Goebel Needs to Get Into Passing Lane

Timothy Goebel, who trains in El Segundo, landed the first quadruple salchow ever in the Winter Olympics in Tuesday night’s short program. Whether he can transform his technical superiority into a gold medal will be determined tonight in the freestyle program.

Third after the short program, Goebel can win if he finishes first tonight in a program that counts toward two-thirds of the final score. But he must beat the leader, three-time world champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia, and surprising Takeshi Honda of Japan, who was second in the short program.

Evgeni Plushenko, the reigning world champion from Russia, all but took himself out of gold-medal contention by falling on his quad jump and finishing fourth in the short program.

Also disappointed were U.S. champion Todd Eldredge, who finished ninth, and compatriot Michael Weiss, who finished eighth.