ST. PETERSBURG -- His name is Dr. German Sergeyevich Potekhin and, in a city where monuments stand on every block, the sculptors will be knocking on his door any minute.


Potekhin is a professor of applied chemistry who works at a local factory. He is also the man who saved the reputation of the 1994 Goodwill Games. Potekhin devised a solution to solve the Mystery of the Slow Ice at the Yubileiny Sports Palace.


Work through Wednesday night and Thursday allowed the first program of figure skating to take place without a hitch. That is, if you ignore the inability of virtually the entire United States delegation to remain upright. Only Todd Eldredge protected the honor of the American skaters. His stunning technical program left him second to Olympic champion and hometown favorite Alexei Urmanov.


The inability to cool off Yubileiny sufficiently for the compressor to make ice had been the most embarrassing of a number of problems for the Games. As a safeguard, organizers spent $50,000 laying phone lines and deploying television equipment at the nearby Army Sports Club, or SKA, rink. Goodwill Games president Jack Kelly said he assumed the move would have to be made.


Under Potekhin's directions, a mixture of liquid nitrogen and oxygen has been used to cool machinery in the city's Metro subway system. At about 6 P.M. Wednesday, Potekhin suggested that the mixture be applied via hose to the surface at Yubileiny.


The nitrogen evaporated when it hit the air. However, its cooling properties served as insulation, keeping the warm air of the arena off the ice. The compressor, which had been straining to no avail, could now work properly.


"They've brought in a lot of experts," Kelly said. "I've been disappointed by a lot of them. We were setting up at SKA. If Yubileiny is not 100 percent, if it's 80 percent, it's kind of risky. Yubileiny met the standard."


That would be the biggest standard, set by the skaters themselves. It did not get met until late Thursday morning. At 9 A.M., when the women arrived to practice, workers refused to allow them on the ice.


Two hours later, the men came on to the ice. The skaters cruised around the ice gingerly. Thin ice could prove perilous beneath the weight of a person completing a triple axel. Only when Urmanov jumped and landed cleanly did the others begin practicing in earnest.


Potekhin, after staying at Yubileiny throughout Wednesday night, retreated to his dacha Thursday. He refused to make himself available for reporters or sculptors.