Some Things Have Changed for Eldredge

As he prepared for an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer, five-time U.S. figure skating champion Todd Eldredge turned on the TV in his New York hotel room. The images he saw were horrifying: the north tower of the World Trade Center in flames after being hit by a hijacked plane. Within moments, he saw another plane hit the second tower, turning it into an inferno.

“It was a little scary time to be in New York City,” Eldredge said. “It was also scary trying to get hold of people I knew who were in that area.”

After learning his friends were safe, Eldredge decided to go home to the Detroit area. Airports were closed, so he rented a car--and he was lucky to find one for a nerve-jangling trip that took 17 hours. Once he went on the ice again, though, his heart wasn’t in it.

“The first week and a half to two weeks was like, ‘God, this is crazy,”’ said Eldredge, who returned to the Olympic-eligible ranks last season to pursue the medal that has twice eluded him. “It was very hard to focus and think about skating because it seemed so minuscule in comparison with other things. We’re seeing all these different people on TV talk about family members that were killed, and hearing those stories, you start to think about things.

“People said to me, ‘What happens if they don’t have the Olympics?’ I said that if they don’t, it’s fine with me. There’s life after the Olympics, and I want to live it.”

He wanted to do something, and doing what he does best seemed logical in an illogical world. The 30-year-old Massachusetts native was among the performers Friday at Madison Square Garden in a show long ago planned as a tribute to the 1961 U.S. figure skating team, which perished in a plane crash en route to the World Championships. Some of the evening’s proceeds will go to agencies aiding those affected by the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Hopefully, what I can do will help,” Eldredge said. “It’s like that whole speech from President Bush that said, ‘Let’s get back to normal.’ It’s something we’ve all had to force ourselves into doing.”

Eldredge will resume gearing up for the Olympics with two events this week. He will perform in “Salute to Gold,” starring 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, tonight at the Pond of Anaheim, and will compete in the Masters of Figure Skating on Saturday at the San Diego Sports Arena.

The men’s Masters field includes 1998 Olympic champion Ilia Kulik of Russia and three-time world champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia. The women’s field includes U.S. and world champion Michelle Kwan, world silver medalist Irina Slutskaya of Russia, 1999 world champion Maria Butyrskaya of Russia, 1994 world champion Yuka Sato of Japan, and 2000 U.S. silver medalist Sasha Cohen of Laguna Niguel. Competitors will perform an Olympic-style short program and an interpretative long program, in which women are limited to three triple jumps and the men to four triple jumps.

Although skating is familiar ground for Eldredge, it’s not quite the same since Sept. 11. Airlines no longer permit skaters to carry their skates on board, part of a ban on cutting instruments that could be used as weapons. Reluctant to check her gear, Kwan said she might have someone drive her skates to Salt Lake City. Eldredge isn’t sure what to do when he travels to events.

“I just got a new pair of skates, but I’ve got an old pair I can use,” he said. “I might FedEx a pair and have the airline check a pair.”

The Next Generation

Yamaguchi, who has been promoting the Winter Games as an ambassador for the Salt Lake Olympic Committee, considers tonight’s show the transition to a new Olympic era. The event will feature Yamaguchi, 1988 men’s Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano and 1992 women’s silver medalist Midori Ito of Japan, as well as Salt Lake City medal hopefuls Eldredge and Slutskaya.

“Here’s myself and Brian Boitano and Midori, and we’re passing the torch to Todd Eldredge and Irina Slutskaya,” Yamaguchi said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun, and hopefully, it will get people thinking about the Olympics.”

Yamaguchi considers Kwan the favorite for gold in February.

“She’s just such a complete skater, and she brings everything to the ice,” Yamaguchi said. “Irina is a powerhouse and is going to give Michelle a run for her money. For the men, Todd has a great chance for a medal, but [Evgeni] Plushenko and Yagudin are tough. Timothy [Goebel, the U.S. champion] certainly has a great chance too.”

Yamaguchi has stayed busy the past decade skating in pro-am events and shows such as “Stars on Ice,” but she plans to reduce her commitments after this season. Married just over a year to Florida Panther defenseman Bret Hedican, she is increasingly torn by their career-related separations. When Hedican recently broke his jaw and had surgery, she had to skip rehearsals to steal a few days with him and bring him home from the hospital.

“I love what I do, but at the same time, it gets harder and harder to leave,” she said. “It’s tough. You just have different priorities.”

Will He Share Pizza?

Turn down the music in the Olympic Village: IOC President Jacques Rogge has reaffirmed his intention to bunk with the athletes at Salt Lake City.

Rogge, a three-time sailing Olympian and leader of Belgium’s Olympic delegation on several other occasions, said after his July election he would stay in the dorms. Security measures have changed in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, but Rogge won’t flee to a luxury bunker .

“The Village is the best secured place in the world,” Rogge told The Times last week. “It’s a bit selfish, but I’ll be in the Village.”

Here and There

Kwan hopes Saturday’s competition will help her gauge where she stands after finishing second to Slutskaya at the season-opening Goodwill Games. “It’s always good to skate in front of a crowd and see what you get back from the judges,” she said. Kwan also said she’s taking this quarter off from UCLA to concentrate on the U.S. nationals and Olympics.

“I’m working out a lot more and practicing more, so it doesn’t seem like I’ll have enough time to do what I want to do at school and focus,” said Kwan, who will skate her interpretive program Saturday to “Fields of Gold.”

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Naoko Takahashi of Japan and Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, who broke the women’s marathon world record on successive weekends, probably won’t face each other until next year’s Boston Marathon. Takahashi broke the 2-hour 20-minute barrier at Berlin in 2:19:46, and Ndereba was clocked at 2:18:47 last weekend in Chicago.