Boitano Not Such a Sure Bet After All : Figure skating: Former Olympic champion is leader after technical program, but judges do not overwhelmingly endorse him.

A headline in one of the local newspapers Wednesday asked, “Who’s No. 2?”

The assumption was that 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano would glide to his fifth U.S. figure skating championship and that the other contenders would compete for the second U.S. men’s berth in next month’s Winter Olympics in Norway.

But after Wednesday night’s technical program at Joe Louis Arena, the answer to the newspaper’s question could be Boitano.

He has the lead entering tonight’s freestyle program, which accounts for two-thirds of the final score, but the judges did not overwhelmingly endorse him. Five gave the advantage to Boitano, three to defending national champion Scott Davis and one to two-time national champion Todd Eldredge.

Meantime, Mark Mitchell, considered a contender after his fourth-place finish in last year’s World Championships, fell early on a required element and was placed sixth, all but ending his Olympic chances.

Boitano, 30, has said from the time he announced his comeback last year that he would have to earn the national title, but almost no one thought that would be a challenge for him considering his edge in experience.

But, before a crowd of 4,367 Wednesday night, he was nervous, which showed with his shaky landing on his first jump, a triple lutz. Skating to music from “Carousel,” he settled down after that and performed without a significant error for the remainder of his 2-minute 40-second program.

“I was really proud of myself,” said Boitano, of Sunnyvale, Calif., who has been skating professionally since winning gold medals at the Olympics and World Championships in 1988. “The pressure is so much more than when I was an amateur before, the pressure of people expecting a lot from you.

“I have the self-confidence I can do it again. But confidence is a fleeting thing. You have to keep proving things to yourself. If you won a competition five weeks ago, it’s not enough.

“There’s always a doubt in your mind. You’re very confident and very good under pressure, but a voice inside you says, ‘There’s always a first time. This might not be your night.’ ”

Davis, 21, might also have heard voices if they had only had more time to speak to him. With the order of the 18 competitors determined by a blind draw, he skated second.

“Skating early really helped me,” said the son of a high school football coach from Great Falls, Mont. “I was more nervous when Brian and Todd skated than when I skated.”

But skating early might also have hurt Davis with judges who tend to reserve better scores for later performers.

“Perhaps element for element, Scott’s spins were better (than Boitano’s) in some instances,” said Davis’ coach, Kathy Casey. “But I think the judges judged it as they saw it. They obviously saw some things better in Brian’s program.”

For the 22-year-old Eldredge, a two-time national champion from Chatham, Mass., who slumped to sixth place last year, his technical program was a declaration that he is back among the nation’s elite.

“Basically, we’ve got what we were shooting for when we came into the competition, to be in the running,” he said. “I’ve struggled with the thought for a while, after placing sixth last year, that I might not be back in contention for a national title.”

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Although Renee Roca and partner Gorsha Sur, a Russian defector, are considered the United States’ No. 1 ice dance team, they discovered last month that they will not be eligible for the Olympics because he has not received his citizenship.

Then, on Wednesday, she suffered a broken left wrist in a collision with another dance team during a practice session.

But a little more than two hours later, after the wrist was set and she was fitted for a cast at a local hospital, Roca returned to Joe Louis Arena to compete in the second phase of the competition, the original dance.

“She was like a china doll,” Sur said. “I was afraid to touch her.”

Still, she and Sur finished second, which is also where the Colorado Springs, Colo., team will stand overall entering Friday’s free dance if they remain in the competition. Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., are leading in the competition for the only Olympic berth available to the United States.

“I just want to get through today and see how I feel tomorrow before I make a decision,” said Roca, who had been given a shot of Novocain at the hospital to kill the pain. “I think I’m in a nightmare right now.”