A Leap Up

In creating programs for figure skaters, choreographer Lori Nichol seeks what she calls “a lightbulb moment,” the magical instant a skater grasps the elements of artistry, athleticism and music and fuses them into consistent performances.

Nichol recalls Michelle Kwan experiencing that epiphany in 1996, before winning the first of her four world titles. “There’s that beautiful moment, when the skater says, ‘Ohhhh,”’ Nichol said.

U.S. men’s champion Tim Goebel hasn’t had his lightbulb moment yet. His finger is on the switch. But his skating, although packed with crowd-pleasing quadruple-jump pyrotechnics and an increasing affinity for his music, hasn’t been illuminated by the depth and feeling that distinguish the sport’s elite.

“I think with any kind of learning, first it’s about hearing what you’re being taught, understanding, making your body do it, and making it so consistent that it’s natural,” said Nichol, who works with Goebel and world pair champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada, among others.

“That’s a process. He’s definitely at the ‘understanding and making the body do it’ stage. Every single time out there he takes huge leaps forward. He’s a very smart athlete, and he knows how far he can push himself on the ice without affecting the technical end and his jumping. Only the best skaters in the world can do that.”

Goebel, who trains in El Segundo with a coaching team led by Frank Carroll, has the technical ability to compete with Russians Evgeni Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin, winners of the last four world championships. After he left longtime coach Carol Heiss Jenkins in mid-2000 to work with Carroll, Goebel battled daily to get his mind and body in sync.

He wanted to become a skater who does difficult jumps, not a jumper who skates between leaps.

“My strength is obviously my technical ability. I’m still doing more than anybody else,” said Goebel, the first U.S. skater to land a quadruple jump in competition, the first to land a quadruple salchow, the first to land a quad salchow, triple jump combination in competition and the first to land three quads in one program. He accomplished those feats within the past four years.

“My artistry is definitely the weaker side of my skating, but I think I’ve made huge strides.”

Goebel (pronounced “Gable”) has worked hard enough to believe his lightbulb moment might occur at this week’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Staples Center. With a berth at the Salt Lake City Winter Games at stake, there could be no better time for him to demonstrate he has mastered not simply the grand gestures of his sport, but the subtle nuances of his craft.

“The first year we worked together was very difficult because he was extremely sore and extremely cranky because of being put through the mill by everybody, and having everybody picking on him,” Carroll said. “He’s somebody who probably went from an environment where he was told he was really, really good into an environment where everybody was telling him, ‘That won’t do,’ and, ‘You can be better, and do this and this and this much better.’ It was a hard year.

“This year with him has been tremendously easier. He grasps it and the principle involved in what he’s trying to do.”

Goebel, 21, has had a solid season. A back injury kept him out of the Goodwill Games in September, but he recovered to easily win Skate America in October, finish second at Nations Cup in Germany in November and take third behind Yagudin and Plushenko at last month’s Grand Prix Final.

“I think I’ve set myself up real well to make the [Olympic] team and hopefully do well at the Olympics,” he said.

The top three finishers in the men’s event will represent the U.S. at Salt Lake City, and Goebel’s jumping ability and improving expressiveness virtually assure him a spot. Five-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge is a great spinner but can’t match Goebel’s quads; two-time U.S. champion Michael Weiss is also inferior technically and has had a rocky season. No one else approaches their level.That leaves this week and this moment for Goebel. Yet, he insisted that repeating as champion is the least of his concerns.

“I want to go into nationals and try to skate two solid programs,” he said. “If it’s second or third, I don’t care ... I have a long career ahead of me, and I’m really not worried about winning another national championship this year.”

Carroll believes the title and a medal are possible.

“There’s nobody in the world who can do quads as easily as Tim,” Carroll said. “It would be great to win a bronze, but if one of those Russian boys slips up [he could benefit]. They’ve both been world champions, but Plushenko self-destructed at Nice at worlds [in 2000], and I saw Yagudin self-destruct twice, once at Skate America [in 2000] against Tim and the other time at the Goodwill Games this year. It’s not like they’re unbeatable or it’s not possible.”

Adopted as an infant by Ginny and Rick Goebel, Timothy grew up in Rolling Meadows, Ill., near Chicago. His parents took their only child to a suburban mall for ice skating lessons but exposed him to other sports and to music. He liked skating best, and his slender frame helped him rotate quickly and learn difficult jumps. To further his training, his parents sent him to the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, when he was 11 to work with Heiss Jenkins, the 1960 Olympic women’s gold medalist, and her associate, Glyn Watts.

His mother moved with him, as she later moved to Los Angeles to take care of off-ice logistics. His father, an engineer, lives at the family home “and pays for my skating,” Goebel said, laughing.

Both parents shy away from the spotlight; Carroll recalled having seen Ginny Goebel only twice at HealthSouth training center. She attends her son’s competitions but routinely foils efforts to capture her reactions on TV by avoiding the seats designated for her and finding a place among the crowd.

“This is all his drive, not his parents’,” said Goebel’s agent, Lee Marshall.

Goebel’s drive carried him to success on the ice as well as academic honors at Lakewood High. He won the U.S. junior championship in 1996, at 15, and was second in the world competition the next year. He was sixth at his first senior-level U.S. championships in 1997, and after missing the 1998 event, moved up to third and second the next two seasons.

After the 2000 championships in Cleveland, near his training base, he dismissed Heiss Jenkins and took Watts with him to the world championships, where he finished 11th. Although skating insiders said there had been tension between Goebel and Heiss Jenkins, Goebel said there was no single cause for the split.

“We had just reached a point where she had been sort of, needing to look at things from a different point of view,” he said. “I like Carol. She really wanted the best for me. I just think she didn’t really know how to go about it. She is a great coach, and she’s had a lot of success over the years and had a lot of competitors at worlds. From my perspective, Frank is a better coach.”

Heiss Jenkins said she had no hint Goebel was about to end their relationship: “We didn’t have an upset or anything like that. It was just him telling me, ‘I don’t want you to go to worlds,’ and he went with Glyn Watts. And then he left. I had always thought and hoped he could be on the podium at Salt Lake City. He’s a very talented jumper, no doubt about it.”

Goebel approached Carroll in the spring of 2000, but Carroll had several factors to consider. One was whether Goebel was receptive to learning how to refine his posture and style. Equally important was whether Kwan, then Carroll’s main pupil, would agree. Kwan dismissed Carroll in October but said Goebel’s presence was not related to her decision.

Carroll is stern and exacting, but Goebel knew he needed structure. Sometimes that first season Goebel was too sore to skate, so strenuous was his training to improve his jumping technique and overall style.

“If you’ve learned a quadruple salchow and you’re all bent over and you can do it, and then somebody says, ‘That’s not right. You’re going to do your quadruple salchow with a straight back,’ it’s tough. You think, ‘I can’t do that because that’s not my balance point.’ It was difficult because he was finding his balance point again,” Carroll said. “It was a gradual process.”

The results made the discomfort worthwhile. In his first full season under Carroll, he won Skate America and the U.S. title and finished fourth at the world championships, his highest placement.

“Tim is a very intelligent young man, and he recognizes the intelligence Frank has,” Nichol said. “Tim is feeling safe within Frank’s guidance. When you feel safe, you start to really fly.”

But can he fly higher than Plushenko and Yagudin?

Goebel, with a confidence that can resemble cockiness, believes nothing is preordained.

“The gap is definitely narrowing. Myself and Mike and Todd, we’re very capable of beating them,” Goebel said. “They do have a certain definite sense of style. They do have some charisma, but what separated them in the past isn’t separating them as much. We’re improving ....

“If the three of us go, we’d be a really strong team. We’ve all had successful national and international careers. I may have a technical edge, but Tim and Mike have the edge of being former Olympians and being at this level for a long time.”

That’s a level he hopes to reach this week. “I don’t feel like I’m defending my title, I’m earning a spot on the Olympic team, and that’s been my dream,” Goebel said. “Whether I finish first, second or third, as long as I get a spot on the Olympic team, I will have accomplished my goal.”