Eldredge Beats the Quads to Win

Twice disappointed at the Olympics, Todd Eldredge will get another shot at a medal next month at the Salt Lake City Winter Games--and he will go there as the U.S. men’s champion.

But he will go without having landed a quadruple jump in winning his sixth national title.

Should reigning world champion Evgeni Plushenko and his predecessor, fellow Russian Alexei Yagudin, tremble in fear?

“If you want to base it on this competition, I would say no,” Eldredge said after his “Lord of the Rings” long program was ranked first by all nine judges at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, breaking the tie that existed between him and Tim Goebel after the short program.

“But if you want to base it on potential, yes.”

Goebel, who lost his opportunity to win a second successive title when he fell on a quadruple toe loop, finished second and earned his first Olympic trip. Michael Weiss earned the third berth, by default, after a fervent but uneven performance.

“None of us had our best skate tonight,” said Goebel, who trains at HealthSouth Training Center in El Segundo. “I know all of us can skate better, and we have another month to train.”

Fifth after an ugly short program, Weiss fell on his first quad attempt Thursday at Staples Center and began improvising to enhance the difficulty of his program. Despite also putting his hand down on a triple axel and stumbling on the landing of a triple lutz, Weiss also got a ticket to Salt Lake City. Matt Savoie and Johnny Weir, who had been third and fourth, respectively, dropped to fourth and fifth.

“In terms of the Russians being scared, in men’s figure skating everybody has got to be scared,” said Weiss, who finished seventh at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. “I’m sure Plushenko, [at the world championships] in 2000, wasn’t scared and went into it and had won everything, and he finished fourth.”

Eldredge, 30, is the oldest U.S. men’s winner since Roger Turner in 1932, also at 30. With six titles, he ranks behind only Turner and Dick Button, who each won seven.

This title, he said, is by far his most satisfying because he paid the steepest price physically and emotionally.

Dogged by bad luck, Eldredge was hampered by a bad back and finished 10th at the Albertville Games. He missed the 1994 Lillehammer team after developing flu at the U.S. championships, but made the 1998 Nagano team. However, a meltdown in his long program dropped him to fourth and off the medal stand.

Weary of the intense pressure of elite-level skating, Eldredge took a sabbatical from Olympic-eligible skating for two years to refresh his body and his mind. He returned last year to finish second to Goebel at the U.S. championships and vaulted past Goebel to finish third at the world competition.

“This title is just more than I could have asked for,” said Eldredge, who got 5.9s (out of 6.0) across the board for his presentation marks Thursday. “It feels great. It was a battle out there but I tried to hang tough and do the best I could.”

Eldredge did intend to do a quad on his first jump, but turned it into a triple toe loop after hitting a rut as he took off. He has landed only two quads in competition, both last season.

“I knew the biggest thing was making the Olympic team,” he said. “I made a mistake, and it’s something I’ll have to go home and correct. Regardless of whether you land a certain jump or not, I still had the rest of the program....

“To all those people, whoever they may be, who said I was too old to do it, too bad for them.”

Goebel, skating to “American in Paris,” landed one quad, a salchow, in combination with a triple toe loop, but fell on his second quad and carried himself stiffly. He got four 5.9s and five 5.8s for technical merit, but only 5.7s and 5.8s for presentation. Seven of his presentation (or artistic) scores were lower than his technical scores, a recurring problem for the 21-year-old Illinois native.

“I think Tim’s second mark is almost level with his first now,” said his coach, Frank Carroll. “We’re working on that. When you fall it does mar the performance. We’re going to go home and decide not to fall on the footwork in the short [program] or the quad in the long.”

Weiss had the longest and most anxious wait of the top contenders. He was the first to skate in the final group of six, leaving plenty of time to brood over his mistakes and wonder if he had fallen out of an Olympic berth. “I certainly wouldn’t prefer to be in that position,” Weiss said. “I would much rather skate last and know [his status] when I got off the ice.

“I knew I had to fight uphill and I wasn’t in great position. When I missed the first quad I said, ‘That’s enough.’ I went down the other end and did a quad-triple. That proved a lot to myself.”

Savoie acknowledged he didn’t belong on the Olympic team after a mediocre performance that included an early fall on a planned triple axel-triple toe loop. “If this is going to be how I’d skate at the Olympics, then that’s not good enough,” he said.

Eldredge’s program, replete with splendid spins and good footwork, was more than good enough, to his delight.

“In your mind, you can imagine anything,” he said when asked if he envisioned enjoying such success this week. “That’s part of the reason I came back. You dream certain things and hope to achieve those dreams. One of those was achieved tonight. Hopefully, I’ve got one left.’

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

MEN

Top finishers and the U.S. representatives for next month’s Olympics:

1. TODD ELDREDGELake Angelus, Mich.

2. TIM GOEBEL

Rolling Meadow, Ill.

3. MICHAEL WEISS

Fairfax, Va.

*

WOMEN

Standings after the short program. The long program is Saturday:

1. MICHELLE KWAN

Torrance

2. SASHA COHEN

Laguna Niguel

3. SARAH HUGHES

Great Neck, N.Y.

4. ANGELA NIKODINOV

San Pedro