Which means the countdown is on for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and U.S. Speedskating - two of the nation's most successful winter sports federations based in Utah.

While both organizations have spent much of the past two years recovering, refreshing and reorganizing, they're starting now to turn their focus toward the next-best-thing to a home-soil Olympics.

"Our vision always has been to be the best in the world, and we define that as winning more medals than anybody else," said Bill Marolt, the president and CEO of the USSA in Park City. "That vision has not changed."

Many of the country's top skiers and snowboarders have continued to excel, with Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn (formerly Kildow) contending for overall World Cup titles, Park City's Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso within the top six of the world rankings, and snowboard sensations Shaun White, Lindsey Jacobellis and Gretchen Bleiler recently winning gold at the Winter X Games.

The Americans also have witnessed the blossoming of cross country standout Kikkan Randall and Bill DeMong, a three-time Olympian who's fighting for the overall World Cup title in Nordic combined.

Similarly, U.S. Speedskating is starting to narrow its focus on Vancouver, after a tumultuous two years that included a complete overhaul of the organization - from hiring new leadership and coaches to consolidating the operations of the long-track and short-track teams at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns.

The challenge now is developing the talent.

Many of the most accomplished speedskaters have retired since the 2006 Turin Games. So the organization will be counting significantly in Vancouver on a few spectacular veterans such as Apolo Ohno, Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick and many younger skaters who are just now reaching the elite level.

"It's starting to move the right direction," executive director Robert Crowley said. "The depth is improving. . . . We have a lot of good prospects, and those skaters are going to be around for awhile."

mcl@sltrib.com