Thomas Fashions the Lead : Skater Stays in First, Body Suit and All; Chin Makes a Gain

The news Friday at the U.S. figure skating championships was that Debi Thomas wore a black-tights body suit in the women’s short program instead of the small, frilly dresses preferred by the other competitors.

Someone finally put the figure in figure skating.

Actually, Thomas wasn’t the first skater to be so bold. Another woman, Jill Frost, wore a body suit in competition three years ago. But Thomas, the 1986 world champion, is the first contender to dress down in front of the judges.

“You never know what they’re going to say,” she said.

As it turned out, Thomas, the defending champion from San Jose, was dressed for success.

All but one of the nine judges at the Tacoma Dome scored Thomas first in the short program as she maintained her lead entering this afternoon’s long program, the third and final phase of the competition.

Jill Trenary of Minnetonka, Minn., remained in second place, and Tiffany Chin of Toluca Lake moved from fourth to third with a stylish short program.

The first three in women’s singles will advance to the World championships, March 9-14, in Cincinnati as will the first three in men’s singles.

In the men’s short program Friday night, Brian Boitano, 23, warmed up for his attempt at the quadruple with a triple-axel-double toe, the sport’s most difficult combination. It’s been done only four times in short programs, twice by Boitano.

“I’ve had a lot of questions about the quad,” said Boitano, the 1986 world champion from Sunnyvale, Calif. “It’s like everybody felt my short program was a shoo-in. But I thought it was a real challenge. I don’t think everyone realized how difficult it was for me.”

Among those who did were the nine judges, all of whom awarded him first place. He will enter tonight’s competition with a commanding lead over second-place Daniel Doran of Chicago and third-place Scott Williams of Redondo Beach. Christopher Bowman of Van Nuys is fourth.

The ice dancing finals were scheduled for late Friday night.

The only champions determined as of Thursday night were in pairs, where Jill Watson of Bloomington, Ind., and Peter Oppegard of Knoxville, Tenn., regained the title they lost last year by beating defending champions Gillian Wachsman of Wilmington, Del., and Todd Waggoner of Schaumberg, Ill., Both pairs earned berths in Cincinnati.

Thomas performed her athletic short program to the new wave sounds of Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

“The song says, ‘Relax, don’t do it,’ ” said Thomas, nervous this week because she has been spending more time on her premed studies at Stanford than she has been spending in training.

“I changed the words to, ‘Relax, you can do it when you want to go through with it.’ It helped.”

Chin’s music was more traditional, but her sentiment was the same as she rallied in the short program after a near-devastating fourth-place finish in the compulsory school figures Wednesday.

Chin cried Wednesday but said Friday: “I am not a mushpie.”

The word that many skating insiders had this week for Chin was history, and not the kind that Boitano hopes to make.

She once was considered the future, finishing fourth as a 16-year-old in the 1984 Winter Olympics. She was still on course in 1985, when she won the national championship and finished third in the world championships.

But last year, still suffering from a muscle imbalance, she could do no better than third in the national championships.

Thomas became the new champion as well as the new sensation. While Thomas proceeded to win the world championship, Chin again settled for third.

Chin’s muscles are closer now to being balanced, but there has been a question about her emotions. She has changed coaches three times in the last year.

“Tiffany Chin looks really flat,” former national champion Rosalynn Sumners said while watching a practice Monday night in Seattle.

“She doesn’t look like she likes what she’s doing. She seems to be just going through the motions. She skates by me and doesn’t even catch my eye. It’s like she doesn’t have any feeling anymore.”

Carlo Fassi, who coached Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill, read Sumners’ remarks in a newspaper and seemed concerned for her health.

“Mrs. Chin will kill her,” Fassi said, referring to Tiffany’s mother, Marjorie.

So what about Tiffany, Fassi was asked.

“She’s through,” Fassi said.

Even Peggy Fleming, the sport’s good-will ambassador, expressed doubts about Chin.

“Tiffany has her own style,” Fleming was quoted as saying in The News Tribune of Tacoma. “I love the way she skated in the Olympics. She was such a breath of fresh air.

“But her body is maturing, and it’s been a real struggle for her physically. The distribution of weight has really changed her.

“I wouldn’t count her out, but I think it would be pretty shaky ground for her this year. She’s either going to make it this year or I don’t think she’s going to be in the picture for the Olympic team.”

Chin, 19, reacted Friday like someone who’s going to make it.

All of the judges had her in third place except for one, who awarded her second. She easily passed Caryn Kadavy of Erie, Pa., who was third after the compulsories but dropped to fourth when she fell in the short program.

Although it’s doubtful that Chin can overtake Thomas or Trenary, she can finish one place behind Kadavy in today’s long program and still maintain her hold on third place.

Chin’s coach, Frank Carroll of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club, said he thought she should have been scored even higher for her short program presentation, which, as usual, was elegant, in contrast to Thomas’ more flamboyant style.

“It’s not easy for someone who doesn’t skate like a truck driver or a football player to show that kind of guts,” Marjorie Chin said of her daughter. “Her style is elegant and graceful, as is her personality. Now, she’s also got determination.”

Chin said she wouldn’t have been able to rebound a year ago from the kind of disappointment she had Wednesday.

“If I had stayed the same as I was last year, I would have fallen apart,” she said. “But knowing the situation I was in, I had to be emotionally strong to come here.

“Last year was very, very hard, but I did learn a lot from it. When something’s done, it’s done. There’s nothing you can do about it. You can pout, cry and scream afterward, but you can’t do that before your next performance.

“So I pulled myself together. I came here to compete. I am not a mushpie.”

For at least one day, Chin has returned.

Suzanne Semanick of Bridgeville, Pa., and Scott Gregory of Skaneateles, N.Y., ended the one-year reign of Renee Roca of Rochester, N.Y., and Donald Adair of Woodhaven, Conn., Friday night in ice dancing.

Roca and Adair had a slight lead after the first two phases of the competition, but Semanick and Adair, second in nationals last year, scored higher in the free dance.

Both teams advance to the world championships.

Suzanne Wynne of Camillus, N.Y., and Joseph Druar of Amherst, N.Y., finished third.