Faced with the loss of its biggest Winter Olympics star only two days into the Turin Games, NBC tried to keep Michelle Kwan – in the broadcast booth.

Kwan turned down the job offer, saying she didn’t want to be a distraction for remaining members of the U.S. Olympic figure skating team, NBC Sports spokesman Michael McCarley said yesterday.

The star withdrew from the Olympics on Sunday because of a strained groin muscle, ending her quest for her first gold medal in what was expected to be one of the most compelling stories in Turin.

NBC Sports first contacted Kwan’s agent in January, when it appeared unlikely that she would be competing, McCarley said. NBC Universal Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol made yesterday’s offer just an hour after her news conference, when she had come to NBC’s studios to be interviewed by Bob Costas.

Women’s figure skating traditionally is the most-watched Winter Olympics event, and Kwan is its biggest star. More women than men usually watch the Winter Games, and that’s due largely to figure skating.

“It’s like a lead actor leaving a series,” said Marc Berman, television analyst for Media Week Online. “It’s not positive.”

NBC broke into its overnight rebroadcast of its prime-time coverage at 4:20 a.m. to report Kwan’s withdrawal.

“She’s probably the most significant athlete at these Olympic Games,” skating analyst Scott Hamilton said. “And so for her to pull out is a gigantic story, and a loss for the U.S. team because so much of the focus was going to be on her.”

Even if Kwan had stayed, national champion Sasha Cohen was likely to be the U.S. team’s best hope for a gold medal in figure skating, McCarley said. Viewers tune in because of the Olympic experience, not necessarily because of athletes they knew beforehand.

“Stars emerge during the games themselves – not before,” McCarley said.

Recognizing the importance of figure skating, NBC had hired well-known skating analyst Dick Button for its broadcast team. NBC also inaugurated a daily one hour show just on skating, aired each evening on the USA Network.

Kwan’s withdrawal will most hurt NBC in attracting casual viewers who might not have watched much Olympics coverage otherwise – the type of person who transforms something merely popular into a television event, Berman said.

“I’m not a die-hard viewer of the Olympics,” he said. “But I wanted to watch Michelle Kwan. And I would have gone out of my way to watch it.”

NBC’s rivals aggressively are trying to compete against the Olympics this year. Fox, for instance, will air four “American Idol” episodes during the Olympics, and each “Idol” episode so far this season has had more viewers than the Olympics opening ceremony did on Friday.

The opening ceremony was seen by 22.8 million people on Friday – half the number of viewers for the opening of the Salt Lake City games four years ago.

“Nobody expected them to do 45 million again,” Berman said. “To lose about half the audience – that’s big. That’s dangerous. That’s very dangerous.”

NBC rebounded Saturday, when its viewership went up to 23.6 million people on what is usually the least-watched night of the week on television. It was still below the 29.4 million who watched the second night of Salt Lake City, but higher than Nagano eight years ago.

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It was hardly a lost weekend for the U.S Olympic team. The good news was just hard to find among all the disappointments.

Gold medals for speedskater Chad Hedrick and snowboarder Shaun White were nearly lost in a flurry of Winter Games woes that spread from sport to sport, and star to star. Big names fell short – or got no chance at all.

Besides Kwan, skiers Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves were shut out in the downhill, where longshot Frenchman Antoine Deneriaz won the gold.

Short track speedskating star Apolo Anton Ohno skidded into fourth place in a semifinal heat, missing a chance to defend his gold medal in the 1,500 meters.

Luger Tony Benshoof, on the verge of winning the first-ever singles luge medal for the U.S., slipped into fourth place yesterday – missing a bronze by 0.237 seconds. Instead, Latvia – yes, Latvia – won its first Winter Games medal.

The women’s moguls team was shut out Saturday in the freestyle despite fielding what was regarded at the deepest squad in the world.

Four years ago, the Americans won a staggering 34 medals with the home field advantage in Salt Lake City – more than double their previous high of 13 in a Winter Games. In Turin, they were just a little staggered: two golds and a silver in two days.

Historically, countries that hosted the games experience a 41% drop in medals when they returned to foreign soil for the next Olympics. That would leave the U.S. looking at about 20 medals in Italy.

Jim Scherr, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, declined to make a prediction for the U.S. medal haul. But he couldn’t have predicted the early heartbreak suffered by the Americans, either. Kwan’s sudden disappearance was perhaps the most devastating blow, since Miller, Ohno and Rahvles get to return in other events.

The 25-year-old skater smiled through her tears as she spoke about leaving Turin without the gold medal she chased for a decade.

“I’ve learned it’s not about the gold, it’s about the spirit of it and about the sport itself,” she said.

So have a few of her teammates.