If Lipinski Still Has an Edge, It Might Be the Wrong One

By MIKE PENNER

Dec. 14, 1997 12 AM PT

Nine months is an eon in figure skating, a capricious activity in which the top two contenders in the “ladies” division competed for the most recent world championship at the advanced ages of 14 and 16.

But that was then and this is December, nine months after Tara Lipinski wrested the world title from Michelle Kwan as Nagano braced itself for American conquest and domination come February ’98.

In the interim, Lipinski blew out 15 candles on a birthday cake in June, celebrated a two-inch growth spurt that took her all the way to 4 feet 10 1/2 and went 0-2 in Champions Series events.

Kwan, now 17, beat Lipinski at Skate America, won again two weeks later at Skate Canada and hasn’t competed since because of complications with a stress fracture she suffered during the summer.

Suddenly, the mortal locks on the next Olympic gold and silver medals are looking more mortal.

Kwan, still hurting, will sit out next week’s Champions Series final in Munich on doctor’s orders.

Lipinski, tied for fourth in the Champions Series standings with Russia’s Maria Butyrskaya, will compete in Germany with her springtime aura of invincibility replaced by dismay over her recent treatment by skating judges.

“I’m guess I’m a little confused or puzzled,” Lipinski said. “I don’t understand it. . . . I don’t fully understand why the marks are so low.”

In March, Lipinski’s swift ascension to the world championship was criticized by some as premature, a creation of fickle judges so infatuated by a fresh face that they overlooked her tiny jumps and often-mechanical approach, showering her with technical-merit scores of 5.9.

Deserved or not, Lipinski’s world title was forged on the strength of those technical scores. But in her second-place finishes at Skate America and Trophy Lalique--she finished behind Laetitia Hubert of France--Lipinski’s technical marks were lower than her artistic grades, occasionally as low as 5.3.

Lipinski’s coach, Richard Callaghan, said judges have told him Lipinski’s recent scores have been lower because of an incorrectly launched lutz--a “flutz,” in the shorthand of figure skating. Instead of taking off from the outside edge of her skate blade--as proper form dictates--Lipinski launches from the inside edge, judges maintain.

Lipinski admitted she has “a slight change of edge on the lutz,” but said she performed the maneuver the same way while winning U.S. and world championships earlier in the year.

“I have a problem with this idea of Tara having a problem with the lutz,” Callaghan said. “Because last year she was world champion with the [same] lutz and there was no problem. This year they seem to be centering on her takeoff, which maybe has a slight change of edge, but it’s no different than most of her competitors’.”

Kwan among them, Callaghan contends, a notion Kwan’s coach, Frank Carroll, has disputed.

Regardless, the golden girl of Lausanne is under the judges’ magnifying glass now, and Callaghan has a fearsome flutz on his hands, with less than two months to iron it out.

“Trying to get a jump on this, we probably have shortened the takeoff a little bit and I think it’s going to end up way better than it was,” Callaghan said. “So I think we’ve got things covered.”

AND IN THIS CORNER. . . .

Kwan has been training in Lake Arrowhead since Dec. 1, but after a doctor’s examination Wednesday, she became an official scratch from the Champions Series final.

“I am disappointed because I really did want to compete,” Kwan said in a statement. “But at the same time, I want to be able to skate my best at nationals, so I have to listen to my doctor’s advice.”

The stress fracture is in the second toe of Kwan’s left foot, which continues to cause her discomfort on certain jumps. Carroll said that while “there is a noticeable improvement in [Kwan’s] condition . . . she is still experiencing some slight pain and her doctor has recommended that she not compete in Munich in order to allow the injury to completely heal.”

The U.S. nationals, which will determine which skaters qualify for the Olympics, will be held Jan. 4-11 in Philadelphia.

NOT SO SUPER-G

The U.S. men’s Alpine ski team--a.k.a. “Tommy Moe and then we’re slow”--continues to turn over frozen rocks, looking for silver linings amid out-of-the-running finishes on the World Cup circuit.

Hence, the positive spin in the U.S. Ski Assn.’s weekly on-line report after last Saturday’s first super-giant slalom of the season in Beaver Creek, Colo.: “The U.S. men picked up the pace, putting five men into the top 30 skiers for the first time in a World Cup SG.”

Yes they did--Moe placed 15th, Daron Rahlves 17th, Chad Fleischer 23rd, Chris Puckett 26th and AJ Kitt 30th.

A day earlier, Jason Roesner had finished 25th in the downhill, prompting U.S. downhill/super-G Coach Ueli Luhti to wish aloud, “Maybe this will put a fire under Kitt and Moe. . . . There’s somebody coming along and they’ve got to pick it up.”

Grading his own run, Moe gave himself “a C-plus for performance but an A for effort, which is what really matters” and seemed quite pleased to be leaving Beaver Creek for the more formidable slopes of Europe.

“I don’t know if I’m going to like flat courses anymore after skiing here,” Moe said. “I like steep and gnarly.”

ATTRACTION COMING OR GOING?

The home page for the Los Angeles Invitational indoor track meet web site features a color photo of 1996 Olympic shotput champion Randy Barnes with arms raised in victory, touting him as “one of the top stars expected” at the meet Feb. 7 at the Sports Arena.

Click on the photo of Barnes and soon you are faced with a press release headlined:

“GODINA VS BARNES, CLASH OF SHOTPUT TITANS HIGHLIGHTS

“37TH L.A. INVITATIONAL INDOOR MEET”

Barnes, the world-record holder indoors and outdoors, throwing against John Godina, the two-time defending world champion--it’s a matchup worth promoting.

Except, Barnes says, he hasn’t committed to appear in the meet and says, “As of right now, I’m not going.”

Still stinging over his payment for competing in the last L.A. Invitational in early 1996--$260--Barnes says he hasn’t “signed anything” with promoters Al and Don Franken and objects to their “plastering my face all over the place in advertising without my authorization.”

Response from the promoters?

“He has a point,” Al Franken says. “He’s right. We haven’t made a deal. We’re going to make the shotput a prize-money event, but until we get the sponsorship and put the finances together, we can’t make a deal. We think we’re going to get something done.”

Barnes said he was reluctant to sign until he learned the amount of prize money and if it would be distributed winner-take-all or among the top three.

“John [Godina] has been throwing 74 feet in training. I came in around 67 feet in my last two events,” Barnes said. “If it’s winner-take-all, there’s a very good chance I’m not going to get paid again. . . . I’m not going to go there for $260 again.”

Barnes received only $260 in 1996, Al Franken said, because “we had agreed to pay people a percentage of the gate. It wasn’t an exciting year.”

As for the on-line advertisement, Don Franken called it his mistake.

“I thought Al had talked to Randy and it had been resolved,” he said. “If Randy doesn’t want us to promote him until he actually signs the contract, we’ll hold off. I’ll have my web [technician] knock him off the web site.”

Calendar

FIGURE SKATING

* Friday-Dec. 21: Champion Series Final (Munich, Germany)

* Jan. 4-11: U.S. Figure Skating Championships (Philadelphia).

ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP

* Friday-Dec. 21: Alpine World Cup women’s downhill, super-G, slalom (Veysonnaz, Switzerland).

* Saturday-Dec. 21: Alpine World Cup men’s downhill and giant slalom (Val Gardena and Alta Badia, Italy).

* Dec. 27-28: Alpine World Cup women’s slalom (Lienz, Austria).

* Dec. 30: Alpine World Cup men’s downhill (Bormio, Italy).

* Dec. 30-Jan. 3: U.S. Ski Team Gold Cup at Lake Placid, N.Y. (Alpine, cross-country, freestyle, Nordic combined and ski jumping. Winners qualify for Olympics.)

BOBSLED

* Dec. 30-31: U.S. two-man Olympic trials (Park City, Utah).

LUGE

* Saturday-Dec. 21: World Cup at Calgary, Canada.

* Dec. 21: U.S. Olympic team selected.

SNOWBOARDING

* Wednesday-Saturday: U.S. Grand Prix competition (Sugarloaf, Maine).

* Saturday-Dec. 21: World Cup Giant slalom, halfpipe competitions (Mt. Ste. Anne, Quebec).

SPEEDSKATING

* Today: World Cup all-around (Hamar, Norway.)

* Dec. 27-29: U.S. long track Olympic trials (Milwaukee).

ICE HOCKEY