Some fetching figure skater? Nope, not this time. No Tenley, no Carol, no Peggy, no Dorothy (and her hair), no Kristi, no Nancy (who wuz robbed, dammit!), no Tara, no Michelle, no Sarah, no contender, no medal, and perhaps no viewers. The great assembly line of American skating princesses is temporarily (we hope) out of order. South Korea’s Kim Yu Na is being fitted for the crown. We’ll soon find out if the American figure skating televiewing public was in it all those years for the sport or the medals. Time to call their bluff.

So what’s in it for Us? Yup, you and me. The Uncle Sam people. What’s in it for the USA at these Winter Olympics? What if - say it isn’t so - cover girl Lindsey Vonn cannot deliver the goods? Is there anything else to watch, anything else to care about?

It’s easy for me. I’m here. It’s easy to develop an instant interest in sports outside the mainstream. If you’re up close and personal, especially when you see how fabulously athletic and fit these people are, and how so many of these medals come down to undetectabl e movements resulting in differences measured in hundredths of a second.

The truth is that television seldom conveys the true experience of any sport. For all the talk about how football is best viewed at home, with the benefit of replay and multiple angles, nothing beats being there if the game is even remotely dramatic. And if your entire connection to hockey is from the tube, you would be blown away by the actual grace and power of the players if you had the good fortune to sit close to the action.

And those are sports all of us know. The situation is magnified in a circumstance such as the Winter Olympics, which features many sports we hardly know at all.

We’ve got some great quests and some great stories. Sixty-two years ago Francis Tyler, Patrick Martin, Edward Rimkus, and William D’Amico took gold at St. Moritz in the four-man bobsled. We’re still waiting for another. We came close in Salt Lake City, winning the silver and the bronze, but the gold has gone to competitors from both the good Germany (five) and the evil Germany (three), as well as Switzerland, Canada, Italy, and Austria. (In case you’re counting, there was no competition in 1960 because the host Americans refused to build a bobsled run that would have no future use.)

We’ve got a shot at the gold this year, which is noteworthy, but what makes this an even better saga is the fact that driver Steve Holcomb is trying to adjust to a new physical circumstance - sight. He is afflicted with a corneal disease called Keratoconus, and has undergone surgery to transform his vision from 20/500 to its current 20/20. Strangely, this has made his job harder, because in his near sightless former state he operated comfortably in a sport where feel is everything. For Steve Holcomb, sight complicates everything.

And how can you not root for Kris Freeman? He’s trying to become only the second American to win a medal in cross-country skiing. Bill Koch got the silver in the 30-kilometer Classical 34 years ago in Innsbruck, and that is it for the USA in this sport. It’s an amazingly grueling sport for anyone, and it’s got to be exponentially more taxing if you’re a) diabetic and b) suffering from “compartment syndrome,’’ a very painful condition in which the muscles in his lower legs have outgrown their casings. He’s had surgery for it once, and he’s postponing a second operation to compete here. He’s hardly a favorite, but he’s a known international commodity, and he has an outside chance to crash the top three.

Shani and Chad, now there’s a story. Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick are our best speedskaters, and they have, shall we say, a history. Shani is an anomaly in his sport, an African-American who skates more for personal satisfaction than for medals and who trains outside the auspices of the American speedskating apparatus. Nobody tells Shani Davis what to do, except for Cherie Davis, a single mom who manages her son’s career and stands as the guardian at the gate. Chad is a cocky guy who isn’t reluctant to praise Chad and who, for example, declared four years ago that “my heart’s bigger than anyone’s out there.’’ It’s Shani vs. Chad, and it’s Shani and Chad vs. everyone else, and it could make speedskating our most compelling event.

We’ve got Shaun White, the “Flying Tomato,’’ a prohibitive favorite in the halfpipe. We’ve got Lindsey Jacobellis, the young lady who was within sight of the gold medal in snowboardcross four years ago when she decided to execute a showboaty move known as a “method grab’’ and tumbled to a second-place finish. She was unrepentant then (saying this was snowboarding, and she was “just having fun’’), but she has since been more contrite. Her chance for full redemption comes Tuesday. C’mon, you’ve got to be curious.

We’ve got short-track star Apolo Anton Ohno, who won gold in Salt Lake City and Torino, and who is now attempting to become the first person to win golds both before and after winning “Dancing with the Stars.’’

We’ve got the one and only ice skater/exhibitionist Johnny Weir, and who knows what he’ll do, or say? And don’t forget Bode. Mr. Miller is back, without any pressure or national expectations, and wouldn’t it be just like him to come up with a perfect go-for-it performance in the downhill when his time has supposedly passed?

Who needs a skater for rooting interest? We’re covered.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist and host of Globe 10.0 on Boston.com. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.