Friday, February 13, 1998

I'd like to start off our report with a big thank you to Fred Arnold of Minute Maid Company for arranging access to a computer (his) so we could bring you reports from Nagano.

After a night spent in Tokyo, where we watched the pairs final live and complete live on NHK, we arrived in Karuizawa, our "home" for these games, Wednesday afternoon. Karuizawa (the location for the curling event!) is about 2 hours by bus from Nagano (20 minutes by bullet train). We spent the day resting, eating, unpacking, and suffering from Snowlet fever in the hotel gift shop. We were also met at the hotel by Fred Arnold of Minute Maid, who provided us with our tickets, Minute Maid turtlenecks and trading pins (the pins are like money here at the Olympics.

We hit Nagano for the first time on Thursday. Our first stop was the Zenkoji Temple in pouring-down rain. Deb offered sacrifices in the Japanese manner, and we later purchased a votive offering (an Ema, one of which was also presented for Phillipe Candeloro by one of his fans) which we hung along with other supplications in the temple precincts. Our prayers were for Todd to skate well and or him to enjoy his Olympic experience. Zenkoji Temple is a non-demoninational temple, so we figured any gods listening could help! Since we were unable to arrange for practice session attendance, this seemed the most productive use of our time prior to the Men's Short Program at White Ring.

We arrived at White Ring shortly before the start of the Men's Short Program. While waiting for the event to begin, I encountered Alexei Mishin (Russian coach to Alexei Yagudin). Mishin was passing by, and I said hello - he stopped, solemnly greeted me, and we shook hands. It was definitely an unspoken "May the best man win" moment.

We had fabulous seats right behind the CBS broadcast booth (so we were able to watch what they were watching on the monitor!). The men were broken into five skating groups, and Todd was in the second group. Fellow American Michael Weiss was in the first group, and had a strong start to his program, but fell on his triple axel combination, effectively ending his medal hopes.

In the second group, we had Ilia Kulik, who delivered a solid, beautiful performance, and he held on to first place throughout the Men's Short Program. Philippe Candeloro skated next in the group, with an exciting short program that put ultimately him in fifth place. Next was Takeshi Honda, Japan's current champion. Philippe is considered pretty much of a star here in Japan, and his welcome from the crowd was loud and enthusiastic. But Takeshi was met with thunderous approval from his home crowd, and the air seemed to fill with Japanese flags. Unfortunately, Takeshi fell more than once during his exciting short program, and he barely hung on to a spot in the cut for the Free Skate. Alexei Yagudin skated right before Todd, and delivered his usual strong program, ending up in fourth by the end of the night.

Finally, the moment arrived. Todd was unveiling his new short program at the Olympics and we were there! The strains of music from Les Miserables began, and the new short program unfolded before us. We're biased, but from where we were sitting, it was a great skate, with terrific choreography skated with zest and energy. In fact, the judges agreed, and awarded Todd solid scores just behind Kulik. Oh yeah - the audience concurred. Todd was presented with the first standing ovation of the evening!

Next we had a break while the ice was resurfaced. High points for us in the next group of men were Yamato Tamura, the other Japanese skater, who delivered a beautiful program that lacked a triple axel. The audience went wild over his skate. Also in Yamato's group was Switzerland's Patrick Meier, a favorite of Fran's, skating in his first Olympics. He missed his triple axel combination, doubling the axel, but he went on to land a nice triple lutz and a double axel. Much to Fran's delight, he made the short program cut and will be skating in the Free Skate.

In the fourth group of men, we had Viacheslav Zagorodniuk, delivering one of the worst performances of his career. It was painful watching him, knowing that he can skate so much better. (And here we had a clear case of politics in judging, with Ukraine giving Zago a 5.8 in presentation!) After Zago, Stephen Cousins performed one of the best short programs he's given in years. It was energetic, solid, and clean, and landed Stephen in sixth place - a position he hasn't achieved in some time.

Next came Elvis. To the strains of kodo drums, Elvis performed his short program, featuring strong jumps and travelling spins (from our perspective, Elvis travelled the length of Nagano, starting in front of the N at the end of the rink, and ending up just short of the O by the end of the combination spin). Elvis's scores put him in second place after the short, bumping Todd down to third. (And in another good example of judging politics, Elvis got his first Olympic 6.0 - in presentation from the Canadian judge.)

By the time the fifth group of men started their short programs, many people had left the White Ring, and CBS had shut down its commentary, although one camera was still capturing the performances. A highlight of this last group was David Liu, whose short program featured beautiful choreography and brilliant execution, but poor jumps, and he didn't make the cut.

The top six following the short program are:
Ilia Kulik
Elvis Stojko
Todd Eldredge
Alexei Yagudin
Philippe Candeloro
Steven Cousins

Sunday, February 15, 1998

Okay, we might as well start off with the bad news. Todd did not deliver the gold-medal winning performance we'd hoped for, and after all the dust had settled, he came in fourth. Like another of our favorite skaters, Kurt Browning, Olympic fortune does not appear to smile on Todd. When we were riding back to our hotel, we were able to see the beginning of Todd's skate again on the NHK TV, and it confirmed our belief that something had been missing - that look of steely determination and total focus that had characterized his fabulous 1996 Worlds Free Skate wasn't there. For ourselves, there was a sense of unreality about it all - we couldn't possibly be at the Olympics - the Olympics is something you watch on TV, not from incredibly good seats live in the arena!

Todd's warmup started off a little shaky, but as the period progressed, his jumps became more and more solid, and we certainly were looking forward to a great skate. As Todd took the ice for his free skate, several members of the audience called out to him - some encouraging, some outright rude, taunting him about the quad (these voices seemed to come from a heavily Canadian sector). The beginning of Todd's free skate did not look great. In fact, when what should have been the opening triple axel/triple toe turned into a triple axel/double toe, I knew he was already in deep, deep trouble. At that point I went into a state of shock, somewhat akin to watching an approaching train wreck. It was strictly downhill from there. Next came a triple flip/double toe that should have been a triple flip/triple toe (a combination he rarely misses), followed by a triple sal that was landed, but sure wasn't pretty in the air. By the time the popped triple axel occurred, followed by the fall on the second attempt, I wasn't even particularly surprised. It was simply the final impact of the crash, with nothing left to do but to ascertain the full extent of the damage.

As for the remainder of the competition, for several of the "lesser" skaters, the 1998 Olympics proved to be a site for personal bests. An excellent example is Canada's Jeff Langdon. Jeff skated between the two Japanese skaters, Takeshi Honda and Yamato Tamura. Both of these skaters performed well, too, and even though their skates were flawed, both were happy with the results, as was the predominantly Japanese crowd. Denmark's Michael Tylleson started off a really neat program, and although he fell out of a triple lutz and popped a triple axel, he was really entertaining and received good scores and a strong positive reaction from the crowd.

Mike Weiss was not in medal contention after his short program, and although he did not make skating history and fell on his quad lutz attempt, he bounced back to perform strongly. Michael ended up in seventh place - an impressive rise. Dmitri Dmetrenko followed, and had a troubled but energetic and entertaining performance. The surface of the ice was littered with flowers and toys, as frequently happened after a skate (the Japanese audience is incredibly generous), and one more toy fell to the ice after the "flower girls" had collected everything. Bulgaria's Ivan Dinev postponed the start of his free skate to collect that toy and deliver it to the "kiss and cry" area - a sweet act of chivalry. Dinev's skate was also solid with good scores. Szabolcs Vidrai of Hungary proved that Kristina Czako isn't the only entertainer from that country. His skate, while lacking deep technical content, was tremendously entertaining, and the audience heartily approved. China's Zhengin Quo landed the first quad of the competition, but was otherwise uninspired. He was the last of the lower tier skaters to perform.

Next came Russia's Ilia Kulik, who landed not just a quad, but seven triples. In the past, Ilia's often been inconsistent, but this season, his consistency has been building, and it wasn't unreasonable to expect a good performance. His performance really was terrific, and he deserved the strong scores he received. A humorous side note is that one fan paid tribute to Ilia's odd choice of shirts (commonly called "the giraffe shirt") by tossing an adorable stuffed giraffe to the ice after his free skate.

Todd came next, followed by Russia's second skater, Alexei Yagudin. Like Kulik, Yagudin's had a good season, although not as consistently. Alas for Yagudin, he fell on his quad as well as on his solo triple axel, and he was clearly dejected as he left the ice. Huge monitors were suspended over the arena, and we were able to watch what was happening in the "kiss and cry" area. It was tough watching his reaction to his skate and his scores, but he's a young skater who will no doubt be back in 2002.

Great Britain's Steven Cousins followed. Steven's performances have frequently been inconsistent in the past, and we honestly didn't expect a strong free skate after he'd delivered such a good short program. We were really amazed that Steven skated so well and so cleanly; entertaining we always expect from Steven Cousins. Skating to the theme from Gone with the Wind, Steven fell on his triple axel and did not attempt his scheduled quad salchow, but he did deliver a good performance. His scores were not enough to pass Todd, however, but he did finish the 1998 Olympics in the top six.

France's Philippe Candeloro came next. His new "d'Artagnan" routine is an exciting one, and basically no one predicting the Olympics factored him into the mix. He is adored in Japan, and the welcome from the audience spurred him on to perform phenomenally. Caught up in the character, Philippe parried and swept across the ice, landing most of his jumps cleanly (he two-footed the landing on his solo triple axel), and his scores put him ahead of Todd.

Last to skate was Canada's Elvis Stojko. Elvis had fallen during warmup, but had appeared to be just fine, following it up with several jumps, including at least one combination. He skated conservatively, and did not include the quad in his performance. The performance did not seem to be up to his normal standard, and at the end of the routine, he didn't seem happy and skated off the ice with less than his usual panache. On the overhead monitors, we could see something going on in the "kiss and cry" area, but we don't know what. Elvis appeared to be having some sort of difficulty, about which no doubt we'll learn more later.

The final standings in the 1998 Olympic Men's Figure Skating competition are:
Ilia Kulik
Elvis Stojko (defending 1994 Silver Medalist)
Philippe Candeloro (defending 1994 Bronze Medalist)
Todd Eldredge