Goebel Looking for Turning Point

For years, Americans lagged behind in the space race, unable to match the anti-gravitational feats of their Canadian and European counterparts.

Again and again, they failed to join the four-revolution revolution that had swept the sport of men’s figure skating, the physics-defying quadruple jump--or, in the shorthand parlance of the awed, “the quad.” While Russians and Bulgarians and even Australians were spinning like gyroscopes above the ice, Americans, try as they might, simply couldn’t land the thing.

It became a sad joke throughout international figure skating: American men can’t jump.

That is, until Timothy Goebel joined the senior circuit.

Goebel, 19, is the only American to successfully land a quad in competition--and the only human to complete three quads in the same program. At Skate America last October, Goebel took the quad where it had never been before, launching and landing it three times within one 4 1/2-minute program--a quadruple salchow followed by a quadruple toe loop in combination followed by a quadruple toe as a solo jump.

He became a one-man quad squad, duly impressing judges in Japan and France as he placed second at the NHK Trophy competition in late 1999 and third in the International Skating Union’s Grand Prix final last month.

What next?

A gold medal at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships?

Possibly. As the men’s competition gets underway tonight at Gund Arena, defending champion Michael Weiss has to be looking over his shoulder--very, very high over his shoulder--as Goebel prepares to come bounding into the building.

And beyond that?

Would you believe . . . a quint?

Goebel’s coach, Carol Heiss Jenkins, can.

“I think Tim can do it,” Heiss Jenkins says. “If anybody can do it, he can do a quintuple salchow. And I have no hesitation saying that whatsoever. And once somebody does it--once Tim does it--they’re all going to try to do it.”

Heiss Jenkins says there is no quintuple time table in place, but imagines that “toward the end of next year, he might try the quintuple salchow. You know, he’s been over-rotating the quad salchow now when they’re too high. If he feels comfortable, we can even start it this summer or early fall next year.”

Goebel, however, isn’t sure the quint can be mastered so soon.

“I think it’s something we have to work on very cautiously,” Goebel says, “because no one’s ever tried it before. The harder the jump, the greater the chance for injury.”

For the moment, Goebel would like to master the U.S. championships. One formidable challenge at a time.

“I think I have a shot, but I don’t really think people are expecting me to win,” says Goebel, who finished third at last year’s nationals. “[Weiss] is the reigning world bronze medalist. I was only 12th [at the 1999 world championships]. . . . He could put together the best two programs of his life and blow all of us out of the water. Skating is a tough sport to predict.”

The men’s competition begins with tonight’s short program and will conclude with the long program Saturday. The women’s competition will be held Friday and Saturday.

Three-time national champion Michelle Kwan is a prohibitive favorite to retain her women’s singles title. Her chief competition will come from two 14-year-olds--Sarah Hughes, who placed seventh at the 1999 world championships, and Naomi Nari Nam, runner-up to Kwan at last year’s nationals. Nam, however, has struggled on the Junior Grand Prix this season, finishing second in Montreal and seventh in Nagano.