LANDOVER -- Katarina Witt has avoided the World Professional Figure Skating Championships with single-minded determination until tonight.
"This is the competition everyone talks about," said Witt. "I haven't wanted to do it. I've seen how it makes everyone nervous, and I haven't wanted to do it. But I've been doing a lot more skating this year and I just decided, 'OK, I'll go for it.' "
It is difficult for the casual observer of figure skating to sort out all the different competitions. Every week there seems to be another championship. But this event will produce the only World Professional Figure Skating champions this year in men's, women's, dance and pairs.
It has been doing it every year since 1980. It is an invitation-only event, in which four skaters compete in each of the four divisions.
Tonight, at USAir Arena, there will be a slight deviation, because the dance team of Sergi Ponomarenko (groin injury) and Marina Klimova has withdrawn and will not be replaced, leaving three teams.
"This is the creme de la creme of professional skating," said Dick Button, who created the event in 1973 and made it an annual competition 15 years ago. "It has the most tradition. It is the one every skater makes themselves available for. And it has the four best skaters [in each division] in the world who are at the top of their game at the moment.
"When skaters like Brian Boitano list their top achievements, it is always the Olympics, world amateur title and world professional title. When they come here, they say they simply want to please themselves and please the fans. That's the artist in them. But they are also athletes, and that means they want to win."
The men and women who will skate tonight are Olympic medalists, amateur champions and professional champions.
But Paul Wylie, who won the men's competition last year, says winning meant more to him than just having impressed a judge or two.
"We've got nothing to prove," he said. "We've already established our careers, and nothing we do here will affect it. But this is the Wimbledon of skating. To win here is like winning a Grand Slam, and with everyone watching, with a sold-out event, with this being the event I grew up dreaming of winning, it was very important to win -- and I'd like to win again."
Kurt Browning, the 28-year-old Canadian who was the first to successfully complete a quadruple jump in world competition, is competing here for the first time. He glanced at Wylie and took a deep breath.
"I wasn't nervous until that little speech," he said. "Having watched this event as an amateur, I realize its importance. Brian Boitano shines here. Paul and Scott [Hamilton] thrive on the competition. I'd like to win the title, but these guys don't share. I'm just going to have to do the best I can and try to stay away from their strengths."
Witt has similar feelings. Her performance tonight will be full of emotional expression and artistry as she skates to "Schindler's List" and leaves the athletic performances to defending women's champion Midori Ito and her other two challengers, Yuka Sato, the reigning world amateur champion who turned pro this year, and Kristi Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist who won the World Professional championship in the same year.
"This event was the first big event this sport had for professionals," Witt said. "This is the one everyone wants to win, and it's going to be very difficult. You want to go out there and do your best. It's not the same pressure as the Olympics; no, not that kind of pressure. I don't have to think about flirting with the judges when I skate past them. I won't do that here. The pressure here comes from the fact you want to do the best you can for yourself and for the fans. I hope to be good and do what I can. I'd also like to win, but what I can do is not triple jumps and triple combinations, and without those, it will be very difficult."
FACTS AND FIGURES
Event: World Professional Figure Skating Championships.
When: Tonight, 7
Site: USAir Arena, Landover
Tickets: About 1,000 available. Call (202) 432-SEAT
TV: Delayed telecast, NBC, Jan. 27, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Jan. 28, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Competition: The top four in men's, women's, pairs and dance will skate for titles and $320,000 in prize money.
Returning titlists: 1993 winners Paul Wylie, Midori Ito and Natalia Annenko and Genrikh Sretenski defend titles in men's, women's and dance, respectively.