Skating Fans Need Not Be Left in Cold

You camped out in front of the TV set, armed with a chart of each figure skater’s music, short program jumps and long program triple-triples, as well as the latest copy of Skating magazine. A fresh tape was in the VCR, and your lucky charm was within reaching distance for those white-knuckle moments.

But it’s all over now.

Alexei Yagudin of Russia is the men’s Olympic champion, Sarah Hughes of the U.S. won the women’s event, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia are co-gold medalists with Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada--thanks to an investigation that found a judge had been pressured before the competition and failed to report it--and Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France have the ice dance gold medal.

What happens now?

Even though the Olympic contests are over, figure skating junkies shouldn’t have any problems feeding their habit.

There’s one major event left in the competitive season: the World Championships, which will be held March 15-24 at Nagano, Japan. Many Olympic medal winners skip the World Championships because they consider them anticlimactic after the Games. Most Salt Lake City medalists haven’t committed to anything, but six-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge, who finished sixth at Salt Lake City, has already said he won’t go to the World Championships. Matt Savoie, fourth at last month’s U.S. championships, will replace him on the U.S. team.

ABC will show excerpts of the World Championships March 23 and 24 and April 6.

Another way to get a figure skating fix is to scour the weekly TV listings. Cable TV networks always seem to be playing a months-old tape of a figure skating competition, so a search of the fine print is likely to uncover a Grand Prix event or pro-am. With the element of suspense removed, watch it this time to laugh at the most outrageously bad costumes.

The Internet is another good source of skating updates and a way to find other skating fans who want to chat about a particular skater or the sport. Iskater.com is probably the best, because it features news, event reports and a discussion forum. The U.S. Figure Skating Assn.’s site, www.usfsa.org, is also good for competition info, biographies and schedules.

And if you simply must see the likes of Hughes, Michelle Kwan or Sasha Cohen again, the annual ice shows are a good bet.

“Stars on Ice,” which took an Olympic break, will resume Tuesday and tour the country through April 20. However, it has already passed through Southern California. But “Champions on Ice,” which includes many Salt Lake City medalists and past medalists, will tour from April 3 until Aug. 11. It will come to Long Beach and Anaheim in mid-July.

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Helene Elliott