Kwan on Solid Footing Despite a Faulty Skate

For an instant, Michelle Kwan felt as if the ice had melted beneath her.

Suddenly unable to jump as she warmed up for the women’s qualifying event at the world figure skating championships, she wondered if she had lost her mind. When she realized the blade of her right skate had pulled a half-inch away from her heel as she landed a double axel, she told referee John Greenwood about the problem and glided off on one leg for repairs.

“My skate is supposed to be me, part of my body,” she said, “and when it’s off, you feel off balance.”

Her father, Danny, helped hammer six screws into her boot, barely in time for her to take her turn. If she hadn’t been last in her group, she would have been given two minutes to remedy the problem or been obliged to skate with a faulty boot--or withdraw.

When she returned to the ice, she circled the rink a few times to be sure the repair was solid. It was. So was she.

Kwan, the defending world champion, serenely landed seven triple jumps--including the triple toe loop-triple toe loop that has vexed her in the past--in her performance to “Song of the Black Swan.” With technical marks of 5.7 and 5.8 (out of 6.0) and all 5.8s for presentation, she took the lead in her group.

The group standings were the same as at the U.S. national competition, with Sarah Hughes and Angela Nikodinov second and third. Maria Butyrskaya of Russia, the 1999 world champion, was fourth.

The women will skate their short program, worth 30% of the final score, Friday.

Hughes skated a flirtatious program to “Don Quixote.” She landed six triples, despite simplifying a triple salchow-triple loop to a triple-double, and got a standing ovation from the skating-savvy crowd of 18,676 at GM Place.

“I’m really happy with how I just skated. It was just what I wanted,” said Hughes, 15. “I had a pretty good feel for the ice. . . . The next long program I want to do a triple-triple, but it’s still exciting when you skate well.”

Nikodinov, of San Pedro, performed a balletic routine to “Sleeping Beauty” but was cautious and reduced a triple-double combination to a double-double. “One mistake is better than I’ve been doing the past couple of years,” said Nikodinov, who was ninth overall last year and 12th in 1999. “I’m pretty happy. I wanted to get into the last group around third [place]. . . . I just went out there to get the job done.”

Kwan was the only woman to land a triple-triple combination, but she didn’t intend it as a message to Irina Slutskaya of Russia, who led the other qualifying group.

“It sends a message to myself I can do it,” she said. “The more I do it, the better I feel. . . . I never think of backing down.”

In the first and easier qualifying group, Slutskaya skated an appealing four-minute routine to “Don Quixote.” Her triple salchow-double loop-double loop combination brought her three 5.8s, three 5.7s and a 5.6 for technical merit, and her artistry earned a 5.9, four 5.8s and two 5.7s.

Viktoria Volchkova of Russia was second in the group after doing six triple jumps to five for Slutskaya, and Vanessa Gusmeroli of France was third.

“It’s good. I did what I wanted to do,” said Slutskaya, the Russian and European champion and Kwan’s principal rival. “Last year I had the harder group. This year I have the easier group. It is justice.”

In the pairs competition, Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier enchanted the crowd with their free skate to “Tristan and Isolde Fantasy,” a wonderfully romantic routine that brought them their first world title.

Their performance, marred only when Sale did a single axel to Pelletier’s double on a jump sequence, was ranked first by six of nine judges. That lifted them from third after the short program past Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia, who led after the first phase.

The Russians--whose charming free skate to “Charlie Chaplin Medley” was ranked first by judges from Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Germany--were second. Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of China were third, with defending world champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia fourth.

“It’s awesome,” said Sale, fourth with Pelletier at last year’s world competition. “I was calm. It can be overwhelming, but I used the love from the crowd to be in a state of love in the program.”

At the end, however, Sale was nearly overcome. She stood at center ice, repeatedly saying, “Oh, my God.” Pelletier wept.

“I’m speechless,” he said. “You’re asking me on the best day of my life to put 20 years of skating into one word.”

Said Sikharulidze, who trains with his partner in Hackensack, N.J.: “It’s always difficult for a sportsman who wants to be first to be second or third or whatever. I don’t think we lose--we’re just second place.”

Because the combined placements of U.S. champions Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman (seventh) and compatriots Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn (11th) exceeded 13, the U.S. will send two pairs instead of three to the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Olympic berths are allotted on the basis of the finish of each country’s competitors in the previous world competition.

Ina and Zimmerman were sixth after the short program but dropped a spot after Ina fell on a side-by-side triple toe loop and a throw-triple salchow.

“We worked really hard to have polish out there. Technically, we missed,” Ina said. “Technically, we’re disappointed, but as far as the rest of the program, we’re really pleased.”

A torn abdominal muscle suffered by Stephane Bernadis of France, who was seventh with partner Sarah Abitbol after the short program, moved Scott and Dulebohn up a notch and created an opportunity for that third U.S. Olympic pairs spot. However, Scott injured her right hip flexor on a throw-double axel in the warmup and couldn’t elevate or rotate her jumps in the duo’s 4-minute, 40-second routine. She fell four times.

“I knew i could push through it, no matter what,” Scott said. “I came this far, I’m not stopping now. It was disappointing . . . but there will be other competitions.”

Notes

Three-time men’s world champion Alexei Yagudin, who skated a superb short program Tuesday despite an injured right foot, skipped his practice Wednesday. However, he’s expected to compete today, when the men’s competition ends with the free skate.