John Baldwin and Rene Inoue: Oldies but goodies

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

CLEVELAND -- John Baldwin made his debut at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1986, before many of his rivals in the pairs competition were born.

‘I’m ready for my trophy,’ he said, noting that he was disappointed that he didn’t make it in 1988.

He’s accustomed to jokes about his age -- now 35 -- but said today that he and partner Rena Inoue, a slip of a girl at 32, intend to try and qualify for the U.S. team for the Vancouver Olympics.

Inoue competed for her native Japan in two Olympics, in singles and pairs, and teamed with Baldwin to finish seventh at the 2006 Turin Olympics. The duo train in Paramount and live in Santa Monica most of the time because they’ve been too busy training to furnish their new home in San Diego.

‘You don’t shoot the horse if he can still run. And I think we can still run pretty well,’ he said. ‘So there’s no reason why we wouldn’t be doing the next Olympics.’

Inoue and Baldwin, who won the U.S. pairs title in 2004 and 2006, performed an elegant short program today and were leading the competition after the first two groups, with 61.11 points. Defending champions Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker were in the fourth of five groups.

Inoue and Baldwin were moderately rueful about the low levels they got on their spin but said their primary goal was to entertain the crowd at Quicken Loans Arena. It was a sparse crowd but was expected to increase for the women’s short program later today.

‘It’s our responsibility, it’s our job to make [fans] happy,’ Inoue said. ‘When they leave tonight I wish they’ll say it was worth it to pay for tickets and come to see them.’

A side note: Baldwin’s younger (31-year-old) brother, Don, was also competing in pairs, with Jennifer Brunn.

-- Helene Elliott