Ito Returns With Chance to Upset Order

If all goes to form, the women on the medalists’ podium after Saturday night’s freestyle program in the figure skating world championships will be China’s Chen Lu, France’s Surya Bonaly and Michelle Kwan of Torrance. They were first, second and fourth, respectively, last year.

But because Japan’s Midori Ito has returned after four years as a professional, the chances for an upset are so possible that it would not even be considered an upset if she won a medal, even a gold.

Ito, the 1989 world champion and ’92 Olympic silver medalist, begins today’s short program armed not only with her trademark triple axel but also with a new sense of style that finally reflects her 15 years of ballet training. Could it be that she has become a dancing Ito?

“She’s come back as a better all-around performer than she was before, and she hasn’t lost an ounce of her jumping ability,” said Dick Button, the two-time Olympic champion and promoter who enlisted Ito for her four professional competitions since 1992. Blade to blade against ’92 Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi, Ito won twice and finished second twice.

But Ito, 26, still must prove that she can overcome the nerves that made her less than dominating in her earlier amateur career. In the two world championships after she won in 1989, she finished second and fourth. Her short program in 1991 was interrupted when she stumbled over the sideboard and fell into the photographers’ pit.

Despite outstanding practices here, she had difficulty landing two jumps, including her triple axel, in the qualifying Monday. Still, she finished first in her group.

“Her only problem is the mental,” said Linda Leaver, Brian Boitano’s coach.

Although Ito has not spoken to the non-Japanese press here, she had said previously that she returned because she misses the pressure. But it has been reported in Japan that her country’s skating federation and her sponsor, Prince Hotels, encouraged her to come back to represent them in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.