Eldredge Still Eyeing Olympics

Todd Eldredge leaned over the sideboards in a nearly empty figure skating arena in Nagano, Japan, his intense stare never wandering from the ice.

Was he trying to figure out just what went wrong on that very rink, where his second shot at an Olympic medal fizzled in a collection of flops and missteps? Was he trying to confront the demons that plagued him in the 1998 Games?

Actually, Eldredge was doing something far more constructive: He was plotting his future.

His career reaches a critical point this week in Boston, as the five-time winner competes in his first U.S. Figure Skating Championships in three years. Eldredge kept his Olympic eligibility while remaining on the fringes of the competitive world. Now, he is back to challenge for a top finish at nationals, a berth in March’s world championships and, eventually, a place on the U.S. team for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

“I just feel like I haven’t fulfilled everything I want to yet,” Eldredge said, “and all that really means is doing a good performance at the Olympics. I have done pretty much everything else at nationals and worlds. The Olympics are the one thing I just haven’t performed to the level I normally could.

“At the time in 1998, it was very disappointing and I was standing there, thinking of all the different things that happened and kind of looking at all that over the various years. I don’t know how much that really drives me right now, but then I kind of looked more to the future, looked ahead and said, ‘This is what I want to do the next time.’ I try to keep it on a positive level, because this is what I want to do.”

Nagano was the biggest letdown of a career with its share of pleasantries and discouraging moments. Eldredge won his first U.S. crown at age 18, in 1990. He repeated in ‘91, but then back woes plagued him.

At the 1992 nationals, which served as the U.S. Olympic trials, he withdrew with a back injury and was given a medical bye onto the Olympic team. Although he was cleared to skate at Albertville, Eldredge was not in shape and wound up 10th, falling on a simple double axel.

Then followed two distressing years of poor health and worse performances that nearly led to his retirement. But by the 1994 nationals, again serving as the Olympic trials, he was recapturing his form. He appeared ready to challenge Brian Boitano and Scott Davis for a spot in Lillehammer.

Sorry. Eldredge came down with a severe case of the flu, ending any chance of making the Olympic squad.

Rather than heading to the professional ranks, as many skaters would have, Eldredge kept at it. He sharpened his artistry and, although he never mastered the quadruple jump that has been a staple of most male skaters’ routines since 1996, he won three more national crowns and the ’96 world title.

Eldredge seemed primed for a medal, perhaps gold, at Nagano. He performed well in the short program, but never relaxed during the free skate and was outskated by Ilia Kulik, an injured Elvis Stojko and Philippe Candeloro. Eldredge was fourth.

Once again, he could have turned pro, as Kulik and Candeloro did. Instead, he decided to keep his eligibility while competing in sanctioned pro-ams.

Now, he’s back, with an eye on 2002.

“Definitely it is in me,” he says of attaining an Olympic berth, then a medal. “This year I am kind of building and getting back into things and progressing better and better. And I have longer than another year before the Olympics come around. With what I have built up and will build over the next few months and next season, it will allow me to be in top shape.”

He also has a quad in his arsenal. Not the three quads in one program that fellow American Tim Goebel does. But one should suffice, Eldredge says, as long as he presents a strong overall program.

“Like anything it goes in cycles, up and down,” he says. “And it is one of those things obviously that is much more consistent and comfortable to do than it ever was. As long as I keep that up and keep up the training of it through the nationals and hopefully beyond that, I don’t see any problem why it wouldn’t be there.

“I definitely still feel it is something I can do on a daily basis and am planning on having it in there and there being no problems. It’s not like something hit or miss, you know, one out of 50, that’s not the situation any more. I do it every day.”

Eldredge must beat out Goebel or two-time defending champion Michael Weiss to get to the world championships in Vancouver. The United States has only two spots, but could earn three for the Olympics with a strong showing at worlds.

Much of the skating community is rooting for Eldredge to succeed -- now and at Salt Lake City.

“I admire him,” 1984 Olympic champion Scott Hamilton says. “He respects the process and everything that goes into it, or else he could never be doing this or stay with it all this time. I admire that tenacity and his integrity.”

Those words bring a smile to Eldredge. But he knows his quest is a difficult one, and that he might not even be involved in trying to secure those three Olympic berths.

“If that scenario happens,” he says, “I will be the biggest cheerleader for the other guys.”