World Figure Skating Championships Lausanne, 1997 - Report Men

"Dragonheart" Elvis Stojko hunts down the gold

by Tatjana Flade

Elvis Stojko won his title back the moment Todd Eldredge missed his second triple axel. This was exactly at 4.12 in Eldredge's free program thursday night, one more dramatic moment in a dramatic day. The first bad news arrived in the morning, when US-agencies reported that former World Champion Scott Hamilton suffers from cancer. The second blow came in the early afternoon, during the Original Dance, when word was spread that well known coach Carlo Fassi had died of a heart attack in a hospital in Lausanne. The third bad thing happened when Alexei Urmanov, first after the short program, had to withdraw from the competition shortly after the warm up for the last group. "Dragonheart" Elvis Stojko hunted last years bad memories when he had lost the title to Todd Eldredge in Edmonton and was only fourth at the Worlds in his home country. The Canadian was fourth after the short - which was the true highlight of the mens' competition in Lausanne. All the top skaters did extremly well, alltogether nine competitors did a clean triple axel/triple toe combination. The judges preferred Urmanov's classical style, putting him first, Eldredge was second, Kulik third. In the free, "The King" of jumps gave it all - triple axel/triple toe, quad toe/triple toe and so on, served in a cool manner to the movie soundtrack "Dragonheart". Eight triples, the maximum number allowed, were the key to Stojko's third World title. "All I wanted was a good skate. I tried to pull it through", Elvis commented. Todd Eldredge was at least pleased with his performance to the dramatic soundtrack of blockbuster movie "Independence Day", but of course disappointed that he couldn't defend his title. "It was close. I can't argue it. One mistake was the difference, but I skated pretty well." He knew that he would have needed the second triple axel to win in Lausanne. But so, he lost this fight with "alien" Elvis Stojko. The battle continued for the bronze medal, but after the two first skaters already a gap was visible, and many skaters rnessed up their programs. Finally it was 17-year-old Alexei Yagudin, who trains with Urmanov in St. Petersburg, who dealt better with the pressure than the rest of the pack. Skating to Bizet's "Carmen" - a choice which didn't quite suite the young athlete - he nailed a triple axel/triple toe and went for four other triples, but missed his second axel. But it was enough to win closely over Urkaine's Viatcheslav Zagarodniuk who didn't manage a combination in his ambitious program.
"After the short I dreamt of being fifth or sixth. I never thought I'd be third. It's like a present for my birthday which was two days ago," Alexei Yagudin said. The nervs, again, got in Ilia Kulik's way, Third after the short, the Russian didn't do a combination and doubled, then singled the flip. He had to touch down after his first triple axel, but had a good one out of a spread eagle. He finished fifth. German Champion Andreis Vlascenko came back after a faulty short program - he had doubled the lutz and was only 10th - with a clean performance that included seven triples. He two-footed only the second jump in his triple salchow/triple toe combination and moved up to rank 6.
For the first time in a competition, a skater included two quads in his routine - the Chinese Zhengxin Guo. Also for the first time, four quads were successfully landed - besides Guo Konstantin Kostin (Latvia) and Elvis Stojko included one in their programs.

While everyone got ready for the competition, the drama around Alexei Urmanov unfolded slowly. "In the morning, he suddenly felt pain, but he didn't know why and what had happened", coach Alexei Mishin said later. At 4 p.m. he got a first shot with painkillers, then a second one an hour and the last one 20 minutes before the warm up. Urmanov suffered from a groin injury he'd gotten during the short program Wednesday. He went out for the six minute warm up, tried some jumps, but they were singles or doubles, then he left early. "He told me right away that I should be ready to skate as fifth", Yagudin said. "I think it happened when I did the triple axel yesterday. I just can't jump", Urmanov explained. Because of the new qualification rules which include the results of the entire team, Russia lost a third spot on the Olympics and Worlds next year. "I didn't think about that. To me, the health of the athlete always comes first", Mishin said, when someone suggested Alexei should have skated, trying to save that third spot. What happened is a bad blow for the Olympic Champion who, finally, seemed to have gained more confidence this season and was so close as never before to win his first World title. "This is one of the deepest crisises in his life", coach Mishin told journalists at a press conference.

Copyright © March 21, 1997 by Tatjana Flade

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