornal hill and ninth on the large hill at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Had the consolation of taking silver in the team event.

The 28-year-old shared the Four Hills tournament with Janda this winter making them the major forces in the sport.

Ahonen is a three-time world champion having claimed normal hill victory in 1997, a team gold in 1995 and large hill glory in 2005.

The Finn came within a whisker of a gold medal at Salt Lake when Finland just failed to better a determined Germany quartet in the team event.

Jaromir Jagr (CZE)

Czech Republic superstar of the NHL with the New York Rangers will be key to taking gold off the holders Canada and give his country the win he inspired in Nagano in 1998.

If he succeeds, the two-time Stanley Cup winner will add the Olympic gold to his world championship win last year.

In Nagano, dubbed the "tournament of the century" Jagr and his colleagues beat rivals Russia 1-0 and their first ever hockey gold medal.

With a precocious natural talent for ice hockey, he joined the Czechoslovakian first division at the age of 16 in the colours of Poldi Kladno, a team which once featured legendary goaltender Dominik Hasek.

A revelation at the 1990 world championships, he joined the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL) in the same year when still only 18 and played alongside his childhood idol, Mario Lemieux.

The two were instrumental in the 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cup wins.

Irina Slutskaya (RUS)

The Russian figure skater recently secured her seventh European title to add to her two world championships but an Olympic gold still eludes her.

Two years ago, it seemed that the 26-year-old's career was over and she looked as if she would never compete again at the end of 2002 as she went from doctor to doctor trying to find out the cause of a serious illness, which turned out to be the heart condition vasculitis.

She competed in just one event in 2004, the world championships, where she placed ninth, but the next season has been her most successful ever, winning every event she entered including a sixth European title.

And she capped that by leading all the way to reclaim the world title she previously won in 2002.

"My feelings are indescribable," she said. "My hands are shaking and the tears are running down my cheeks."

Slutskaya was surprisingly the first woman from her country to win a major individual title, the European crown in 1996 ending a barren run that went back to the 1930s and all eyes were on her for her first Olympic campaign in 2002 at Salt Lake.

Janica Kostelic (CRO)

Three golds at Salt Lake City, the Snow Queen missed out on the clean sweep by finishing second in the Super-G.

Kostelic reigned supreme at the 2002 Olympics, a blistering performance which gave Croatia their first Winter Games medal of any colour but also put her in the company of such skiing legends as Tony Sailer and Jean-Claude Killy, the only other Alpine skiers to win three golds at an Olympic competition.

She nearly added a fourth Olympic title finishing just 5 1/100ths of a second behind surprise super-G winner Daniela Ceccarelli of Italy.

In 2003 she easily won her second overall World Cup title (after 2001) and she was also top of the tree in the slalom standings.

At the 2003 world championships in St. Moritz she won her first titles in the biennial event winning both the slalom and combined races.

A series of five knee operations were a major setback for the 2004 season and it got even worse when doctors were forced to remove her thyroid meaning her campaign was a complete write-off.

Incredibly, she dominated the 2005 world championships winning three gold medals (slalom, combined and downhill - her first ever) and finished second in the race for the overall World Cup crown.

Ole Einar Bjorndalen (NOR)

Four gold medals for the Norwegian biathlon king in his Olympic career as well as three World Cup titles.

Thanks to his performances and the inception of the combined pursuit in 2002 the Norwegian became the first man to win three individual biathlon gold medals at the same Games. His feat of four individual Olympic golds is also a record.

After doing all the hard work in the biathlon at the Nagano Games in 1998, bad weather causing poor visibility forced the judges to stop the race and left Bjorndalen shaking his head in disbelief.

The event was held again the following day and this time not even the elements could stop the Norwegian from hitting all his targets and skiing to the gold medal with more than a minute in hand over his nearest rival.

Things got even better for him when he also collected a silver medal in a team that included his elder brother, Dag, in the relay race.

The showdown in Salt Lake was won comfortably by the Norwegian, but France's Raphael Poiree pushed him into second for the fifth time in the 2004 World Cup standings.

Georg Hackl (GER)

German luge star, approaching his 40th birthday, won three consecutive golds medals in 1992, 1994 and 1998 but was pipped and had to settle for silver in Salt Lake City.

Also a three-time world champion in singles, six in the team event and collecting two overall World Cup titles.

By winning the singles luge event at the Winter Olympics in 1992, 1994 and 1998, Hackl became the first luge competitor and only the sixth athlete ever to win the gold medal in the same discipline at three consecutive Games.

However his fourth straight Olympic triumph escaped him in Salt Lake City as his great rival Armin Zoggeler of Italy won a tense duel with Hackl settling for silver.

He hurtled down a track for the first time as a fearless 9-year-old, and by the time he was 22 had his first major win under his belt, the 1988 European championship.

Anja Paerson (SWE)

Four world championships and four World Cup titles, but an Olympic gold has eluded the Swede.

Last year, the 24-year-old blew apart the field by clinching two world titles in Santa Caterina in the downhill and super-G disciplines in the worlds.

Paerson has stunned her rivals after switching from being a specialised slalom skier to the perfect all rounder. Her super-G World Cup title is proof she is major threat to Kostelic, who had to settle for second best in the overall World Cup standings after missing out by three points in 2005.

Coached by her father, Anders, she remained extremely consistent in the slalom, producing several top ten results, and ended the 1998-99 season in overall third place, despite failing to win a race.

She pulled off a major breakthrough at the 2001 world championships at St Anton when after an excellent first run, she held on to win the slalom gold.

Yevgeny Plushenko (RUS)

Six-time European champion and three-time world champion, the Russian ice skater's first Olympics outing two years ago saw him settle for silver when he was outskated by compatriot and great rival Alexei Yagudin.

The Russian's form at the 2000 European and 2001 world championships, both of which he won, had suggested he was worth Olympic gold too, and ample proof of his credentials.

He went on to win further world titles in 2003 and 2004 but at the 2005 edition in Moscow, he appeared beaten and bruised and was forced to retire with numerous ailments.

His health was so poor, he underwent operations on both groins following his withdrawal in 2005 and his form was a great worry with the Turin Games looming.

However, with new European golds in 2005 and 2006, victory in the Russian national cup as well as a Grand Prix win in November 2005 there is suddenly new hopes.

Anni Friesinger (GER)

German glamour girl of speed skating picked up gold in the 1500m in Salt Lake City to add to her bronze in the 3000m in Nagano four years earlier.

She has enjoyed better luck in the world championships with three all-round titles in 2001, 2002 and 2005 as well as eight individual wins.

Friesinger, known for her risque remarks and fashion, was disappointed she did not win more medals at Salt Lake but she may be preparing for her final Olympic campaign and it would be a fitting finale to bow out with more medals to go with her 3000m bronze from Nagano in 1998 and the gold at Salt Lake.

Following the Nagano Games, she won her first world title by skating to the 1500m crown in Calgary.

Hermann Maier (AUT)

Two golds in Nagano, two world championships and an incredible 14 World Cup triumphs but the figures only tell half the story of the Austrian's amazing career.

Maier broke his leg in a motorbike accident in Austria in 2001 and with it went his hopes of gold at the 2002 Winter Games.

The accident nearly ended his career and he was out of action for 18 months before making his comeback in January, 2003 in Switzerland.

But two weeks after his return, Maier recorded his 42nd World Cup win in the Super-G on home snow in Kitzbuhel.

Then at the 2003 world championships, Maier stormed down the slopes of St. Moritz to take the silver medal in a thrilling super-G race won by compatriot Stephan Eberharter.

Known as 'The Herminator', his bravery on the slopes has never been in doubt and he won rave reviews for shrugging off an horrific crash in the downhill at Nagano to win his first gold medal in the Super-G.

A second Olympic title followed in the giant slalom, the perfect response by Maier to those critics who had written him off.

(China Daily February 9, 2006)