Figure Skater Boitano Would Rather Wait for His Chance at the Top

Since he finished third last year, everyone assumes national champion Brian Boitano is shooting for the 1986 world figure skating championship.

They’re wrong, and their assumptions are beginning to bug the otherwise easy-going 22-year-old Californian.

Boitano, who travels East this weekend to defend his national title at the 1986 U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Nassau Coliseum, would prefer to move more gradually to the top of the world standings. His game plan calls for peaking just in time to win the gold medal at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.

“I’m motivated in a different way now than when I first started skating,” Boitano said in a telephone interview. “When I was younger, a lot of it was having a dream and trying to accomplish it. Now I’m skating for myself--just for myself. I have kind of a two-part goal--to be as good as I can possibly be and eventually to be world and Olympic champion.

“I’d be satisfied to just finish in the top three again this year,” Boitano added, referring to the 1986 world championships in Geneva, Switzerland, in March. “But most people don’t understand that.

“To me, it’s a really nice place to be, third. You don’t have the real pressure to stay in the No. 1 spot. But people just don’t understand. They don’t understand why I’d be happy to be in the top three.”

Boitano’s philosophy stems from observing 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton’s long reign as one of the world’s top male amateur skaters.

“I never envied Scott’s situation because it was so difficult,” Boitano said. “I never understood how he handled it. I lived through that pressure with him, and it was just so hard.”

Hence, Boitano’s decision to pace himself.

Since he returned last fall from an invitational in Japan, Boitano has been concentrating on preparing for the 1986 nationals. He will skate his short program to a Dixieland tune, “Rampart Street Blues.” The music for his long program includes a jazz piano version of “A-Train,” a ballad from “Porgy and Bess,” and a bluesy trumpet solo.

Since last year’s runner-up, Mark Cockerell, has retired, Boitano is not sure who his top competition will be.

“There’re a lot of really good newcomers skating now,” he said. “It’s hard to pinpoint which one of them is the best. There are a lot of different-type skaters. In America, the skating style has been changing away from classical to more athletic.”

U.S. skating authorities are predicting Boitano’s stiffest competition will come from two Californians, Scott Williams of Redondo Beach, and Christopher Bowman of Van Nuys, who finished third and fourth respectively at the 1985 nationals.

If a recent leg injury should prevent defending women’s champion Tiffany Chin from competing, 1985 runner-up Debi Thomas is the likely new winner.

Scott Gregory and his new partner Suzanne Semanick and Renee Roca and Donald Adair are the top ice dancers, and Jill Watson and Peter Oppergard will be trying to defend their 1985 championship against second-place finishers Natalie and Wayne Seybold.

More than 200 amateurs are competing in the nationals, which include championship competition in the novice and junior divisions.

The skaters will practice at various Long Island facilities Sunday and Monday. Competition runs Tuesday through Saturday, and the winners will perform in the Exhibition of Champions Sunday Feb. 9.