Plenty of Ice Left in Their Veins

For an elite figure skater, the qualifying round in the World Championships should be little more taxing than performing an exhibition. Land a couple of triple jumps, don’t fall down more than once, collect the flowers and wait for the curtain to go up again.

But for the two oldest women singles skaters, qualifying Monday for this year’s World Championships was more of a test of nerves than skills.

Both Midori Ito, 26, of Japan and Tonia Kwiatkowski, 25, of the United States survived, advancing to the main competition that begins for the women Friday with the short program, and expressed relief. So would have Tara Lipinski, the other U.S. skater who qualified, if she had known better. But she is only 13 and, competing in her first senior World Championships, still trying to figure it all out.

Ito and Kwiatkowski could tell her some stories.

Ito has had a particularly eventful career, having won the gold medal in the World Championships in 1989 and the silver in 1990. After another second-place finish in the 1992 Winter Olympics, she decided the pressure was too much for her, apologized to her fans at home and decided to skate professionally.

But then she decided that she missed the pressure and, with the 1998 Winter Olympics approaching in Nagano, Japan, regained her eligibility and returned this year.

Waiting for her, besides a couple of exceptions such as Kwiatkowski and France’s Surya Bonaly, is a whole new generation of skaters. Among them are defending champion Chen Lu of China, U.S. champion Michelle Kwan of Torrance and Irina Slutskaya of Russia, none of whom had to qualify because they finished among the top 10 last year. And, of course, the precocious Lipinski, who skated in the same group as Ito on Monday.

Asked later how much she knew about her, Lipinski, who was 6 when Ito won the world championship, said, “She was, like, in the Olympics and a really great skater.”

She still is, although a somewhat different one, if her performance here is an indication. She did not jump as forcefully as she used to, becoming tentative after double-footing the landing on the triple axel that she opened her long program with, but her professional experience served her well in her presentation. With scores ranging from 5.5 to 5.8, she easily won her group. Lipinski, of Detroit, was second.

Ito told Japanese reporters that she was satisfied with her placement but not her performance because she was so tense.

So was Kwiatkowski, who, in her only other World Championships appearance, in 1993, failed to qualify, finishing 16th in her group. That was embarrassing to Kwiatkowski, who postponed her retirement so she could vindicate herself.

She did that here with a fourth-place finish in her group, even though she fell once.

“This is redemption,” said the college graduate from Lakewood, Ohio. “I can’t say I thought about [1993] every day, but every now and then, that thought came to my mind: ‘I could have been in the final round.’

“This is what I’ve been training for for the last three years, to get to the qualifying round and to get through it. This feels good, to get some of the anguish out of me.”

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Figure Skating Notes

Competition begins today in dance and pairs. The U.S. dance teams, national champions Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow and runners-up Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur, have modest expectations, hoping to finish among the top 10. No U.S. team has finished higher than ninth since 1990. Three-time U.S. pairs champions Jenni Meno and Todd Sand of Costa Mesa are looking for something higher, having finished third last year. “I think we can compete with the Russians very well,” said Meno, referring to the dominators of the event for three decades. “There’s probably five pairs here that are very strong, and we’re one of those teams.”