Goebel Sent Spinning Into Second

History class was in session at Gund Arena Saturday afternoon, or so Timothy Goebel had thought once he became the first to cleanly land a quadruple jump--let alone three of them--at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Too bad for Goebel the instructors were grading art projects instead.

After 80 years of U.S. national competitions, in which no skater had successfully landed a quad, Goebel nailed three of them in less than two minutes. It was a ground-breaking performance, likened by some awed observers to Bob Beamon’s record-shattering long jump at the 1968 Olympics, except Beamon never had points deducted for insufficient footwork in between jumps.

Despite making history, three times over, Goebel finished second. He was eclipsed by the last skater on the ice, defending U.S. champion Michael Weiss, who bailed out of his scheduled quad, settled instead for an ever-safer triple toe loop, played it close to the glitter-dusted vest and won over the judges with a program they deemed artistically superior to Goebel’s.

No guts, no glory?

Not in the peculiar world of figure skating, or at least this little corner of it, where finesse is rewarded over valor and eye-pleasing choreography is preferred to eye-popping aerodynamics.

“I think more credit has to be given to the person who’s prepared to put their neck on the line,” said Glyn Watts, one of Goebel’s coaches. “I mean, he is taking risks. And to me, that’s what makes it a sport, not an art . . .

“It’s always hard to knock a champion off. Mike certainly skated well enough to hold his title tonight. It’s just that Timothy’s performance is history-making. I think [television] will be showing replays of those quads a lot more than they’ll be showing Mike’s triple axels, probably.”

Six of the nine judges scored Weiss higher than Goebel, who received eight technical scores of 5.9 but only two artistic marks above 5.7. Weiss, who landed nine triple jumps, received one perfect artistic score of 6.0 and three others of 5.9.

Trifun Zivanovic, who finished third, tried to explain the judges’ reasoning.

“Michael is a great champion and he’s ranked third in the world,” Zivanovic said. “He has the kind of poise money can’t buy.”

In other words, credentials count, presence matters . . . and as for quadruple-jumping ability? As Zivanovic mused, “I kind of wussed out of my quad today. But the champion did the same thing.”

Weiss remembers the days, not that long ago, when roles were reversed, when he was the daring challenger who, try as he might, could never unseat the conservative yet stylish Todd Eldredge.

“I have been at both ends of the stick,” Weiss said. “I have been in that position with Todd Eldredge, where I was the one trying quads and technically maybe doing a little more than him, but the judges have shown that they really like you to skate a solid program. And then I went back and worked on that the last two years.”

Weiss learned that lesson. After Saturday’s results, Goebel seemed to be catching on as well.

“I just think the judges are saying to me, ‘Your artistry has improved, but you’ve still got a ways to go,’ ” Goebel said. “They’re not telling me something I don’t already know.”

Still, Watts maintains that three quads in one program--unprecedented anywhere--ought to compensate for any perceived lack of artistic worth.

“When somebody is . . . doing three quads, which is more than any other man in the world has done, he’s attempting such a difficult program, the focus cannot be on the stretch of the leg and the stretch of the arm,” Watts said. “His focus has to be so much on [the jumps].

“It’s almost like going for a world-record pole vault. The focus is, ‘Hey, I’ve got to get that pole in, I’ve got to get myself up and over that bar’--not ‘I’ve got to be looking great in the air.’ ”