Three-Time World Champ Searching for Consistency

She has won three world figure skating championships, five U.S. titles and an Olympic silver medal, and if anyone should feel secure approaching this week’s World Championships at Vancouver, Canada, it’s Michelle Kwan.

But Kwan, the winner in 1996, 1998 and 2000, wonders if she can meet her own exacting standards.

“I don’t feel like I’m the defending champion,” she said. “I’ve had a rough year this year. There’s been a lot of ups and downs lately, just like the average year.

“I’m not as consistent in my jumps, which is disappointing. I’m consistent in a way. I’m doing all my jumps well. It’s just putting it together when the time comes and delivering. You can’t make mistakes and be a world champion. It’s not acceptable, if you want to win. You’ve got lots of people who are on top of their game, also.”

A rough year for Kwan is exceptional by anyone else’s standards. She earned seven perfect 6.0s in short program and two more in the long in winning the U.S. title in January. She also won at Skate America and finished second at Skate Canada and the Grand Prix Final.

But this year is all about building toward the Salt Lake City Olympics, and the World Championships are a key step in determining who will prevail next February. The world results are an especially strong indicator in the women’s ranks, where the reigning world champion won Olympic gold in 1988, ‘92, ’94 and ’98.

Competition begins Monday with the men’s qualifying and pairs short program. The qualifying, in which the men and women perform their long programs, is worth 20% of the final score. The top 30 advance to perform their short programs (30%), then the long programs again (50%).

Kwan and Russians Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya have monopolized the major titles this season. But Sarah Hughes, second to Kwan at the U.S. competition and a strong third in last month’s Grand Prix Final, has been the most consistent technically. With Butyrskaya skating poorly, balletic Angela Nikodinov of San Pedro, third in the U.S., has a shot at a medal. The women begin competing Wednesday.

“My goals are, ‘What can I do the best I can do?’ ” said Hughes, fifth at last year’s world competition. “When I come off the ice, I want to feel really good about my performance and what I just did. The rest is in the judges’ hands.”

Among the men, Alexei Yagudin and Evgeni Plushenko of Russia have pushed each other to dizzying heights and ever-tougher quadruple jumps. But U.S. champion Tim Goebel, who won Skate America in October with a remarkably difficult long program and was second to Plushenko at the Nations Cup in Germany in November, can win if his sore right knee holds up. Three-time world champion Elvis Stojko of Canada is a longshot in his season debut after being dogged by injuries.

“Looking at the results, you’d assume Yagudin or Plushenko would be the world champion,” said Goebel, who skates with a brace on his leg. “But this is a sport where you can’t assume anything.”

Todd Eldredge, the 1996 world champion, was second in the U.S. in his return to Olympic-eligible skating after a two-year break. An ankle injury forced him out of the Four Continents event last month, but he’s eager to resume positioning himself for a third Olympic berth. He has a new long program to music from the movie “1492” instead of his 2-year-old “13th Warrior” routine.

“I’m just trying to have great performances at the Olympics. That’s something I haven’t done,” said Eldredge, who was 10th at Albertville in 1992 and fourth at Nagano in 1998. “I’ve had good performances at nationals and worlds, but not at the Olympics.”

Goebel and Eldredge’s performances will determine whether the U.S. can send three men to Salt Lake City. To get a third entry, their combined placements at Vancouver can’t exceed 13. Goebel was 11th last year and compatriot Michael Weiss was third. Weiss, fourth at this year’s U.S. competition, missed the world team.

Goebel, who skates with Kwan at HealthSouth training center in El Segundo, said he had several good weeks of training after he finished a flat fifth at the Grand Prix Final.

“I’m not really worried about trying to beat the Russians,” he said. “Technically, I know I’m capable of doing more than either Russian. I’m in really good shape, I’m well-trained and a lot healthier than I’ve been the past few months. If I skate the way I did in Germany, I think I’m definitely a medal threat.”

The pairs competition pits the romantic style of Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier against the polish of two-time world champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia. Sale and Pelletier beat them at Skate Canada as well as in a head-to-head matchup at the Grand Prix Final. Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of China lack the Canadians’ spark but perform well under pressure.

U.S. pairs Kyoko Ina-John Zimmerman and Tiffany Scott-Philip Dulebohn will have to skate exceptionally well to finish in the top five.

In ice dancing, Italy’s Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio are favored after winning the Grand Prix Final and four other events. Defending world champions Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France have battled injuries and bad luck, including a fall at the European championships. Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania will vie with Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh of Russia for a medal.

U.S. champions Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernysev and runners-up Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto aren’t medal contenders.

IN THE SWIM

Although Los Angeles probably won’t get the 2004 Summer Games away from Athens, Southern California might host an assortment of Olympic trials.

Long Beach-Los Angeles last week became the sixth bidder for the 2004 swim trials, joining Chapel Hill, N.C.; Mesa, Ariz.; Indianapolis, San Antonio and Washington. The winner will be announced in September.

“We are looking at at least a couple of other sports but the deadlines haven’t come up yet,” said David Simon, president of the Los Angeles Sports Council. “We don’t want to tip our hand yet.”

The 2002 U.S. Figure Skating championships, which will determine the Olympic team, will be held Jan. 6-13 at Staples Center. The NHL All-Star game will be at Staples Center on Feb. 2 and will feature an Olympic theme.

The bid for the swim trials meshed with Long Beach’s pending bid to host the 2005 World Aquatic championships, two weeks of swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo competition. The winner will be chosen in July.

“We can build an above-ground pool on 72 hours’ notice and nobody would know the difference between that and an in-ground pool,” Simon said of the swim trials, last held here in 1976. “That has changed the dynamics because you don’t have to build anything and you can move it to where you and TV want it.”

HERE AND THERE

Eric Heiden has applied for the job of team doctor for the U.S. speedskaters at Salt Lake City, a nifty idea. Heiden, who became the only athlete to win five individual gold medals at a single Olympics when he won the 500-, 1,000-, 1,500-, 5,000- and 10,000-meter speedskating races at Lake Placid in 1980, is an orthopedic surgeon and assistant professor at UC Davis. He worked with the U.S. speedskaters at two European events this season. . . . Environmental groups and archeologists are opposing the construction of a rowing venue for the 2004 Athens Games near an ancient battleground at Marathon. Environmentalists say wetlands will be disturbed and historians say the venue will intrude on the site of the battle of Marathon of 490 BC.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong plans to compete in the Circuit de la Sarthe next month in France, despite accusations he was reluctant to race there while French officials investigate whether Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service team used banned substances during last year’s Tour de France. Armstrong, winner of the Tour in 1999 and 2000, has denied using illegal substances.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation council will consider amending its rules to disqualify sprinters for one false start, instead of two. The IAAF Congress will vote on that Aug. 1, and on a proposal to limit the number of high jump and pole vault attempts to two each time the bar is raised.

Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis, who were All-American volleyball players at UCLA and teamed to reach the quarterfinals of the beach volleyball tournament at the Sydney Games, are pregnant and will take a year off the Beach Volleyball America tour. Davis and Jordan, who are neighbors in Tarzana, won two tournaments last season, the BVA’s first.

Only 327 days to the Salt Lake City Winter Games.