Eldredge Was Lacking a Personal Ode to Joy

Todd Eldredge, the seasick son of a Chatham, Mass., fisherman, searched the country over for that certain something--je ne sais quois, Philippe Candeloro would call it--that would transform him into the world’s best male figure skater.

From Boston to Philadelphia to Colorado Springs to San Diego to Detroit, Eldredge followed his coach, Richard Callaghan, on a 16-year odyssey from rink to rink that, as far as his Olympic hopes are concerned, ended Saturday night in disappointment.

I think he’ll look back in retrospectand realize that he couldn’t find it because it was inside him all along, the one place he never looked.

Notice that I didn’t say that his career ended in failure. Finishing fourth in the Winter Olympics is not failure. Winning five national championships, more than Brian Boitano and Scott Hamilton, is not failure. Winning at the world championships in 1996 and finishing as a medalist in three others is not failure.

But Eldredge, 26, never really soared either. He will be remembered in the United States as a good champion, never a great one like Boitano or Hamilton or Dick Button or Hayes and David Jenkins and Charles Tickner.

So many people thought Eldredge some day would join that elite group when he emerged as the national champion in 1990 at the precocious age of 18 and finished fifth in the subsequent world championships.

He had a rare athleticism, a long, lithe line like Boitano’s and an inner strength, almost a stoicism, that announced he could conquer the stress that has doomed so many talented figure skaters.

Chronic back pain almost ended his career, preventing him from competing in the 1994 Winter Olympics after a 10th-place finish in 1992. He came back but was never quite the same as a jumper, failing to develop a quadruple jump that would allow him to match technical skills with skaters such as Canada’s Elvis Stojko, Russia’s Ilia Kulik and Alexei Yagudin or even teammate Michael Weiss.

But it was not the lack of a quad that cost Eldredge a medal Saturday night at the White Ring.

Only one of the contenders, Kulik, landed one. He, deservedly, won the gold medal with a 4 1/2-minute long program to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” that not only was far superior to the rest of the skaters’ offerings technically but also was aesthetically pleasing, if a bit raw. As good as he is at 20, he could be brilliant as he matures over the next four years.

Stojko will be remembered more for his courage than anything else. Suffering from a groin injury that prevented him from jumping in practice, he didn’t even try the quad but still managed his second consecutive silver medal.

The bronze medal, however, was there for Eldredge. Although he didn’t skate well, disgustedly scoring himself 5.5s for both technical merit and presentation after performing to music from “Gettysburg,” the judges were more generous.

Then Candeloro skated.

In comparison, it was immediately evident what has been lacking from Eldredge’s skating through the years--the joie de vivre, the passion, the love of performing in front of an audience.

Performing to music from “The Three Musketeers,” Candeloro made the spectators for 4 1/2 minutes believe he was the swashbuckling, defiant, confident D’Artagnan.

The program might have been more appropriate for an ice show, especially the exaggerated sword-fighting footwork. It certainly didn’t stretch him athletically. He stumbled twice, although he didn’t fall.

But he was a sheer marvel to watch, more fun than any Olympic program in recent memory.

The crowd gave him a standing ovation, then a curtain call. He returned to the ice in a musketeer’s hat, complete with red, white and blue plumes.

“I was skating for the audience,” said Candeloro, who will turn 26 in three days and said he is immediately open to ice show offers. “I don’t care about the judges.”

The judges, however, loved him. The one from France, naturally, gave him a perfect 6.0 for presentation.

Why not?

He earned second-place marks for the long program behind Kulik and third place overall. He also won the bronze medal four years ago in Lillehammer.

Callaghan predicted years ago that Eldredge would be able to bring out that joy in his skating, that he had it in him. But it never emerged.

He changed both of his programs before arriving here, skating his short program to “Les Miserables.” He said the “Master of the House” section would allow him to display his frivolous side. It didn’t, falling flat.

He looked the part of classical performer in the long program, wearing a costume designed by Donna Karan. But clothes didn’t make the skater.

When he finished, he went to the dressing room and waited for the inevitable disappointment. Upon hearing Candeloro’s scores, he packed his skates and headed for an uncertain future.

“I knew that, more than likely, I didn’t have a medal performance,” Eldredge said. “It was something I really wanted. Everybody doesn’t get everything they want.

“I look back at Kurt Browning. He got four world titles and never won an Olympic medal. It happens to a lot of people.

“Maybe I don’t have something the judges want.”

To learn what that is, all he would have had to do is watch Candeloro.