Now that the biggest sports event in the U.S. is over, with the Patriots winning Sunday's Super Bowl, we can turn our attention to the Winter Olympics, which start this Friday in Salt Lake City.

West Allis' Chris Witty leads four Milwaukee area speedskaters, and an overall Wisconsin contingent of 11 athletes into the Games.

Witty, a two-time Olympic medal winner, is considered to have a chance for medals at more than one distance. The 26-year-old athlete is one of only nine athletes to have competed in both the Summer and Winter Games.

She competed as a bicyclist in the Summer Games in Sydney in 2000. Yours truly covered some of her races. Chris is now considered a veteran member of the U.S. team and likely will be getting her last shot at a medal.

Catherine Raney of Elm Grove is one of the stronger U.S. skaters at 3000 meters. She is the 1999 All-around U.S. Champion.

Brookfield's Kip Carpenter in the men's competition and Ellis Ochowicz of Waukesha in the women's division are the other Milwaukee area speedskaters in the Games. Other Wisconsin speedskaters include Nick Pearson of Vernon and Casey FitzRandolph of Verona.

Other Wisconsin athletes include Myles Brundridge, Nekoosa, Debbie McCormick, Madison, and Mike Schneeberger, Superior, curling; and Karyn Bye, River Falls, and Gary Suter, Madison, hockey.

Good luck in the competition Also, let's hope that these, and all the athletes, are able to complete the Games without any terrorists' incidents. Security will be very tight at all venues in Salt Lake.

Coach George Karl's latest frustration led to a statement Saturday that maybe it was time to trade one of his stars or "fire me." His outburst came after the Bucks had blown a game against the Philadelphia 76ers, with what Karl considered selfish play.

After winning eight straight, the Bucks have dropped five of their last six, and are not playing well. Ray Allen continues to have problems finding his shooting range. Sam Cassell is playing inconsistent basketball. Anthony Mason is not providing much of an inside scoring threat. The team overall is not playing good defense.

But, a blockbuster trade, or firing Karl, is only likely to make things worse at this point of the season. Dealing Cassell, Glenn Robinson or Tim Thomas might be worth exploring this summer, but not at this point.

The real buzz around the Bradley Center Saturday was about Marquette's convincing win over fourth-ranked Cincinnati. The Warriors climbed rather high in the national rankings early, then fell virtually out of them and should be back in them after Saturday's win.

Between their success, and the UWM Panthers' vying for first place in the Horizon Conference, Milwaukee college basketball fans have good reason to be buzzing.

Even though the Packers weren't in the Super Bowl, you could hardly find a pub in town Sunday that didn't have the big game on. Most of the patrons seemed to be rooting for the Patriots, at least as the game progressed into the dramatic closing minutes.

You have to give the Rams credit. The last two Super Bowls they were involved in produced two of the most dramatic endings in the history of the game. The Rams came out on top in 1999 and lost this year.

Winter came too late for several of the events at the Badger State Games in the Wausau area. Several sports that require a good base of snow were cancelled Thursday, before the area for 6-9 inches of snow that night. The events that were held featured some good competition.

The people of Chilton, Wisconsin, are proud as one of their own, Dave Casper, was selected for the NFL Hall of Fame Casper, who led Chilton to an unbeaten and unscored-upon season in 1969, had his best years with the Oakland Raiders. He became the ninth Wisconsin high school player to be selected for the Hall.

Others are Bud Grant, Arnie Herber, Elroy Hirsch, Curly Lambeau, Tuffy Leemans, Ernie Nevers, Jim Otto and Mike Webster.