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SATURDAY’S WEATHER

A few rain showers are expected with a predicted high temperature of 48 degrees and a low of 32.

SATURDAY’S ATHLETE

Bode Miller

Alpine skiing, U.S.

Now comes his best event, the slalom. If he finishes in the top three, he will be the first American to win three alpine medals in a single Olympics. Indeed, he will be the first U.S. skier to win three Olympic alpine medals in a career. Miller, of Franconia, N.H., is already the first American man to win a medal in an Olympic giant slalom. “He has a crazy style in skiing, but he is fast, and that’s what counts,” said Austria rival Stephan Eberharter.

Saturday’s TV

9 a.m.-11 a.m.

MSNBC: Figure skating (champions gala)

12:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

NBC: Hockey (men’s bronze-medal game: Russia vs. Belarus), speedskating (women’s 5,000m)

7 p.m.-10:30 p.m.

NBC: Alpine skiing (men’s slalom), bobsled (four-man finals), cross-country skiing (men’s 50k classical), short-track speedskating finals (women’s 1,000m, men’s 500m, 5,000m relay)

11 p.m.-11:30 p.m.

NBC: Daily roundup

1 a.m.-3:30 a.m.

NBC: Taped coverage

PLAYING THEIR CARDS

Got the Jeremy Teela rookie card?

He does. The Army World Class Athlete Program has put out a set of athlete cards for the 2002 Winter Olympics, promoting the virtues of the military biathletes and bobsledders it sponsors. The size of the cards more closely mimic postcards than baseball cards, but the info presented has more in common with sports cards.

Competitive highlights are listed, but these cards also pinpoint the date of an athlete’s enlistment. Typically, the cards are passed out at schools and public-service clubs when the soldier-athletes make public appearances.

“If it wasn’t for WCAP, I wouldn’t be here,” Teela said.

Teela, of Anchorage, and the other three members of the biathlon team are pictured holding or aiming their rifles. Teela, Andrea Nahrgang, Kristina Sabasteanski and Lawton Redman are posed in dress uniforms on the back.

Similarly, bobsled coaches Bill Tavares and Tuffy Latour and three athletes–Mike Kohn, Doug Sharp and gold-medal winner Jill Bakken–are pictured leaning on their helmets on the front of their cards and in dress uniforms in the back.

The WCAP program targets potential Olympians among soldiers and allows them to prepare for world-class competition. The soldiers in the Games are expected to return to their National Guard units in the spring.

Lew Freedman.