Tuesday, December 16, 1997

Todd arrived in Munich around noon or so and immediately took off for an informal practice session. According to Richard Callaghan, he skated really well for someone who'd just gotten off the plane.

Official practice sessions begin tomorrow. As there are only six (6) competitors, there's only one men's practice group. The guys first take the ice for a free skate practice session at noon local time tomorrow. A short program practice session is scheduled for 4:20 p.m. local time. Interesting Footnote: Krylova and Ovsiannikov (Russian dance team) have withdrawn and have been replaced by two dance teams: Fusar-Poli and Margaglio, and Lobacheva and Averbukh. The six (6) dance teams have been divided into two practice groups as have the five (5) pairs.

Wednesday, December 17, 1997

There were two practice sessions for the men today. The first, a free skate session at noon, consisted of Todd and Elvis only, the Russians all being no-shows. Elvis and Todd both seemed to be still recovering from jet-lag as neither had what could be considered a stellar session. Not bad, mind you, just not particularly electric (due perhaps to the absence of the Russians?). Elvis did his runthrough first, and it looked he was really having trouble getting into his program. It featured a bunch of doubled jumps, a two-footed quad landing, and a fall out of the triple lutz.

Todd's runthrough came at the very end of the session, and didn't go any better than Elvis's had. Before the runthrough, he did manage a triple axel/triple toe and a triple flip/triple toe, but other than that, he seemed to have trouble getting his feet under him. Come runthrough time, it didn't help that once again he took his opening position only to hear the opening strains of Independence Day rather than Gettysburg (as happened at Skate America). Finally, the right music commenced, and he proceeded to have an uneven runthrough in which he hit both triple axels, but tripled the quad and doubled the loop, lutz and salchow. The practice session ended with Todd's music.

The next session (the short program one at 4:20 p.m.) went much better for Todd. For this one, he was joined once again by Elvis. Finally there were Russians present although only one of them, Ilia Kulik, was on the ice. Russian coach Alexei Mishin appeared, waved to a few people he knew in the stands, and took a seat to watch his skaters' main competitors. Once the session was finished, he departed. Neither Yagudin nor Plushenko were anywhere in sight.

Todd's music was the first to play and we were treated to a flawless runthrough of Walk on the Wild Side, complete with triple axel/triple toe. It looked really good. Elvis followed shortly thereafter with what may also have been a flawless runthrough; at least the triple lutz and the double axel looked good. This reporter missed the combination because she was paying attention to Todd's practice, but since there was no perceptible interruption in the program, it can be assumed it was executed cleanly. Ilia, of course, did no runthrough but instead worked on isolated elements, landing some gorgeous triple axel/triple toes in the process.

This necessary piece of business out of the way (short program runthroughs), the rest of the session turned into a quad-fest, or rather, a would-be quad-fest. As the guys proceeded to concentrate on this difficult and today, almost elusive, jump, in the process we were treated to a whole slew of really nice triple toes and a couple of very nice triple salchows from Elvis. After a long string of lovely triple toes, Ilia finally landed a quad and then promptly left the ice, deciding no doubt to quit while he was ahead. However, Todd and Elvis elected to perservere, neither one of them content to rest with just one successful attempt. In between the slew of triples, Elvis and Todd each managed one fully successful, perfect quad toe, but also managed a number of doubles, pops, a fall out from Elvis, a hand-down from Todd, and a total of five (5) splats (two from Elvis, three from Todd). After two of Todd's splats, he just lay spread out on the ice flat on his back, shaking his head and grinning. The two intrepid warriors were finally forced to cease and desist when they were kicked off the ice at the end of the session.

Note on the rest of the competition: Alexei Yagudin, Evgeny Plushenko and Igor Pashkevitch were all spotted by this reporter at dinner and it is anticipated they will be seen on the practice ice tomorrow. Two sessions are scheduled tomorrow: a short program session at 9:30 a.m., and a free skate session at 2:00 p.m. local time. The opening draw is scheduled to occur at 8:00 p.m. local time. Tune in again tomorrow for more from rinkside.

Thursday, December 18, 1997

Todd had two practice sessions today - for the short program at 9:30 a.m. and for the free skate at 2:00 p.m. local time. On the whole, neither one went particularly well for him. In the first, his short program runthrough was abruptly aborted when he popped the opening combination. This led him to cease the runthrough and to concentrate while the rest of his music played on the elusive triple axel/triple toe. After a couple of misfires, he finally nailed it. Then, after executing a few other triple jumps, he spent the rest of the session working on the quad, this time without success. He came very close four times, but the end result was two falls and two fall outs.

The runthrough of the long program this afternoon was similarly disastrous. A doubled quad was followed by a popped triple axel combination, and a popped triple flip combination. In spite of these mistakes, this time he carried on with the runthrough and did land a nice triple lutz, as well as the triple loop and the second (in this case the first!) triple axel. A new element in the program, a triple salchow/half loop/double toe, in this runthrough became a double salchow/half loop/two-footed triple toe (not apparently what he was aiming for). He spent most of the remainder of the session concentrating on the missed triple axel and triple flip combinations. The triple axel combination once again proved problematic and there were several misfires before he finally nailed a couple of good ones. This accomplished, he worked a bit on the short program choreography before putting an end to what had been a less-than-stellar day on skates. This reporter takes comes comfort in the notion that what is seen on the practice ice is not always what materializes in the competition, and fervently hopes Todd is in fact saving his best efforts for the competition at hand .

Todd's Competitors: This reporter also takes comfort from the fact that none of Todd's competitors looked particularly good today. For the first time, both sessions were fully attended making the ice seem a bit crowded after the sparse turnout yesterday.

Elvis Stojko looked in both sessions as if he was really conserving energy. He didn't do a complete short program runthrough but elected instead to skate only the footwork sections of the program, skipping all other elements. Likewise, in the afternoon, he chose to skate only isolated segments of his long program - a jump here and there, some footwork, etc. In neither session did he seem to be doing a whole lot and he left the second session 15 minutes early.

Ilia Kulik was having triple axel combination problems of his own today. He started a short program runthrough in the morning but stopped after executing a double axel/triple toe - seemingly not what he wanted. A string of additional double axel/triple toes followed before a nicely-done triple axel/triple toe confirmed that this was indeed the combination he'd been seeking. This phenomenon was often observed in Lausanne - that Kulik's most common way of missing the triple axel combination is to double the axel, yet hit the triple toe. He was observed experiencing similar difficulties in the afternoon, and in fact left both sessions about 15 minutes early.

Alexei Yagudin, making his first appearance in practice today, appeared to have no problems with his quad, but was experiencing all kinds of difficulties with his triple axel. He suffered one exceptionally nasty fall this afternoon, but your reporter wasn't able to note the jump attempt that occasioned it. He left both sessions about 5 minutes early.

Evgeny Plushenko, also making his initial practice ice appearance, landed a nice quad triple toe this afternoon. But before and after this, and in the morning session, his quad attempts resulted in countless falls - at least five that this reporter was able to observe in the morning session alone. On the other hand, triple/triples seem to present no obstacle for him.

Igor Pashkevitch was also present today and other than to note a lot of triple/triples from him, your reporter was unable to pay him a lot of attention.

Draw Order: The short program draw order for tomorrow night's short program competition is as follows:
1. Alexei Yagudin
2. Igor Pashkevitch
3. Ilia Kulik
4. Evgeny Plushenko
5. Todd Eldredge
6. Elvis Stojko

The men have two practice sessions tomorrow: the first, a free skate practice at noon, the second, a short program practice at 4:30 p.m. The competition is scheduled to begin at 7:45 p.m. with the ice dance compulsories, to be followed immediately by the men's short program. Todd should be taking the ice at exactly 8:40 p.m. local time. Join us tomorrow for more reports from rinkside.

Men's Competition Footnote: After filing the above report, it was learned that Todd's problems today may have been due to a problem with his skates. The skates are going to be checked over tomorrow to make sure the skates are in good working order.

Interesting Overall Competition Footnote: Pairs competitors Eltsova and Bushkov have withdrawn (due to a groin injury incurred by Bushkov), and have been replaced by Kazakova and Dmitriev, also of Russia.

Friday, December 19, 1997

As it turned out, there was a problem with Todd's skates, specifically the blades. They were examined this morning, adjustments were made, and then tested during the practice session at noon. By popular choice, the guys had turned what was to be a free skate session into a short program one, thus enabling Todd to test the blades out with the short program music. He did execute a nice triple axel/triple toe prior to the start of the music, then when his music began, he concentrated strictly on the segments of the program that contained the jumps. In the process, he landed all the required jumps (triple axel/triple toe, triple lutz, double axel) quite nicely. Todd, however, seemed dissatisfied and left the ice shortly afterward for about five minutes to make additional blade adjustments. These, however, seemed to make the problem worse as he wasn't able to do a whole lot afterward and in fact quit practicing about 15 minutes early.

More adjustments were made this afternoon with the blades being remounted. Although a "Skate Doctor" was present (from the DSC, in fact), he didn't have the proper equipment with him for the job, and was forced to do the best he could with what he had. Consequently, the results of his efforts could not be guaranteed. The practice session at 4:30 p.m. was Todd's last opportunity to test the readjusted blades before the competition. As he was the only one of the men to show up for that session, he had the ice to himself for that purpose. He spent his time at this session concentrating almost exclusively on the triple axel/triple toe. Although he did land three really good examples of the combination, there were also enough doubles and pops to leave this reporter seriously concerned about what would happen during the actual competition.

Todd's warmup before the competition did nothing to allay these concerns, consisting as it did of a couple of successful triple axel/triple toes, as well as a distressing number of pops and doubles. So when he finally took the ice for his short program performance, this reporter was ready (?) for anything. It wasn't until he actually landed the combination that she began breathing again. It was by no means one of his best but it was totally clean. Breathing but by no means relaxed, this reporter then awaited the triple lutz. In truth, this was a jump he nearly lost, but somehow he was able to hold on to the landing. It wasn't pretty, but it was clean. The rest of the program proceeded without incident; it was definitely not one of his better performances, but in light of the problems he'd been having and what could have happened as a result, it was an awesome effort. He fnished in third place with the following scores and ordinals:

Required Elements: 5.7, 5.4, 5.7, 5.7, 5.6, 5.8, 5.6
Presentation: 5.7, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.8, 5.8, 5.7
Ordinals: 4, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2, 3

Todd's Competitors: Alexei Yagudin was the first to skate. It was a flawed program which featured a turnout on the triple axel in the combination and a fallout on the triple lutz. With technical scores ranging from 5.1 to 5.4 and presentation scores from 5.6 to 5.7, he finished the evening in sixth place.

Igor Pashkevitch was up next. He landed a triple axel/triple toe and a triple lutz that was clean although he almost had to put a hand down. With technical scores ranging from 5.2 to 5.5 and presentation scores ranging from 5.2 to 5.7, he finished in fifth place.

Ilia Kulik was next with a flawless, brilliant performance. His technical scores ranged from 5.7 to 5.8 and his presentation scores ranged from 5.8 to 5.9. Inexplicably, he ended the evening in second place. In the opinion of this reporter, it should have been first place.

Evgeny Plushenko followed Ilia with another perfect performance. With technical scores ranging from 5.4 to 5.7 and presentation scores ranging from 5.5 to 5.8, he finished in fourth place.

Todd followed with the performance detailed above.

Elvis Stojko ended the night with a flawless short program performance that frankly was good but not on the same level as that performed by Ilia Kulik. Consequently, this reporter is somewhat at a loss to understand his first place finish. Elvis's technical scores ranged from 5.8 to 5.9, and his presentation scores ranged from 5.8 to 5.9.

The men have one practice session tomorrow at 10:20 a.m. local time. The men's final starts at 3:14 p.m. local time. The skate order is as follows:

1. Igor Pashkevitch
2. Evgeny Plushenko
3. Alexei Yagudin
4. Todd Eldredge
5. Elvis Stojko
6. Ilia Kulik
We'll have the final results of the Champions Series Final Men's Competition tomorrow.

Saturday, December 20, 1997

Todd's day began with a 10:20 a.m. practice session, which he spent rechoreographing the Gettysburg program to take out the quad. The situation with the skate blades being what it was, the decision was made not to risk the competition on the quad. The session seemed to go well, and he focussed on the jumps, landing the majority of them without difficulty. Since this was a competition day, Todd did not perform a full runthrough, saving his energies for the competition itself.

He looked encouragingly strong in the warmup before the competition began. He executed each of the jumps he would perform with apparent ease. Todd was the fourth to skate and proceeded to have the best performance, on a technical level, of Gettysburg this season. Opening with a clean triple axel/triple toe, Todd followed with a transplanted triple salchow whose takeoff was problematic, but he managed a clean landing. He then executed a nice triple flip/triple toe. His subsequent triple lutz was tilted, but Todd held on to the landing, performing a clean jump. The next scheduled jump resulted in his only serious error, a doubled loop instead of a triple. This "mistake" was followed by a gorgeous second triple axel, and he finished the program with a nice double axel. Although by no means the best he can do, this performance was exceptionally good considering the equipment problems Todd has been having this week. Todd finished third in the free skate, and third overall.

Note: In this competition, Todd landed 10 clean triples, 3 in the short and 7 in the long, making this the highest number of triples in a competition so far this season.
Technical Merit: 5.6, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.7
Presentation: 5.8, 5.7, 5.8, 5.8, 5.9, 5.8, 5.8
Ordinals: 4, 4, 2, 3, 2, 1, 3

Todd's Competitors: Igor Pashkevitch was the first to skate. Although he executed eight clean triple jumps, he skated without a lot of speed, with little or no flow out of his jumps, and with absolutely no facial expression whatsoever. With technical scores ranging from 5.2 to 5.4 and presentation scores from 5.5 to 5.6, he ended the competition in sixth place.

Evgeny Plushenko was next. His skate was not without problems, namely a slight turnout on his triple lutz, a fall on his triple loop, and a popped triple salchow. He later tried the triple salchow again, and two-footed the landing, leaving him to try it a third time, when he nailed it. He did land a triple axel/triple toe and a triple flip/triple toe as well as the second triple axel. With technical scores ranging from 5.4 to 5.5 and presentation scores from 5.4 to 5.7, he finished in fifth place.

Alexei Yagudin skated third. He proceeded to have a nearly flawless eight-triple plus quad performance. He had a slight turnout on the quad, but it looked to this reporter to be clean. The second triple axel looked slightly two-footed. He landed a clean triple axel/triple toe combination, a triple lutz, a triple flip/triple toe, a triple salchow, and a triple loop. With technical scores ranging from 5.7 to 5.8 and presentation scores from 5.6 to 5.8, he finished the competition in fourth place.

Todd followed with the performance described above, and ended the competition in third place. Elvis Stojko followed Todd, opening his performance with a strong triple lutz, followed by a triple loop shortly thereafter. A quad was to follow but this effort resulted in a fall. He recovered quickly from this mistake to land a triple axel/triple toe, a triple axel, and a triple flip/triple toe. Compared to the most of the men, he seemed slow, his program did seem to consist of a lot of standing in one spot, but this reporter must admit this much: He is a real fighter. Toward the end of his program, he doubled his triple salchow, then immediately did the jump again, this time successfully. With technical scores ranging from 5.8 to 5.9 and presentation scores ranging from 5.7 to 5.9, he finished the competition in second place.

Ilia Kulik was the last man to skate. He began his program with a quad attempt that resulted in a hand down on landing. This error, however, was the last one he made. He proceeded from there to deliver a flawless eight-triple performance, although it was a performance with only one combination, a triple axel/triple toe. With technical scores ranging from 5.6 to 5.9 and presentation scores from 5.8 to 5.9, he won the competition with a majority of six judges. Final Standings Gold - Ilia Kulik Silver - Elvis Stojko Bronze - Todd Eldredge Fourth - Alexei Yagudin Fifth - Evgeny Plushenko Sixth - Igor Pashkevitch

The Gala is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. local time. Todd will be skating his new I Love the Way You Love Me program.

The 1997/1998 Champion Series Final ended on a high and even a sentimental note with one of the nicer exhibition Galas this reporter has attended. Todd, the fourth to skate in the second half of the show, skated to John Michael Montgomery's I Love the Way You Love Me. It was a wonderful, heartfelt performance, skated in his usual superb style and making maximum connection with the audience. The performance also contained, in addition to a triple toe and a couple of lovely double axels, the triple loop (and a fine one it was!) that had been missing yesterday afternoon. For his encore, he performed a lengthy segment of Walk on the Wild Side, also superbly skated and very well received by the audience.

This reporter had received the impression throughout the week that Todd is greatly appreciated and much admired in Germany, an impression that was reinforced by the Gala's announcer as Todd left the ice. Lapsing into a rare burst of English in what had up til then been a totally German afternoon, he spoke the following words: "Thank you, Todd, for your wonderful skating and we wish you the best of luck in the upcoming Olympic season." In spite of the problems with the skate blades and the frustration this entailed, the competition in Munich seems to have been in the end a good experience for Todd. He had a couple of very good performances, which he can build upon as he works toward the Olympics, and he was able to get a feel for what can be expected from his main competitors and what he needs to do to prevail against them. However, the first order of business upon his return home is a new pair of skate blades!

Notes on the Gala performances of Todd's main competitors: Aleksei Yagudin skated his funky Mack the Knife program, a program this reporter first saw at Trophee Lalique and which becomes more irritating every time she sees it. Although giving off flashes of some brilliant skating (a triple axel, great footwork and some nice spins), it also contains way too much mugging to the audience, as well as laying, crawling and "swimming" on the ice rather than skating on it. And those bunny hops have got to go! In his competitive programs, Yagudin has begun to show evidence of being a potentially great stylist. Unfortunately, to date this evidence seems totally to disappear in his exhibition programs. He is showing a new maturity in competition these days; it is well past time that he began to show the same kind of maturity in his exhibition skates.

Elvis Stojko performed the Whole Lot of Shakin' program he did on the Tom Collins Tour earlier this year - still a lot of shaking and not a lot of skating. As an encore, he skated to an Elvis Presley medley - a routine not much changed since first seen four years ago.

Finally, Ilia Kulik thoroughly delighted this reporter by choosing to skate the Mortal Kombat program he originally debuted on the Collins tour but which he had abandoned after about 4 performances of it. The program was a wonderfully conceived and brilliantly performed effort when first debuted, but has since undergone major improvements to make it an even more fascinating program. He has now learned how to jump and spin with that sword, and as a consequence in this performance was even able to do a scratch spin and land a triple axel with it. For an encore, he chose to skate a segment of his new Rhapsody in Blue long program, pausing to change from the Mortal Kombat costume into a simple black jumpsuit. Oddly enough, this reporter found herself far more impressed with what she saw of this program in exhibition than with what she had seen of it in the competition. For some reason, it seemed far more effective, leading one to wonder if part of the problem with the new program is indeed the costume.