New Faces in U.S. Figure Skating Give Salt Lake City a Brief Respite

Salt Lake City, America’s most beleaguered town at the moment, takes a break from Olympic bribery investigations this week to examine firsthand an even more suspect, surreptitious and dubious exercise.

Ice dance judging.

While they’re at it, the local citizenry will get to inspect another foregone conclusion--Michelle Kwan winning her third national title--as well as some less certain propositions, such as Michael Weiss finally winning the men’s championship now that Todd Eldredge is no longer entered and Kyoko Ina winning the pairs title with a new partner after seven years in tandem with Jason Dungjen.

Seniors competition in the 1999 U.S. Figure Skating Championships gets underway tonight at the Delta Center with the pairs short program, followed by Thursday’s men’s and women’s short programs, Friday’s pairs’ long program and Saturday’s men’s and women’s long programs.

Also Friday, there will be new national ice dance champions because Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow, five-time winners of the title, have retired.

The championships were originally intended to serve as a national showcase for Salt Lake City as it begins its three-year countdown to the 2002 Winter Olympics. But that was before the bribery scandal broke in December and snowballed in January, sending shock waves through the International Olympic Committee and around the world.

The skating has been reduced to sideshow diversion, something to fill the time between subpoenas, but if ever a city needed to see a few sequins and sit spins for a night or two, it is this one.

There figure to be new champions in three of the four disciplines here, with only Kwan expected to repeat as women’s titlist. Since winning the 1998 championship with a historic 6.0-studded performance in Philadelphia, Kwan has seen her chief competition peel away--Tara Lipinski “retiring” to the pro tour, Nicole Bobek withdrawing last week because of an ovarian cyst.

That means the silver and bronze medals are there for the taking for a handful of former also-rans:

* San Pedro’s Angela Nikodinov, 18, fifth place at both the 1997 and 1998 U.S. championships.

* Hermosa Beach’s Amber Corwin, 19, sixth at the nationals in 1998.

* Brittney McConn of Marietta, Ga., 18, fourth at the 1998 world junior championships.

The men’s field is no longer the exclusive province of Eldredge. The five-time U.S. champion is scaling back his schedule of open events in 1999 and is not entered here. Weiss, runner-up to Eldredge in 1997 and 1998, is the favorite, with former world juniors silver medalist Timothy Goebel, 1997 U.S. bronze medalist Dan Hollander and 1998 world juniors champion Derrick Delmore among the challengers.

The pairs field has a different look as well. Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, U.S. title-holders from 1994 to 1996, have left the eligible ranks for the pro tour, and their longtime rivals, Ina and Dungjen, decided to split after a fourth-place finish at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.

Since then, Ina has enlisted a new partner, John Zimmerman, who placed third with Stephanie Stiegler at the 1997 nationals, and a new coach, Tamara Moskvina, regarded as the best pairs trainer in the sport. It is a new partnership, but already a winning one. Ina and Zimmerman placed second in November at the Trophee Lalique international competition in Paris.

Two pairs of siblings figure to contend for medals. Danielle and Steve Hartsell of Westland, Mich., placed third at the 1998 nationals, barely missing a berth on the U.S. Olympic team. Tiffany and Johnnie Stiegler of Manhattan Beach finished fourth at last year’s nationals and seventh at the Goodwill Games.

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U.S. Figure Skating Championships

* WHEN: Today through Saturday.

* TONIGHT: 10 p.m., ESPN2 (delayed), pairs short program.

* WHERE: Delta Center, Salt Lake City.