Alexei Yagudin will be the only gold medalist from Salt Lake City competing in the World Figure Skating Championships. But the judging controversy that plagued the sport at the Olympics will likely follow the athletes to Nagano, Japan.

	Tim Goebel likely will get in a quad showdown with Alexei Yagudin at the World Championships this week.

These world championships started Monday at the site of the 1998 Games have the normal look of a post-Olympics event. Many of the stars from Utah, including women's champion Sarah Hughes, were not on hand.

Michelle Kwan is, looking for a fifth world title.

There is another Russian-American men's confrontation as Yagudin meets quad specialist Tim Goebel. However, current world champion Evgeni Plushenko is out.

And then there's -- what else? -- an ice dance controversy. The reigning Olympic champions bowed out and the defending world champions cried foul and refused to compete, angering their Italian federation.

Coming just one month after the Olympics, the world championships have a more-diluted field than ever -- including two pairs gold medalists who are missing, a first in the sport.

Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who won the first gold medal before Jaime Sale and David Pelletier got theirs, have bypassed the event, citing the whirlwind of activities that followed the Salt Lake City judging scandal.

The Russians were initially awarded Olympic gold last month, despite an obvious mistake by Sikharulidze and a clean skate by the Canadians. Then, a French judge on the panel admitted having been pressured into voting for the Russians.

While neither pair will compete in Nagano, both were together on the ice in an exhibition in Edmonton on March 12. They will do many more exhibitions across North America.

In the wake of the scandal, the sport has been scrutinized and the scoring system may be changed, perhaps ending the famed 6.0 perfect score.

That will be discussed at an ISU meeting in late April.

Kwan and Yagudin must restore some order on the ice. They certainly are capable, with seven world titles between them.

Kwan faltered again in the Salt Lake City Olympics and got the bronze. The last time she was in Nagano, at the 1998 Olympics, she won the silver behind Tara Lipinski. Then, Lipinski bolted to the professional ranks, leaving Kwan behind to gain the world title that year -- her second of four.

Hughes, whose jump from fourth place to gold was the most stunning in Olympic history, may not leap to the ineligible ranks so fast. She has promised to stay eligible next season but bypassed this year's worlds, citing a lack of training time.

"Make sure everybody knows I'm still going to compete," she told coach Robin Wagner when she said she would not go to Nagano. "I've won this, which is great, but I want a national title, I want a world title. I just really love competing."

She will compete again with Kwan in a special team event April 16 in New Haven, Conn.

So Kwan is left to defend her world title against a familiar rival, Irina Slutskaya of Russia, who won the silver medal in Salt Lake City. Slutskaya has placed ahead of Kwan all four times they met this year and seven of the past nine times, with only the 2000 and 2001 world competitions going Kwan's way.

Kwan avoided most interviews after the Olympics while seeking to improve her skating to challenge Slutskaya. Both had the chance to beat Hughes in last month's free skate, but made costly errors, including failures on triple-triple combinations that Hughes did twice.

Slutskaya, meanwhile, was given her own version of the gold medal by a fan in Moscow last week.

"This medal is different. It comes from the hearts of people, my fans, people who really love me," she said. "The judges made their choice. That's all I can say. I feel I was worth more than I got."

Sasha Cohen, fourth in Salt Lake City, also is competing. Former junior world champion Jennifer Kirk replaced Hughes on the U.S. team.

After days of indecision, Yagudin finally said he would go to Nagano. His coach, Tatiana Tarasova, said she will probably miss the world championships because of exhaustion.

Plushenko, who edged an injured Yagudin in last year's worlds, said on his Web site a knee injury would keep him from competing.

"I am looking forward to competing," Yagudin said. "It will not only be an opportunity for me to express my gratitude to the people of Japan, but to the rest of the world for their constant support of my skating career."

He will meet Olympic bronze medalist Goebel in what could be another quad-filled contest. Goebel completed three quads in his program and Yagudin did two, including one as part of a three-jump combination.

Six-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge bowed out following the Olympics. The other spots on the U.S. team will be filled by Michael Weiss and first alternate Matt Savoie.

The ice dance event will be marked by the missing. Olympic champions Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France have retired. The Italian team that beat them for the world title last year, Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, also dropped out after she said she lost her enthusiasm for competing. Fusar Poli said they wouldn't get a fair shake from the judges that placed them third in the Olympics and fourth at the Grand Prix final, all behind couples they beat last season.

They won the bronze despite Margaglio's fall, which prompted yet another protest, which was rejected, from Lithuanians Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas. The Lithuanians, who skated a clean program, still finished behind the Italians and Canada's Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, who also fell.

Another protest? Where would skating be without them?