THE VACUUM IN THE U.S. PAIRS ranks is especially evident. At the Goodwill Games, the host country will be represented only by the very young brother-sister team of Tiffany and Johnnie Stiegler, currently ranked second among the remaining American pairs.

The Stieglers already have impressive presentation and performing abilities and are widely seen as having tremendous potential for the future. But, although they've moved up to compete as seniors this year, the Stieglers are still basically at the junior level in terms of technical skills and will need more than just a charming on-ice presence to be competitive at the international senior level.

At the U.S. Championships this past January, the Stieglers did only a double twist lift and solo double axel jumps, even though a triple twist and triple toe loops are a practical requirement to be competitive at the senior level. Another sign that this pair has work to do is that the Stieglers' marks for required elements in the short program were generally a full point or more below those of the leaders, even though they skated without major errors.

The Stieglers face another problem this season in that they do not yet meet the ISU's minimum age requirement for competing at the World Championships. In order to have any hope of competing there, they must first qualify for an age exemption by winning a medal at the World Junior Championships in December. That is by no means a foregone conclusion since they were only eighth in that event last season, making it even more critical for them to upgrade their technical skills.

Among the other young U.S. pairs, the teams of Danielle and Steven Hartsell and Natalie Vlandis and Jered Guzman have both had success at the international junior level, but both had rather disappointing results last season due to problems with consistency. Vlandis and Guzman, in particular, were considered to have a good chance to win the World Junior gold but ended up without a medal of any color.

ALSO LIKELY TO BE IN THE MIX for the U.S. title in the upcoming season are Laura Handy and Paul Binnebose. Last season, as a newly-formed team skating in their first senior national championship, this pair showed top-notch technical skills -- including apparently effortless triple toe loops and a tremendously high twist lift.

Handy and Binnebose only appear to lack competitive experience as a team. Although Binnebose was a two-time national novice champion (with two different former partners), neither he nor Handy had any significant previous international competition experience. It is somewhat odd that the USFSA has chosen to place this team on the junior competition circuit this fall, rather than the senior circuit.

Meanwhile, Kyoko

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Ina has formed a new partnership with John Zimmerman, who was part of another top U.S. team that dissolved within the past year. It remains to be seen how well and how quickly this pair will jell. Although Zimmerman is known as a skater who projects a great deal of flair on the ice, he has not yet shown that he can consistently land the solo triple toe loop jump. Ina, on the other hand, is a strong and consistent technical skater.

Internationally, however, none of the American teams are likely to challenge Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze for the World title anytime soon. If any pair could do that, it might be the Chinese team of Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, who are known for their impressive technical abilities. Before the emergence of this team, China never had a pair team in the top 10 at the World Championships level.

Both the Polish pair of Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek and the French team of Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis are similarly big "trick" skaters, but somewhat lacking in finesse on the in-between skating.

AMONG TEAMS WITH A MORE balanced combination of "tricks" and in-between skating, both Germany's Schwarz and Muller and the Canadian team of Kristy Sargeant and Kris Wirtz have a shot at the podium.

Since five of these six teams -- all but the Germans -- are on the roster for the Goodwill Games, the competition there could offer a sneak preview of how the rankings will sort themselves out for the upcoming season.

Given such a strong international field, it will be a major upset if the Stieglers manage to finish anything but dead last at the Goodwill Games. But it's not likely that any of the other U.S. pair teams could do any better, and since the Stieglers are still really a junior team, there is no burden of expectations on them for a good finish in their first senior-level international competition.

On the other hand, a poor showing at the first competition of the new season would be embarrassing for any of the slightly older teams with hopes of breaking out of the pack to win the U.S. title and go to next year's World Championships.

And, what of the Russians? In the past it seemed that Russia (or the former Soviet Union) produced an endless stream of world-class pair teams, but for now it appears that the Russian program is in a rebuilding phase similar to that of the American program. As in the United States, some younger Russian teams have had success at the junior level, but none appear poised to make it on the senior world scene, and some observers have wondered if the Russian pairs "pipeline" is finally drying up.