SKATEGATE: THE SAGA CONTINUES

Elvis Stojko finally met with reporters Monday morning, more than 24 hours after limping off the ice after the men’s figure skating long program, and acknowledged he and his coach had concealed a month-old groin injury as well as a recent siege of flu from the media.

“I tried to stay focused--that’s why I hadn’t talked to anyone about it,” Stojko said. “I didn’t make an issue out of it . . .

“I hope to God I never have to do that again because it was brutal. I’ve never been so focused in my life. I heard nothing, I saw nothing. I don’t even know what marks I got.”

Stojko received second-place marks for his second consecutive Olympic silver medal, this time finishing behind Ilia Kulik of Russia. He skated despite aggravating the groin injury during warmups--Stojko claims he tore the muscle--and being so sick with flu that he “nearly passed out with the fever” earlier in the week.

“I was completely out of it,” Stojko said.

But he pressed out to complete a clean long program, landing seven triple jumps.

“You’ve worked 20 years of your life for this moment,” he said. “You’ve worked countless hours and sacrificed so much. I didn’t want to look back and say I could have done it. I wanted to know I gave everything that I could possibly give.”

Stojko broke down in tears as he recounted receiving a fax from a five-year old Canadian girl claiming she “was going into her first competition on the weekend and she had a really bad flu and she was really scared that she wasn’t going to win. But she said that she saw me skate and knew that I was sick and said if Elvis can do it, I can do it, too.

“It kind of makes you think what it’s all about.”