3 Quadruple Jumps Lift Goebel to Skating Title

Timothy Goebel describes himself as “a work in progress.” If he continues his rapid development, his progress may carry him to an Olympic figure skating medal in 2002.

Goebel, who began training in El Segundo this year with renowned coach Frank Carroll, completed three quadruple jumps Sunday to win the Skate America long program and pass three-time world champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia for the men’s championship. Goebel--pronounced “Gable”--spaced his quadruple jumps throughout his 4-minute 30-second program to prove his stamina is as formidable as his jumping. He also did six triple jumps, earning a standing ovation from the crowd at the Colorado Springs World Arena.

“I’m very surprised,” said Goebel, who in 1998 became the first American man to land a quadruple jump in competition, at the ISU Junior Series final.

“Skating so early [first] in that particular warmup group, with the quality skaters that were coming after me, [the judges] had to save marks. I got a little help from Alexei, but it’s anyone’s game. We’re all doing quads and triples.”

Yagudin, who finished second, reduced his two planned quadruple jumps to doubles and put his hand down in landing his triple axel. Todd Eldredge, doubly burdened by a disastrous short program and a practice fall Saturday that left him with a sore back, made a concession to his injury by substituting a triple-triple combination for his quad. But he squeezed in six triples and climbed to third after Emanuel Sandhu of Canada had a nightmarish performance.

Eldredge was surprised to be on the medal podium. “Heading into it, you never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “Even after I skated, I knew there were a lot of other guys after me.”

Goebel, 20, is from the Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows but lived in Cleveland for eight years to work with coaches Carol Heiss Jenkins and Glyn Watts. He left them for Carroll--who also coaches three-time women’s world champion Michelle Kwan--after he finished second in the U.S. championships and 11th in the world this year. Although his artistry is still lacking, the coaching change seems to have done him immense good.

“I’ve never done any quad and landed two triple axels very cleanly,” he said. “Frank was very proud of me.”

Said Yagudin: “We are too.”

Goebel’s long program, skated to excerpts from “Henry V,” was rated best by four judges. Two ranked Goebel and Yagudin even, but Yagudin had better presentation marks--the tiebreaker in the free skate. Yagudin won only one judge outright, Igor Dolgushin of Russia.

“He’s a three-time world champion, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt,” Goebel said. “Nobody wins three world championships any more other than Michelle.”

With Eldredge and U.S. champion Michael Weiss still struggling to land their quads consistently, Goebel appears to have joined the medal race.

*

Trifun Zivanovic, who trains in Torrance, was eighth in the long program and eighth overall.

*

Kwan didn’t have time to savor her Skate America women’s title. After skating in Sunday’s exhibition of champions, she planned to practice today at the HealthSouth training center, hoping to improve her stamina and the triple-triple combination she reduced to a triple-double Saturday.

“I was doing it solid on tour, and I don’t know what happened,” said Kwan, who will compete in this weekend’s Skate Canada event. “You take time off and you think it’s better for your body and maybe it is mentally. . . . The timing is so fragile. It’s right there.”

Kwan took a month off this summer but was restless. She’s still driven to compete and said she may continue in Olympic-eligible events after the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, although her reasons have changed since she was a precocious teenager.

“That’s the hardest thing for me right now, finding the motivation that drives me,” said Kwan, who is 20 and in her second year of studies at UCLA. “It used to be, ‘Oh, I want to land this jump.’ I still do, but there are so many things that distract me. There’s school, and I can go to parties. I’m not as focused. But if you’re too focused that can lead you in the wrong direction. You can be blindfolded and not see what you love so much.”