Judges Caught in Net of Kulik

A Russian dressed like a jellyfish won the Olympic men’s figure skating short program Thursday night, proving one of three things:

1) Olympic figure skating judges are pushovers for moving, compelling portrayals of spineless sea creatures swimming in time to metallic French synthesizer music.

2) Olympic figure skating judges are pushovers for male Russian skaters, no matter how ludicrously they are costumed.

3) This sport is now officially beyond all hope, clearly past the point of salvation, even by Elvis Stojko, the swarthy Canadian who boasts, “I’m a masculine skater, not a feminine skater. I don’t have feminine side.”

On a night that fairly demonstrated to Japanese spectators what the strange Western custom of Halloween is all about, Ilia Kulik and his gray gossamer chiffon tentacles floated away with four first-place scores from the judges, compared to three for American Todd Eldredge and two for Stojko.

Stojko, however, was ranked second, ahead of Eldredge, because he outpolled Eldredge in second-place votes, 4-0.

“It’s going to be a battle, a really big battle,” Kulik said of Saturday’s medal-deciding long program.

And what, pray tell, shall Kulik wear into combat? Unless the fashion police make an arrest before the weekend, Kulik probably will drag out the ghastly yellow and black number he wore during his long program at the Champions Series Final in December--a look that has been kindly described as “vinyl giraffe.”

Among the first questions posed to Kulik after a short program that garnered four presentation scores of 5.9:

So, what’s the deal with the outfit?

“It represents a man trapped in a net, because we’re all trapped in a net,” Kulik tried to explain.

Either that or it represents a man-of-war trapped in the net of a commercial fishing vessel.

You didn’t need a scorecard to tell the competitors in Kulik’s loaded six-man skating group, which included four of the top six gold-medal contenders, because it was easy to tell the Russian gypsy (Alexei Yagudin) from the 18th-century French peasant (Todd Eldredge) from the intergalactic ninja cowboy (Philippe Candeloro).

Eldredge, testing a recently revamped short program for the first time in competition, skated to music from “Les Miserables” and scarcely took a wrong turn. He wobbled slightly landing a double axel, but his opening triple-axel/triple toeloop combination was strong and his spins were the best of the evening.

The double axel was a telling moment for Eldredge. At the Albertville Olympics in 1992, Eldredge fell on the same jump in his short program, wiping him out of medal contention. Eldredge eventually finished 10th.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking going into the double axel--’Not like Albertville,’ ” Eldredge said with a satisfied smile. “I went out, was aggressive and made it happen.”

The other American in the field, Michael Weiss, crashed on a triple axel, landing the jump on one knee, with the palms of both hands on the ice. He failed to complete the required triple toeloop that was to immediately follow, dragging his overall standings to 11th place.

“I’m still young,” Weiss said, meaning that these Olympics, for all practical purposes, are done for him--but there’s always 2002.

“All I can do is go out and try and skate a great long program to salvage something.”

Candeloro, Olympic bronze medalist in 1994, doubled the triple toeloop in his combination jump and stop-started through an edgy, segmented program that included two false endings. The Romanian judge disapproved, slapping him with a 5.1 mark for required elements, and the U.S. judge gave him a 5.2, knocking Candeloro down to the fifth for the night.

Yagudin and Stojko appeared to be underscored, penalized, it seemed, for aggressive skating.

Yagudin, the 17-year-old Russian who skates in the considerable shadow of Kulik, outjumped everyone and didn’t bobble a required element, but his scores, with two exceptions, were mired in the 5.5 to 5.7 range. He placed fourth overall--and was none too happy about it.

“I don’t understand,” Yagudin said. “I did my work, I skated a clean program.”

Alexei Mishin, Yagudin’s coach, charged the judges with deciding the competition before it started.

“Alexei was more fresh, more precise, more powerful,” Mishin said. “Kulik was heavy and stiff, not so fresh. It’s becoming like ice dancing--it’s decided before and they never go away [from their preconceptions].”

Stojko turned in what longtime observers felt was his best short program at a major competition, a performance that built momentum as it developed, peaking at the end with explosive, slashing footwork and a rousing final spin combination.

When Stojko saw his scores--six presentation marks of 5.7 and one of 5.6--he broke out in laughter.

“I laughed at the 5.7s because I thought it was kind of amusing,” Stojko said. “I’ve gotten 6.0s before with the same program, I’ve gotten 5.9s before. I skated the program the way I did those times and got 5.7s tonight.”

Stojko, often criticized for favoring acrobatics over artistry in his skating, was asked if he thought the judges were sending him a message.

“If the message is to change what I’m doing, I’m still not going to change what I’m doing,” he said. “You have to be yourself. You don’t follow a path other people choose for you.

“I’m a powerful skater. I’m a masculine skater, not a feminine skater. I don’t have a feminine side. You work on your artistic side, your soul, and hope it translates to the crowd.”

Stojko paused and shook his head.

“It’s like a broken record. I’ve been saying this over and over,” he said.

Candeloro considers Stojko the top skater at these Olympics and believes the top-graded performance Thursday was not the best of the night.

“I know Kulik very well, I have seen him skate many times,” Candeloro said. “Tonight he looked very slow. . . . He was not skating like I know he can. He can skate much better, with more power.

“But at the Olympics, there is big pressure. It looked like he felt he had to concentrate more.”

Who wouldn’t, wearing a jellyfish suit for all the world to see?