Americans Sitting 1-3, but Elvis Isn’t Dead : Skating: Eldredge and Davis in good shape at World Championships, but only after flamboyant Stojko nearly steals the show in return from ankle injury.

Outside, a proper spring sleet was rolling over the West Midlands. Inside, Union Jacks were draped over the upper deck railing, tea and “chipped potatoes” could be had at the concession stand and Great Britain’s Steven Cousins was showered with bouquets after completing the sixth-best men’s short program of the afternoon.

This is England, just in case anyone needed reminding, and these are its World Figure Skating Championships.

Yet, by the end of the day, the top three places in the standings were held by two Americans . . . and a guy named Elvis.

Todd Eldredge and Scott Davis, long the great American male skating hopes and nothing more, ended Wednesday’s first round in first and third place.

Should they hold those positions through today’s long program, Eldredge and Davis would not only break a three-year medal drought for the U.S. men, but they would become the first two American men to medal at the same World Championships since 1981, when Scott Hamilton won gold and David Santee silver.

Canada’s Elvis Stojko, the reigning world champion and 1994 Olympic silver medalist, is in second place, which would be no surprise ordinarily, but seven weeks ago Stojko sprained ligaments in his right ankle during practice.

This was Stojko’s first competitive appearance since the injury and after a swaggering performance that included a perfectly executed triple axel-triple toe loop combination, Stojko was greeted with a bearhug from his ecstatic coach, Doug Leigh, who bubbled, “You are super human!”

Well, he was wearing a skin-tight black outfit with very heroic-looking blue sash and epaulets.

No cape, though.

Stojko skates to Schwarzenegger--the theme to “Total Recall,” to be precise--and seemed to terminate the short program competition almost before it began.

Skating in the second of five groups, long before Eldredge and Davis, Stojko overwhelmed the crowd and impressed enough of the judges to put first place seemingly out of reach.

But Davis came close, hitting a triple axel so cleanly he said it surprised him.

And Eldredge, despite a jittery landing on his final jump, eclipsed Stojko with a program judged to be more demanding than the Canadian’s.

Eldredge earned big points on his first jump, a triple-axel-triple toe loop combination, which carried him through the rest of the performance.

“After I landed it, I was psyched,” Eldredge said. “I said to myself, ‘Yes.’ I had to remind myself I still had seven elements to go.”

The fifth, a triple lutz, was a bit dicey, as Eldredge’s coach, Richard Callaghan, could tell right from liftoff.

“When he took off, I knew he was tilted in the air,” Callaghan said. “I had cameras in my face, so I wasn’t sure he landed it. It wasn’t until the replay that I knew.”

Can Eldredge skate any better than this?

Callaghan cut him off with a single word:

“Tomorrow.”

That would be the showdown with Stojko.

“He’s got to be feeling great about himself, for him to be off for so long and skate the way he did,” Eldredge said, setting the stage.

“I’m looking forward to it. He’s the only one I haven’t competed against this year.

“Elvis is the king. I’m going to try to de-throne him.”