Reception in Philly was Chilly

No, this city did not embrace the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, brazenly held this week on the same ice normally reserved for sacred nose-breakings and molar-loosenings, as performed by the good doctors in Flyers’ orange and black.

On the bright side, it didn’t body check the pixie-and-rhinestone-flyboy brigade into the boards, either, or pelt a poor practitioner of the triple salchow with acid-encrusted D-cell batteries.

Largely, Philadelphia was ambivalent to the figure skaters. The CoreStates Center, which seats nearly 21,000 for hockey, was at one-third capacity--or less--for most weekday sessions, with Thursday’s women’s short program drawing only 6,113.

The local newspapers cannot be blamed for failing to get out the word. The Daily News and the Inquirer accorded the championships the kind of blanket coverage befitting a Final Four or an Eagle playoff game--which, of course, clogged the local sports-talk radio shows with belly-aching from the cheesesteak-and-potatoes masses, who wanted to read more about this thing about Ron Jaworski becoming the Eagles’ general manager.

It was never going to be an easy fit, figure skating and Philadelphia, and the pairing produced its share of classic Philly moments.

During Tuesday’s opening ceremonies, young figure skaters were dressed in the uniforms of the Flyers, Phillies, 76ers and Eagles, performing a “tribute” to Philadelphia’s professional sports teams.

The kids in the 76er uniforms, of course, were loudly booed.

Thursday afternoon at the women’s short program, someone in the stands, apparently overcome by Nicole Bobek’s provocative performance, threw a stuffed toy animal onto the ice at the end of Bobek’s program.

Nothing unusual about that. Stuffed-animal tossing is a figure skating tradition, regarded as a perfectly acceptable spectator’s salute to a pleasing performance.

Except this stuffed toy animal was a huge Tasmanian Devil doll--still in its sharp-edged, hard cardboard box.

Swiftly, a skating flower girl glided over to scoop up the box from where it rested on the ice--just above the logo with the city’s newly commissioned slogan, “PHILADELPHIA: The Place That Loves You Back.”

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the CoreStates Center public-address announcer promptly interjected, “we appreciate the gesture, but if we find the person who threw that hard item onto the ice, we will remove him from the building.”

Then, in the foreboding tone of a boot-camp drill instructor, the announcer sharply concluded, “Do we UNDERSTAND each other?”

Philadelphia: The Place That Hits You Back.

QUAD-ROPHENIA

One element of the figure skating championships did strike a receptive chord with the Philadelphia audience: Thursday night’s quadruple-jump shootout between Michael Weiss and Todd Eldredge.

No American has successfully landed a quadruple jump of any kind in competition, Weiss coming the closest with a two-footed landing of a quadruple toe loop at the 1997 nationals in Nashville.

Weiss had promised an unprecedented attempt at a quadruple lutz during his long program, which lent a buzz of anticipation to Thursday’s proceedings. Draped over upper-level railings at the CoreStates Center were homemade signs reading “QUAD” and “GO MICHAEL.”

Weiss went for it, completing four rapid revolutions above the ice before descending and landing on both feet. Nice try, but no quad, according to the keepers of such figure skating data.

Not that the crowd minded. Weiss punched his fist in the air, glad to have landed the quad lutz on anything other than the seat of his pants, and the crowd roared its approval. Weiss completed the rest of his 4-minute 30-second program to raucous applause and rhythmic clapping.

The quad is a piece of manly athletic derring-do that any average sports fan can appreciate. Allen Iverson should get so much hang time.

“I think figure skating has always been known as the sport that is watched by the housemothers,” Weiss said. “But I think figure skating now--men’s figure skating especially--is bringing a lot of guys into watching. Maybe a few football watchers.

“Anything that gives us a bigger audience is good. Anything that draws people who are interested in athletics, which is exactly what the quad is--it’s a very athletic and physically demanding jump.

“The bigger the fan base, the better for the sport and for all of us.”

TODD AND THE QUAD

Eldredge fell on his quad try--an attempted quadruple toe loop that Eldredge slipped into his long program at the last minute. It was a surprising ad-lib for the conservative Eldredge--the first time he had ever tried the quad in competition--and the crowd appreciated the effort.

It’s safe to say Eldredge never received more applause at any time during his career for falling.

“I was really hyped up all day, thinking about doing the quad,” Eldredge said.

Eldredge’s coach, however, was less enthusiastic.

“I still believe the total program is going to make it for Todd [at the Olympics],” Richard Callaghan said. “If he starts focusing on this one jump because everyone’s asking him about it, is he going to lose his focus on the rest of his program?

“In my mind, it’s more important to develop more of a personality with that program than to focus on the quad.”

Yet, with an armada of European rivals already armed with the quad--and Canada’s Elvis Stojko musing about stepping up to a quintuple toe loop--Eldredge believes he will need to keep the quad at the ready in Nagano, just in case.

He said, “If a lot of guys go out and skate great and they all have it, then I decide: Should I stay clean and hopefully the [artistic] marks will help me or do I need to put it in?”

COUNTING ONE’S CHICKEN SOUP CANS BEFORE THE OLYMPIC TEAM IS HATCHED

Campbell Soup Co., a major sponsor of U.S figure skating, held a news conference Tuesday to unveil a new promotional campaign--soup can labels featuring the “Dream Team” of U.S. women’s figure skating: Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski and Nicole Bobek.

Coming four days before the three-woman U.S. Olympic team was officially named, the announcement didn’t sit well with the coaches of a fourth Olympic hopeful, Tonia Kwiatkowski.

“The timing of it could’ve been handle better,” said Carol Heiss Jenkins, who coaches Kwiatkowski. “They could have done it Sunday [after the naming of the Olympic team Saturday].”

Added Kwiatkowski’s other coach, Glyn Watts: “All three have been U.S. champions--that’s their only defending point. If they had waited till Sunday, it wouldn’t have been as aggravating.”

After out-skating Lipinski and placing a close third behind Bobek in Thursday’s short program, Kwiatkowski was asked about being snubbed on the soup cans.

She laughed nervously.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Hopefully, I can skate really well and they’ll have to change them.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Calendar

ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP

* Today: Women’s slalom, giant slalom (Maribor, Slovenia).

* Tuesday: Men’s giant slalom (Adelboden, Switzerland).

* Saturday-Sunday: Men’s downhill, slalom, combined (Wengen, Switzerland); Women’s downhill, super-G (Kitzbuehel, Austria).

* Jan. 23-25: Men’s downhill, slalom, combined (Kitzbuehel, Austria); Women’s downhill, super-G, giant slalom (Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy).

* Jan. 28-Feb. 1: Men’s slalom, giant slalom (Garmisch, Germany).

* Jan. 29-Feb. 1: Women’s downhill, giant slalom (Are, Sweden).

SPEEDSKATING

* Tuesday-Wednesday: World Cup long-track sprint (Baselga di Pine, Italy).

* Saturday-Sunday: U.S. short-track Olympic trials (Lake Placid, N.Y.).

* Jan. 17-18: World Cup long-track all-around (Innsbruck, Austria).

SWIMMING

* Monday-Sunday: FINA World Championships (Perth, Australia).