After two days in London to recover from jetlag, hit all my favorite bookstores, see a play (Sunset Boulevard) and dine at my favorite London restaurant, I left my Skatetours group behind to hop an 8:30 a.m. train to Birmingham. What follows is an account of my adventures, thoughts, impressions, etc. at my first World Figure Skating Championships.

Saturday, March 4, 1995 Once in Birmingham, I checked into my hotel (Hyatt Regency - Birmingham, very nice, what little I ever saw of it), dumped luggage in room and hopped the train once again for the short ride to the National Exhibition Centre and the site of the 1995 World Championships. It being very early in the week, few people were about and no signs were as yet up to direct the general public (meaning me) as to where to go to find what. A thoroughly confused security person suggested I go to the "hotel" for information, vaguely pointing to the far horizon as she did so, before racing off to attend to other duties. I stared off in the direction indicated, but all I could see was a large lake with a forest beyond. Nothing that resembled a hotel. As I was contemplating my next move, a friendly voice behind me said "You look lost. Can I help?" I turned to find myself face to face with Victor Kraatz. At least I knew I was in the right place. Upon my explaining my predicament, he absolutely assured me there was indeed a hotel nearby and that it was located in the middle of the clump of trees beyond the lake. He then proceeded to give detailed instructions concerning which path to take and in total faith and with profound thanks I set off.

At the hotel I was handed a skaters' handbook which told me all I needed to know - namely, that a men's practice was currently in progress at the practice rink in the Forum. As the handbook was also equipped with map, the dash to the rink was accomplished quickly and I arrived just as a group of five guys was taking the ice to begin warm-up. No one looked familiar, but as I settled into my seat I found myself watching one of the men in particular. Ability-wise, he seemed far superior to the others and I was struck by how much he resembled Aleksei Urmanov. Even his style of skating, hand gestures, etc. was similar. Then I realized it WAS Aleksei Urmanov. My failure to recognize him was because I had never before seen him both on the ice AND not in full costume (at the '93 Skate America he never appeared at practice except in costume). A great wish had come true - to see "Mr. Sleeves" skate without them, and I immediately dubbed him best dressed in group. I was extremely impressed. Dark royal blue tights with matching skate socks, and a dark turquoise T-shirt with a large shark in front and bearing the moniker "San Jose Sharks" (perhaps a gift from a fan when the Collins Tour hit San Jose?) Quite apart from his attire, I was equally impressed with the way he was skating. At some point between the Olympics and now he had actually learned how to do something on the ice other than jump. He had actually learned how to spin! With speed and variety. I was entranced and had a sneaking suspicion I would yet turn into a fan. I recognized no one else in the group (Ilia Kulik was supposed to be in the group, but was a no-show at this session) but in any case found myself unable to tear my eyes away from Aleksei. During ice-resurfacing I went exploring and discovered a practice group list. I found that I had missed the French and the Canadians, but was in time to catch the Ukrainians (up next) and our guys (up after that). I had every intention of returning to check out Zago (Vyacheslav Zagorodniuk) and Dmitry (Dmitrenko), but I was standing in the hall between rinks checking out the newly opened souvenir stand when I heard the unmistakable sound of Nicole Bobek's music coming from the other rink (in the Arena) and immediately made a B-line toward the sound on the assumption that where Nicole was practicing Todd must be in the vicinity. The assumption proved totally correct and I was awarded with my first sight of Mr. Eldredge.

I left the Arena when Todd did to return to the Forum rink and Todd's practice session. I wound up sitting behind Nicole and her support group (mother Jana, Joyce Barron, and another woman - obviously a chaperone/family friend - with a small child Nicole took great delight in playing with). In addition to Scott Davis, Steven Cousins and Stephen Carr were in the same group. I tried to watch the others occasionally, but largely failed. I did note that Scott had a generally miserable practice, failing on a jump as well as on a spin, but on the whole I was far too absorbed with Todd's problems. Namely, the triple axel. After popping out of it a few times, he finally fell on it, but then during his short program run-through he nailed it perfectly (relief!)

As Todd's session was the last of the mens' practices for the day, I stumbled back to the Metropole (the hotel in the forest - also competition headquarters and residence for most of the skaters), weak with hunger. It was 4 pm and I was operating only on the energy supplied by 1/2 honeydew melon consumed at 7 am that morning. On the trail through the forest I encountered Elvis Stojko coming the other way and was glad to see he was in residence.

The lounge/bar of the Metropole was an ideal spot (open and elevated just above the hotel lobby and competition info area) from which to secure nourishment (24 hour food service with rather extensive menu), as well as various types of liquid refreshment, while providing ample sights by which to munch and drink. Ultimately, I was to spend far more time in that place than I did in the bed back at my hotel. On this, my first foray, I went through two brown ales and a cheeseburger while watching Robin Cousins. He was at a table directly in my line of vision. As I moved on to a pot of coffee, Robin vacated the table to be succeeded by Ruth and John Eldredge. They had apparently only just arrived in Birmingham, as I hadn't seen them at Todd's practice. They were apparently not staying at the Metropole as I ran into them later in the week at the train station and saw Todd seeing them into a taxi on a few occasions (for all I knew they could have been staying at my hotel - that's where Petrenko and Baiul wound up). I was planning to make an early night of it, but needed to hang around til after the qualifying draw at 6:30 pm to find out which group Todd would be in. While making my way through a third cup of coffee, an after dinner drink and another brown ale, I thought about the qualifying rounds facing Todd and Nicole. There were 46 men entered in the competition. Of this number, 8 were exempt from qualifying by virtue of their top 10 finish at last year's Worlds (Namely, Stojko, Candeloro, Zagorodniuk, Urmanov, Davis and Millot plus Sebastien Britten and Steven Cousins). As only 30 could compete, this left 38 guys trying to qualify for the remaining 22 places. Among the ladies, there were 43 entrants with 7 exempt, leaving 36 to qualify for 23 places. The qualifiers would be divided into two equal or roughly equal groups. For the men, the top 11 finishers in each group would qualify. For the ladies, it would be the top 12 in Group A, the top 11 in Group B (as dictated by "tradition.") As the wait continued (compiling and posting was not a speedy process), I found myself wishing someone would magically appear with the knowledge I sought. As if on cue Richard (Callaghan) popped up just long enough for me to ask him. Todd, I discovered, had drawn to skate in the first group and so we'd get it over with in the afternoon and not have to wait 'til that night. While at it, I congratulated Richard for the Providence wins and thanked him for making my dreams come true by turning Nicole into the champion I always knew she could be (in Providence I had threatened to fall down and kiss the ground he walked on but I had calmed down since then). Richard was most appreciative of my appreciation and said "Let's hope we can do it again here." Then it was off to my hotel, unpacking and a chance for a reasonable bedtime. With men's qualifying the next day I knew it would be a long one.

Sunday, March 5, 1995 I was up and off early, and upon reaching the skating complex, headed to the Metropole to check out the qualifying sessions skate orders and to have breakfast. Few people were about when I arrived, but quite by chance I found myself walking with Joyce Barron, Nicole's "aunt." A very nice lady, very friendly. I learned that she really does think of herself as Jana Bobek's sister and that she has been living with them since Nicole was 1 year old. We discussed how good the move to Detroit and Richard had been for Nicole, and Joyce mentioned what a good influence Todd was on Nicole. She said he was a really nice fellow and that they hadn't really known him prior to the move to Detroit. I said I thought Nicole's recent improvement was amazing and that I had seen two years' worth of progress in a mere two months. She replied that actually there had been remarkable progress in just six weeks, right before the Goodwill Games, although it might not have been apparent from the TV broadcast. The problem in Russia was that she had skated with dull skate blades (they'd been sharpened before they left home but were dull when they got there.) I refrained from asking the obvious question - why couldn't they sharpen them again after arrival - but then, maybe the question wasn't that obvious considering the primitive skating conditions in St. Petersburg - normally and during the Goodwill Games. As a parting comment I offered my opinion that Nicole had the potential to be the greatest female skater of all time - to which Joyce sighed and said "Yes, if we can only keep her focused."

At the bulletin board in the hotel, I ascertained that Todd had drawn to skate 11th in his group of 18, and what a group it was! All the talent seemed concentrated there (in addition to Todd, Ilia Kulik, the Ukrainians - Dmitrenko and Eremenko, Cornel Gheorghe, as well as Marcus Christensen, Michael Tyllesen and Stephen Carr). By contrast, Group B seemed far the easier. Michael Shmerkin, Ronny Winkler and David Liu were the only ones in the group familiar to me, along with Patrick Meier, a Swiss skater about whom I had heard my friend Emma Abraham rave for years. Also, there were only 17 in Group B (as opposed to the 18 in Group A). Three of the original competitors (from Armenia, Lithuania and Sweden) apparently never made it to Birmingham, leaving a new total of 35 to battle for the available 22 spots in the competition. Nicole meanwhile had drawn Ladies Group B, skating 14th, and would be up against Lu Chen, Mila Kajas, Laetitia Hubert and the Canadian Jennifer Robinson. Even without Lu Chen, Group A seemed the tougher group, consisting of Irina Slutskaya, Junko Yaginuma (and the other 2 Japanese), Anna Rechnio, Simone Lang, Krisztina Czako, the Canadian National Champion Nettie Kim and the other Ukrainian (Yulia Lavrenchuk). There were 18 in each group.

Then it was off to breakfast where I returned from the buffet with loaded plate to discover Midori Ito standing at my table talking with a couple of guys at the table adjoining. I figured she was probably here to cover the event for Japanese TV. On my way from breakfast to the skating rinks, I spotted Richard sitting by himself in the lobby and took advantage of the fact to ask him about Todd's performance at NHK. All I had heard (by word of mouth) was that Todd had skated "brilliantly". No skating publication I had seen had given any details whatsoever. Richard was delighted to satisfy my curiosity by informing me that Todd had skated a completely clean free program at NHK (I had suspected as much, but it was nice to have it confirmed.) I arrived at the Arena in time to catch two pairs short program practices - one with the U.S. teams, and the other with Kovarikova & Novotny - and then headed over to the Forum rink for a couple of Free Dance practices, including a group with both Rahkomo/Kokko and Roca/Sur. This was my first in-person look at Rahkomo and Kokko, to which my response was basically "Wow."

Soon it was 2:30 and time for the first men's qualifying round - Group A - Todd's group. With the withdrawal of the competitor from Spain, the group of 18 was now reduced to 17, and Todd scheduled to skate 10th in the group. Each competitor was to skate his long program, with the scoring exactly as in the regular competition, with a placement factor of 1.0. The competitors were divided into three warm-up groups of 5, 6 and 6 (with Todd in the second sub-group).

Marcus Christensen was the first up. I found myself no more impressed with him now than I was when I saw him at Skate America this year. He's a fairly good jumper (when he lands on his feet) but is a rather slow spinner with little beyond jumps to recommend him and no on-ice charisma whatever. Today one jump ended in a fall and he had nothing to fall back upon. He scored in the upper 4's and ultimately failed to qualify, ranking 12th in the group (4 judges voting to keep him, 5 to boot him out). I'm convinced that had he skated in Group B (the weaker group) or had he skated later in his own group he would have qualified, as skaters in Group B with lower scores than his made the cut. Marcus was followed by Cornel Gheorghe from Romania. As he'd twice cancelled out on a Skate America I was to attend, this was my first opportunity to see the guy. My general impression was great style and on-ice presence, but underdeveloped technique. He qualified, so I would get to see him again. Aside from a rather dreadful skater from Khazakstan who failed to qualify, the rest of this first sub-group consisted of the Ukrainians - Dmitry Dmitrenko and Vassily Eremenko. I'd never seen either before (but had heard much about them). Of the two, I was far more impressed with Eremenko (although somewhat disconcerted by the fact he was skating to Chaplin music!). So great is Eremenko's style that although he fell out of three jumps he still received fairly high scores and ultimately finished 4th in the group. Meanwhile, Dmitrenko two-footed his triple axel landing and fell on a simple spin, but likewise was a strong enough skater (very innovative spins and a terrific jumper) to receive good scores and ultimately a 3rd place finish.

After Eremenko's skate, the 2nd (and all important to me) subgroup took the ice for warm-up. Todd was still having problems with his triple axel, and one minute prior to the end of the warm-up he took one last stab at it and fell, really hard. After what seemed to me an eternity, he got to his feet, appearing to be uninjured and relatively unrattled, but I was ready for a tranquillizer! I was thankful there were 4 skaters up before him, giving him a chance to recover.

First up was the newly rising British "star," Clive Shorten, already immensely popular in Britain. From this first view, I saw promise (he has great footwork) but a long way to go yet. In fact, I'm convinced that had he been skating under any other flag he would not have qualified. As it was, he was grossly overmarked and by one of those ordinal placing anomalies we all know so well would up finishing 7th in the group (even though 2 judges placed him 10th and 4 judges placed him 8th.) Clive was followed by a skater from Mexico who was so bad he was actually funny (all judges were in agreement in placing him last in the group).

Next out was Stephen Carr. He had a really dreadful time, falling twice and never really recovering. He ultimately finished 15th and failed to qualify. I felt badly for him, but reflected that at least now he could concentrate all his attention on his pairs skating. Stephen was followed by Marcus Leminen from Finland. Another non-charismatic but good jumper with little else going for him. As he landed all his jumps, he qualified easily, finishing 6th in the group.

Finally it was Todd's turn, and what followed was not inclined to inspire me with confidence in the immediate future. I don't know exactly what the problem was. Admittedly, it's not easy to get "up" for a qualifying performance, and some skaters do "save it" for the real thing, but then that's not Todd's usual way. Or maybe he was somewhat rattled from the warm-up fall. But whatever the problem, the fact was he was not "on" for this performance. This was the first time I'd ever seen him fail to sell his program (and this tally includes the numerous practice sessions I'd witnessed at Skate America and at Nationals). His only actual mistake was (of course) on the lone triple axel (for some reason his problems were centered in the single triple axel - the combination triple axel/triple toe was so far doing fine and was nailed here). At least he didn't fall, but the landing can best be described as a wobbly 2-foot (or more accurately, a two-footed wobble). Maybe he was concentrating on landing that Axel. Maybe he was focusing on remembering the changes made in the program since Providence. Yes, changes! As if I was not already shaken enough by Todd's rather lackluster performance, suddenly I'm seeing changes. This was my first look at Gettysburg since arriving in Birmingham. It had only been three weeks since Nationals and I did not expect changes! But suddenly the footwork in the slow section had been reworked and the Russian Split was back! Now I will admit that after my experience last year with Boitano and his Appalachian Spring program I am hypersensitive - read paranoid - about changing what already works. In this instance, after I had calmed down and had a chance to view them again, I had to admit the changes really were more in the nature of refinements that did improve the program.

Todd's failure to sell the program was apparent in the decidedly tepid response from the audience at its conclusion, as well as in his presentation scores. The technical scores were good (as he did have only that one mistake), but his presentation scores were 2 5.6's, the rest 5.7's. Now granted, there were those trying to qualify who would no doubt have killed for those scores, but they simply were not the kind of scores Todd should be getting for this program. Oh well, not to panic. We still had three days to get it together.

Todd was followed by a rather poor Korean skater who failed to qualify, and it was time for the final six. The star attraction of this subgroup, as well as the first on the ice, was the wonder-kid, Ilia Kulik. From this, my first look at the guy, I had to admit he is a great jumper, but at this stage of his career he is little more than that. He is certainly no spinner (and indeed fell out of one during this performance). From this glimpse at least I was more than ever convinced his win at Europeans was totally due to the less than stellar performances of his competition. Where judges are concerned, however, great jumping can get you great scores, and Kulik was no exception. Nevertheless, the scores were not high enough to take the group win from Todd (7 judges went for Todd, 2 for Kulik). A couple of interesting skaters followed Kulik. Alexandre Mourashko from Belarus is another problem jumper (with a fall here to prove it), but is a nice spinner with great speed, style and edges. He qualified with an 8th place finish. Next came Michael Tyllesen from Denmark - this was my first in-person look at a skater I've always liked. I'm convinced he would go far if he could ever master jumping techniques - his style, artistry and edges are superb (a Danish Paul Wylie?). Jumping problems aside, his artistry enabled him to qualify by a hair (he finished 11th - bottom of the qualifiers). Zsolt Kerekes from Hungary followed Michael. I found him promising, but overall he did nothing for me. He did something for the judges, however, and finished in 5th place. Kerekes was followed by the best skater in the group not to qualify - Bessarion Tsintsadze from Georgia. I thought him marvelous - with great footwork, speed and power. I'm convinced he too would have qualified had he been in the other group. As it was his scores resembled Christensen's with similar results (4 judges voted him in, 5 out), and he ended up in 13th place. The Georgian was followed by the final skater in the group, Naoki Shigematsu from Japan. How this guy could qualify and the Georgian not is beyond me. He is very inexperienced, a real problem jumper and has a lot of growing to do before he can fill the void left in Japan by Kagiyama's turning pro. Shigematsu finished in 10th place.

After an hour's break, men's qualifying Group B took the ice for their competition. My earlier feeling that most of the talent was to be found in Group A turned out to be quite correct. Most of the really bad skaters were packed into the B group. In fact, judging by the scores, had Christensen and Tsintsadze skated with this bunch they would have qualified handily (probably in 9th and 10th place). Staying awake for this group was at best difficult. But there were some exceptions, including two very exciting new discoveries.

First up worth mentioning was the Swiss, Patrick Meier, skating 4th in the group. He had my vote as the best skater in Group B not to qualify. The major problem in his performance was a hard fall on a jump, followed immediately by another fall that sent him into the boards. It really was a shame, because he is a great spinner (what is it about the Swiss and spinning?) and has quite a style and presence on the ice. His 16th place finish was really undeserved and may have been due to his being among the first in his group to skate. I do think he was grossly underscored. The next skater of note to follow Patrick was the first of my personal discoveries of the competition - Fabrizio Garattoni of Italy. From the moment he took the ice I was captivated. He is a fairly good and strong jumper, very stylish, with incredible charisma. Controversial as well. Some of the judges agreed with me and scored him high; others apparently couldn't stand him and marked him down. He still managed to finish 5th in the group.

Next skater in the group worth mentioning was my exciting discovery no. 2 - Zhongyi Jiao of China. A great jumper, but with lots of style, speed and edges. His spins could be improved, but on the whole he's a real comer, finishing 2nd in the group. China may someday have a male skater to equal the accomplishments of Lu Chen! The third Frenchman at the competition - Thierry Cerez - followed Jiao, and I'm convinced he received really high marks simply because he is French. I could find no other reason for his finishing 4th in the group (ahead of Garratoni? Give me a break!) Ronnie Winkler of Germany was the next skater of note. He skated fairly well and finished in 3rd place. Winkler was followed by David Liu of Taipei. Another problem jumper with good spins and style, Liu finished in 7th place. The final skater worth mentioning in this group was the much improved Michael (formerly Misha) Shmerkin. He is developing into a really good jumper, and in the last year or so has really improved his presentation. He skated fairly well to win the group.

Having survived my first experience with qualifying rounds, I came away highly in favor of them. With a couple of exceptions, the general public really should not be exposed to the quality of skating (or lack thereof) of those who failed to qualify. In fact, I think qualifying rounds should be expanded to encompass pairs and ice dancing.

Following the qualifying rounds, there was a 9:30 p.m. practice session in the Arena for the men who had not had to qualify. Only five of the guys showed (the absent consisted of Elvis, Philippe and Eric Millot), leading to speculation on the consequences if all eight had been present. Eight on the ice at once, especially those eight? What could the organizers have been thinking when they came up with that bright idea? As it was, I mainly divided my attention between Aleksei and Zago, with main emphasis on the former. On the whole, Aleksei had a fairly miserable practice, but once again demonstrated how much his skating has improved this last year. I managed to tear my attention away from him long enough to ascertain things were going no better for Scott Davis than they had at the previous day's practice. He looked tense and very unhappy. You would have thought not being the National Champion would have taken some of the pressure off. The guy really needs to loosen up and relax! After the practice session, it was back to my hotel for a decent amount of sleep. Tomorrow was Nicole's qualifying session, as well as the opening draw for short program skating orders. It promised to be another long day.

Monday, March 6, 1995 I arrived at the skating complex shortly before the first Ladies qualifying session. Group B (Nicole's group) was up first.

The 18 ladies in qualifying Group B were divided into three warm-up groups of six ladies each. Nicole was scheduled to skate 2nd in the last sub-group. The main and really only attraction of the first group of 6 was Lu Chen. None of the rest were very good or even adequate (three - from Sweden, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic - failed to qualify; the other two - from the Netherlands and Slovenia - qualified but never reached finals). At my first glimpse of Lu Chen in warm-up, I totally failed to recognize her. In the last year, she seems to have grown taller and really matured, as well as completely changed her look and image. It all suits her very well. After the dreadful performances that preceded her, it was a relief to watch her skate, yet in this performance she seemed devoid of energy and was obviously only doing the minimum necessary to qualify. Although she fell out of her triple lutz, she otherwise skated cleanly to decent scores that ultimately placed her second in the group.

The second group of six were as a whole far more interesting and began with Jenna Arrowsmith, the British National Champion. At age 14, she has a lot of spunk, is a decent spinner and shows much promise for the future, but for now she is extremely inexperienced and has a lot of problems landing jumps. She placed 13th in the group, failing to qualify, but was allowed into the competition anyway because of a Worlds "tradition" that states that the host country shall always have a competitor in all stages of the competition. Which meant 31 would get to skate the short program. Later, when she failed to make the cut after the short program, she was nevertheless allowed to skate her long program (which meant 25 in the finals, rather than 24). To make up for this privilege, she was condemned to skate first both times (but thus sparing the other ladies that dreaded position). Really good experience for her, though. Jenna was followed by Marta Andrade of Spain, a skater I've always rather liked. She has nice technique, but could use more speed and would much improve if she could learn to smile occasionally! She qualified, finishing 7th in the group. Marta was followed by the lady discovery of the competition, Lucinda Ruh of Switzerland. I was initially quite surprised that a total unknown would be representing Switzerland rather than Nathalie Krieg. Nathalie and another girl had represented Switzerland at Europeans, so where did this skater come from? My surprise, however, vanished when I saw Lucinda skate. Only 15 years old, her spinning ability is beyond belief! (Is it possible, I wonder, for a Swiss skater NOT to be a great spinner?) Her layback gives new meaning to the words "lay back" (in her case it probably should be called a "wayback"!), and she has a combination spin that has her going directly from a Biellmann into a Baiul. All this and she appears better able to handle jumps than Krieg. At least she managed to avoid any falls during her qualifying performance and received fairly high scores to finish 4th in the group. Next on the ice was a vivid demonstration of why qualifying rounds really are a necessity. Carole Ren from Hong Kong inspired me to think that maybe I too could compete at Worlds. Certainly if I got out there I could not have skated much worse than she did. With scores ranging from 2.0 to 2.8, Ren was the unanimous choice of the judges for a last in group finish. Mila Kajas from Finland followed Ren, and I think benefited hugely from that fact because in spite of two 2-footed jump landings, a fall and poor spins, she received relatively high scores to finish 6th in the group. Last in this sub-group was Ivana Jakupcevic from Croatia, a fairly good jumper (but with little else to recommend her) who qualified with a 10th place finish.

The final group of six in Group B was of course the one of most interest to me. I really didn't think the "new" Nicole would have a repeat of last year's failure to qualify, but I would nevertheless be glad when it was over. First up in the group was a girl from Taipei (Ja-lin Weng) - a nice spinner with a good presentation, but three falls condemned her to low scores and a non-qualifying 16th place finish. Nicole was next, and I quickly discovered that I need not have worried. She remained focused and determined, and except for a hand-down on a jump skated fairly cleanly to thunderous applause and a 1st place finish.

A skater from Latvia (Alma Lepina) followed Nicole. Two falls resulted in a 12th place finish and had this been Group A, that placement would have been a qualifying one. As there was an odd number of spots open in the competition (23), "tradition" dictated that the extra qualifier would come from Group A. Thus the 12th place finisher in Group A qualified while the skater in the same position in Group B did not. The Latvian was followed by a vastly improved Laetitia Hubert. In spite of two falls, Laetitia's performance as a whole was good enough to earn relatively high scores and a third place finish. Tatyana Malinina from Uzbekistan was up next, a fairly good jumper and nice spinner who qualified with a 5th place finish. The final skater of the sub-group and of Group B was Jennifer Robinson, the Canadian silver medalist. She appeared to be very inexperienced and I could see little to recommend her, least of all an apparent decision to take Nancy Kerrigan as her role model (judging from her costume and choice of hairstyle). She managed to qualify with a 9th place finish. Her appearance did serve to alert me to the presence of a huge mass of Canadians, out in force to support her efforts. When her name was announced they absolutely erupted with loud applause, and as they were gathered directly behind me, I was momentarily deafened with the roar. As I was leaving I noticed Elvis and Josee Chouinard in their midst. Actually, it is quite nice, the fervor with which the Canucks support their own.

I would have liked to have stuck around for Group A's qualifying round, but as this was in conflict with a men's practice session, it was out of the question (I do have my priorities). So by the start of the men's practice, I was in my favorite spot in the fourth row of the five rows of tightly packed bleachers. The men had regrouped following qualifying (and would do so again following the opening draw that night) so it was necessary to readjust to who was where and with who and when. And it was a "skater's choice" practice session (a new experience for me) in which each skater could choose either his short or long program music for his run-through, rather than the session being totally defined as a short or a long program practice.

Practice Group A I immediately dubbed the all European group, consisting as it did of the three Frenchmen, my Italian (Fabrizio Garattoni), and that cute young Austrian, Florian Tuma. Margus Hernits had been assigned to this group, but was a no-show, probably uncertain as to whether Estonia really is a part of Europe. This was my first look at Philippe Candeloro and Eric Millot since arriving in Birmingham. I immediately awarded Philippe the award for best dressed in group (unusual for him, but he did look stunning in a vivid black and white striped shirt with black pants), but was taken aback by his having grown a goatee (or having attempted to - either it was only just started or the attempt was failing - and it later disappeared entirely before the competition began!). He looked both in shape and in good form, landing jump after jump with relative ease, although only doing excerpts from his short program when his music came up. Eric also looked really good, and I could only hope that the competition would ultimately be good to him. I also spent time during this session focusing on Fabrizio. My earlier good impression of him was confirmed, although he does need to work on controlling his jumps.

The majority of Practice Group B were no-shows - the main attractions, really, the three Ukrainians and Cornel Gheorghe. This left us with the Norwegian, Jan Erik Digernes and the Pole, Robert Grzegorczyk, both among those from men's qualifying group B that I had not thought worth mentioning in my description of that qualifying event. This probably was a disservice at least to Grzegorczyk, who does show some promise and who, for some mysterious reason, managed to remind me of Gregor Filipowski.

Practice Group C consisted of the Canadians and the Japanese, plus the Finn, Markus Leminen and Zsolt Kerekes from Hungary. This was my first look at Elvis (on skates, at least) since my arrival, so quite naturally I found myself focusing most of my attention on him. His choice was to skate his long program music, thus affording me my first in-person look at 1492. Elvis is one of those rare totally in-focus for practice session skaters who seem to treat practice run-throughs as dress-rehearsals and who therefore don't quit on a run-through at the first mistake (Todd and Brian Boitano also fall into this rare category). Consequently, I was able to get a look at the complete program and was quite awe-struck, thinking Damn, that's going to be hard to beat. If Elvis' ankle was bothering him, there was certainly no sign of it here. As the Zambonis zipped onto the ice prior to the next session, Lynn Rutherford joined me, having just emerged from the Ladies Group A qualifying round. She reported that Irina Slutskaya looked very strong, and that all three Japanese ladies were very good (Irina wound up winning the group, followed by the Japanese in 2nd, 4th and 5th places).

The Zambonis having finished their job in their usual brisk fashion, Practice Group D took the ice. But first, a word about those Zambonis. This being England, the land of small vehicles where five English trucks could easily fit inside one of ours, the Zamboni is a tiny thing, about half the size of an American one. So two of them are used to clear the ice (with an unusual amount of speed), the end result being ice resurfacing in half the time I'm used to.

Practice Group D consisted of the Americans and the British, plus the Dane, Michael Tyllesen and Alexandre Mourashko from Belarus. As the ladies qualifying round had concluded, the audience from that event had largely spilled over to the Forum rink, making for quite a crowd for this session. Not surprisingly, the majority seemed to be British, judging by the wild cheers that greeted Steven Cousins and Clive Shorten whenever they did anything, be it only to smile at the audience. However, aside from noticing that Scott Davis was once again having a miserable practice, my attention was of course focused exclusively on Todd. I had a feeling that he too was less than pleased with his performance during his qualifying round and would thus choose to run through his long program. I was not mistaken. But this time, what a difference from yesterday! Today he was so "on" that within 5 seconds after his music started, he had the undivided attention of the entire Forum. The two Brits were for the moment forgotten. Then, having captured everyone's attention, he went on to skate a totally flawless performance (landing all eight triples) to wild cheers and a standing ovation from all present. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. We were back on track with a vengeance! Only two of the guys scheduled for Practice Session E (the final session) showed, but since one of the two was my Chinese, Zhongyi Jiao, I stayed put. Among the missing were the Russians (Aleksei and Ilia), along with David Liu and Michael Shmerkin. Ronny Winkler was the other skater at this session, but I concentrated mainly on Jiao. My earlier good impression of him was amply confirmed; here's a talent that will bear watching.

It was shortly after 7 pm when Lynn and I left the Forum for the Metropole to grab some food and to await the results of the Opening Draw, scheduled to start at 7:30. Although an early bedtime was my goal, I told Lynn there was no way I could contemplate sleep until I knew what skate order Todd had drawn.

After several drinks, dinner and a pot of coffee, I noticed people leaving the "Drawing" room to mill about in the Lobby. I immediately went on a scouting mission to see if there was anyone about to whom I might address the all important question. Richard, Todd, his parents, Nicole, another Bobek - anyone would do. Unfortunately, the only familiar faces I was able to spot belonged to Elvis and Scott, standing together in conversation in a corner of the lobby. For one moment I actually considered it before good sense got the better of me. I was contemplating my next move when a man entered the lobby bearing four stacks of different colored sheets of paper (green, blue, yellow and pink) which could only be one thing. I immediately joined the small group that surrounded the poor man, quickly snatched one of the blue sheets and beat a brisk path back to our table, scanning the sheet as I went. Upon my return, Lynn was greeted by a slap on the back and a squeal of "27th!" Meanwhile, Scott, Philippe, Steven Cousins and Zago had also fared well, drawing 24th, 26th, 28th and 30th, respectively. On the other hand, Elvis and Aleksei had drawn 10th and 13th, while poor Eric Millot was stuck skating 5th.

That mission accomplished, I returned to the information table for a pink sheet, to see how Nicole had fared, and returned equally ecstatic, squeaking "28th!". Lu Chen had also done well at 27th. Michelle Kwan had done less well, drawing 8th, but then Surya Bonaly was in the unenviable position of skating 7th. After a celebratory drink, Lynn and I returned to our hotel. All in all, what with Nicole's winning her qualifying group, Todd's fantastic practice session, and the great skate orders Todd and Nicole had drawn, it had been a spectacularly good day!

Tuesday, March 7, 1995 I managed to drag myself into the Forum practice rink by 7:30 am to catch all but the first of the men's practice sessions. Following last night's draw, the men had all been regrouped by skating order and this morning were scheduled for a short program practice. I arrived as group 13-18 were finishing up, and noticed that Aleksei was looking good and that Eremenko was once again a no-show.

Of Group 19-24, Shorten and Shmerkin were no-shows, leaving the ice to Mourashko, Liu, Dmitrenko and Davis. I was of course hugely distracted by Todd warming up on the sidelines. He seemed in a really good mood, with Steven Cousins cracking him up each time he jogged past him. In between watching the Todd and Steven show off the ice, my on-ice attention was focused on Scott. He had the start of a really good run-through, until he popped his axel and quit in disgust. Once again, he looked tense and nervous. As a whole, Group 25-30 was the most interesting, for in addition to Todd and Steven it also consisted of Zago, Philippe and Sebastien Britten (along with Naoki Shigematsu who looked - and no doubt felt - terribly out of place). Philippe did not have a particularly good session. During his run-through, he popped his axel and two-footed his lutz before quitting (I have yet to see him ever do a complete run-through in a practice session). He spent the rest of the session trying and totally failing to land a good triple axel. Meanwhile, Todd was back to having triple axel problems. His run-through went rather well, although he was really shaky on the landing of the triple toe in the combination, and for awhile afterward he concentrated on the combination, alternating a good one with a bad one with a good one. He then spent the remainder of the session working on his long program triple axel, popping it twice before finally landing a perfect one. This group's session ended with Steven grabbing Sebastien for a big bow in the center of the ice (he had grabbed his colleague Shorten for that purpose the previous day).

At this point I hastened to the Inside Edge Cafe (erected in a corner of the Forum around a concession stand) for a coffee break and remained there during the Group 1-6 session. However, I could still view the practice from that vantage point and could see that Eric was having a really good session and seemed to have a perfect run-through. While on this break I ran into Richard and gushed at him over the marvelous skate orders Todd and Nicole had drawn. "Yeah, isn't it great?" he responded. "Now all they have to do is their jobs." Too true.

I returned to my bleacher seat for Group 7-12, as this group included not only Elvis but Fabrizio as well. For awhile I more or less divided my time equally between them - until something happened that caused Elvis to have my undivided attention for the remainder of the session. He went down, hard, on attempting his triple axel/triple toe combination, sliding right into the boards. After what seemed an eternity, he finally got up and leaned over the boards for several minutes, his right foot lifted. This part of what happened was later shown on the NBC broadcast, but contrary to the report given at that time, he did NOT immediately leave the ice and go straight to therapy. What really happened next was far more extraordinary than that. After the time spent leaning over the boards, he slowly made his way back to his coaches (Doug Leigh and Ushi Kessler) at the opposite end of the rink, skating mostly on his left foot. Shortly after he reached them, his music was announced and much to my shock it was evident he was going to give it a try, pain in ankle notwithstanding. He took his position on the ice and, of course, first element up is the combination jump. Not surprisingly, he popped it, but being the in-focus and determined guy he is, he went on. Next comes a complicated foot-work sequence, involving quite a bit of skating on his right foot. He went into it, then stopped, obviously in pain. But then he started up again, before once more stopping in pain. At that point he looked toward Doug and Ushi and shook his head, then skated back to them. He looked on the verge of tears. It was an extremely heart-breaking thing to watch. After spending some time leaning over the boards near his coaches with Ushi patting his arm in sympathy, he straightened up and I thought surely now he would pack it in. But no, instead he headed for center ice and went back to work on the combination. The first two attempts were popped, but finally, on the third try, he hit it, although the landing on the triple toe was very shaky. With that, the practice session came to end, along with the most extraordinary demonstration of courage I think I've ever seen. I have always liked and admired Elvis, but today that admiration grew a hundred-fold.

The compulsory dance competition was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. (and last until 5 p.m. - seriously!) and, this being my first Worlds, I contemplated dropping in on it. However, when I visualized watching 33 dance teams skate round the rink however many times they do it and listening to the same piece of rhumba music 33 times (and then another piece of music - Argentine tango - 33 more times) I opted for breakfast.

I returned to the Forum in time to catch Nicole's short program practice session. Throughout, the Eldredges (plus Todd) sat with the Bobeks to form a vigorous support group. It was needed, as this was definitely not one of Nicole's better sessions. During her run-through she crash landed on her triple lutz, but later did land a number of them before the session ended.

After Nicole's session, I contemplated dance compulsories and immediately made straight for the Inside Edge and some coffee. I then spent a delightful afternoon alternating between pairs practices, shopping at the Skating expo and relaxing at the IE. Lynn finally joined me, having dropped into the compulsories (it was also her first Worlds) and promptly fallen asleep (having had little sleep lately I immediately regretted my decision not to have gone). However, she did wake up long enough to see one of Gritschuk/Platov's dances and reported that Platov had stumbled. "Never mind," was my response, "they'll win anyway." (They did.) We took to the bleachers for the last of the pairs sessions (featuring Kovarikova/Novotny) and to claim a good seat for the 4:30 p.m. men's sessions. After we had settled, Ruth and John Eldredge arrived and sat directly behind us. This situation had just registered when suddenly the NBC crew arrived en masse, and sat in front of us, with Greg Gumbel directly in front of Lynn and Sandra Bezic in front of me. Then Mary Ann Grabavoy arrived, crawled over me and then over Lynn to sit next to Lynn from which vantage point she would periodically shout questions to Sandra over the both of us. I noticed to my surprise (after watching Dick Button in action through numerous competitions) that Sandra took no notes during the session (and judging from the inaccuracies later in some of her commentaries she probably should have!)

The sessions this afternoon were long program run-throughs and once more began with Group 13-18. Aleksei again won the best-dressed award, wearing a short-sleeved black T-shirt and purple tights with matching skate socks (he does seem to go to great lengths to be color-coordinated - but with stunning effect!). This practice session went better for him than others I'd seen, but it was still not great. I found myself devoting some time to watching Ilia Kulik; my basic conclusion at this point was that although he is a great jumper, he tends to rush whatever moves he makes in between them. Meanwhile, Lynn overheard Mrs. Eldredge say that Ilia reminded her of Todd at the same age. Eremenko was once again a no-show. Where on earth (or in Birmingham) was the guy - I hadn't laid eyes on him since he qualified on Sunday!

The session for Group 19-24 was in some respects for me a repeat of the morning's session. In other words, I spent it with one eye on Scott and one eye on the Todd and Steven show on the side-lines. Once again, Scott had a miserable practice and once again, Steven was making it very difficult for Todd to do his warm-up exercises (it's difficult to exercise and laugh at the same time). Alexandre Mourashko's long program music being from the Superman soundtrack provided Steven with a great opportunity for comic pantomime, with the result that I found the off-ice entertainment fair superior to the on-ice happenings.

Meanwhile Clive Shorten ended his long program run-through with a jump that I suppose would have to be called an Arabian but with his feet so far off the ground it more nearly resembled a cartwheel and, since it was landed on two feet, might even be termed a sideways backflip. It was certainly a great crowd-pleaser but I couldn't help but wonder if it was legal. Just as I was thinking this, Mr. Eldredge behind me piped up with "I don't think that's legal!" As Shorten did this move in the actual competition, it's a good question, but since he ultimately finished so far out of medal contention (19th place) it was never asked.

During Group 25-30's session, I focused exclusively on Todd. Although today's run-through was not a repeat of yesterday's perfection, he still managed to sell the program to the audience in a big way in spite of several mistakes (a doubled triple toe in the triple flip/triple toe combo, a shaky landing on the triple loop and a slip on the final double toe/triple toe combo). I skipped the final two men's sessions so as not to miss the start of the pairs competition. There were 23 pairs scheduled to compete, but two (one of the lesser German teams and the lesser Czech pair) withdrew prior to the competition as a result of an "accident." At least, that was the announcement. We never did hear a report of what happened and could only conclude that there must have been some kind of practice session collision. The pairs short program competition left me with several impressions. On the whole, it was an excellent competition, one of the best I've seen, with all the top pairs skating well. It was my first opportunity to see Woetzel & Steuer in person and as a result, they have become great favorites. I definitely think they should have won the short program (two of the judges agreed with me); compared with the others, their performance seemed totally effortless and I was singularly impressed with the way in which they seemed to float over the ice, soundlessly, with great speed and flow. I see a phenomenal future for this pair. Meanwhile, much as I love Eltsova/Bushkov, I was not enamored of their short program - it neither suits them nor really demonstrates what they can do; consequently, with the other top teams all skating well, their SP 4th place finish was inevitable. The big surprise for me this evening was the French pair, Sarah Abitbol and Stephane Bernadis. I had last seen this couple at the 1993 Skate America and to say they weren't very good would be an understatement. But have they ever improved in the last year and a half! Pairs have always been the weak link in the otherwise very strong French skating team, but they may well be on the verge of correcting that in a big way.

Following the pairs competition, Lynn and I opted to skip the Metropole and instead catch the Skatetours shuttle back to our hotel. With the men's competition beginning tomorrow and an early morning men's practice, some sleep was a definite priority.

Wednesday, March 8, 1995 The final men's short program practice sessions began in the Arena at 6 a.m. with Group 1-6. I managed to crawl in by 7:10 a.m., in time for Group 13-18. I was sorry to have missed Elvis' group and wondered how he was doing. I had heard a report from someone who'd attended his practice last night to the effect that he'd not had a particularly good session. But then it was also reported that he was practicing the quad, so I concluded his ankle couldn't be bothering him that badly.

Settling in to watch Group 13-18, I immediately noticed that Eremenko was once again a no-show. I was starting to wonder if he was still going to compete or did he just not believe in practicing? To my delight I saw that Aleksei was attired in navy blue T-shirt, black tights and matching skate socks - I had feared that since this was competition day, he would be in full costume. Instead, he left that routine to his fellow countryman. Ilia was positively blinding in light blue sequins, and I instantly developed the theory that he was taking Victor Petrenko as his role-model. As usual with this group I mostly watched Aleksei, marveling anew at how much I enjoyed watching him skate. He was continuing to have problems landing jumps, but now had so much else to offer that this scarcely bothered me. I used to say of the guy that all he could do was jump; how ironic if now I found myself having to say he could do everything BUT jump.

Group 19-24's session was Scott Davis' last chance for a decent practice prior to the competition. It was not to be. Once more he quit his run-through in disgust at the first mistake, and still looked really tense and worried. I had not seen him do a complete run-through or have even a halfway decent practice since I'd arrived in Birmingham. He was now really running out of time and I feared he'd never be able to pull anything off in competition.

When Group 25-30 took the ice my attention was exclusively on Todd. Up to this point, the short program was not a big worry for me; I figured my nervous breakdown would come during the long program phase. All that was about to change. During warm-up and prior to his music coming up, Todd looked relaxed, confident and was skating very well, landing everything. Then his music was announced, he took his position, started the program, took off for the all-important opening combination jump - and popped out of it! I went into total shock - and judging by the expression on his face, so did Todd. I wasn't close enough to Richard to see his expression, but I'm sure his reaction was similar - but no doubt overcome by the time Todd skated over to him for a lengthy consultation. I could imagine Richard telling him not to panic (I was busily telling myself the same - in between asking myself why I hadn't stayed in bed that morning - ignorance really can be bliss). Ultimately Todd picked up the program just before the triple lutz (which he landed beautifully) and ended with a strong finish. He then spent the rest of the session working on the combination. He had time to land two relatively good ones, but in-between had one that resulted in his completely falling out of the triple toe. When the session ended it was 9 a.m. - 5 hours before the start of the competition and 8 hours and 7 minutes before Todd was scheduled to take the ice. It was going to be a very long day. After a lengthy breakfast, I worked on restoring some kind of sense of calm, basically by wandering around the skating complex, meeting and conversing with people. In the process I stumbled upon a fairly reliable source who reported that Scott Davis and Kathy Casey were not getting along and in fact were barely on speaking terms. Regrettable, especially at this time, but not terribly surprising. I was also completely distracted from my worries by catching sight of Klimova and Ponomarenko (in my skating pantheon, definitely supreme beings!). Having managed so far to avoid much of dance at these Worlds I had no idea they were coaching Bourne & Kraatz; otherwise I might have been prepared to see them around and about.

By 2 p.m. as I took my seat for the start of the men's competition, I had convinced myself I was perfectly calm and confident. Ha! Ronny Winkler was the first to skate, and afterwards, when I took pen in hand to record his scores, I discovered to my horror that my hand was shaking so badly I could barely hold the pen, let alone write! I forged ahead with will, determination and some deep breathing exercises. Eric Millot fell on his triple flip, a tragedy but not unexpected - the short program always seems to be when he shoots himself in the foot. As far as I could determine, Elvis skated flawlessly, with no indication that his ankle might be bothering him, and giving me an unneeded demonstration of what a perfectly executed triple axel/triple toe looks like. Shortly afterward, Aleksei gave a demonstration of one of the ways of screwing up the same combination; followed soon thereafter by Ilia Kulik's reminding me that even the greatest jumpers can pop out of that particular combination. (And of course all the while I was thinking back to the Olympics and Brian Boitano's demonstration of still another way to blow that all important combo - and effectively lose all chance of a medal!)

Vassily Eremenko actually skated after Ilia. I had almost forgotten what he looked like, since I hadn't seen him since Sunday afternoon. He didn't look well and I wondered if perhaps illness had kept him from all those practice sessions. Whatever the problem, his performance was lackluster and not very good.

As the afternoon wore on toward the moment of truth, I was finally given one huge bright moment to lift the spirits - namely, the surprising performance of Scott Davis! I never would have dreamed he could actually pull it off - but he did. As soon as he hit his opening combination, he broke out into the first smile I'd seen on his face all week and from then on, he could do no wrong. I have never been a Davis fan, but I found myself participating in a standing ovation for him. I have never seen him skate so well.

Scott's skate was followed by an ice-resurfacing preparatory to the final group of six taking the ice. I retreated hastily to the concourse to calm my nerves and engage in a bit of confidence building self-lecturing, and had no sooner arrived at that destination than I connected with the one person in the building I could honestly say was more scared than I was. Todd's mother. Pure serendipity, but just what I needed. I can't exactly recall how it started, but I believe it began with my conveying that I wanted Todd to win as badly as she did. Between clenched teeth, Ruth replied "I'll just be glad when it's over." I could relate to that. I responded by pointing out that the down-side to the great skate order draw was having to sit through 26 skaters before it was his turn. She could relate to that. And thus began a conversation that took me right through the ice-resurfacing interval with the proverbial flying colors. I learned a few interesting things in the process. Regardless of how things went with this competition, Ruth was convinced Todd would remain in eligible skating at least through the next Olympics (I desperately needed to hear that one). She was hoping he would keep the Gettysburg program for another year, that there was still a lot of mileage to be got out of it, but didn't know what his decision about that would ultimately be. I learned I had been wrong in assuming Ruth had originally suggested the music (an assumption based on my knowing how much she had liked the movie); in fact, Todd himself found the soundtrack and furthermore personally selected the portions of it to use for his program (this had also been the case with the selection of the Chaplin music).

By the time I returned to my seat I felt better than I had since 8:30 that morning, at least, much less crazed. I managed actually to watch Sebastien Britten and then Philippe Candeloro. By the time Todd's program began I was both focused and determined (you'd think I was the one doing the skating!). I will admit that as he went into the combination I was holding my breath, but at the same time I was shooting a whole series of silent "do its" at him. When he did it, and beautifully, I let out deeply felt "Thank God." - to which Lynn's response was "It's not over yet." Dose of reality, because there still was that triple lutz to get through. If Todd has anything close to a consistent problem jump, the lutz is it, although it had presented no problems in practice that week. And it was the lutz that nearly brought us to ruin - but he held onto the landing. If I'd had any lunch to lose, I probably would have lost it at that point. But finally it was over and the scores were terrific, with Todd beating Elvis five judges to four.

The rest of the competition could have been quite anticlimactic, but Steven Cousins followed Todd with the skate of his life, a skate for which he definitely did not get sufficient credit. But it was good to see him skate so well, and I'm glad he's planning to hang in there. I have definitely become a fan.

The competition finally ending with a less than stellar performance from Zago, it was time to head for the Metropole for a celebratory drink. Shortly after our arrival in the lounge, Scott entered to a thunderous round of applause from those assembled. He looked happy and, for once, really relaxed, with a big grin on his face. I was delighted for him. Also while we were there, Aleksei arrived, accompanied by Irina Slutskaya, and went over to the information board to check out the results of the competition just concluded. The two Russians stood side by side, scanning the posted blue sheet, and then, obviously finding what they were looking for, Irina reached out to shake Aleksei's hand. The handshake ensued, with the two never taking their eyes off the sheet the whole time. A moment I would have loved to have captured on videotape! I probably would have happily stayed in the lounge for hours, basking in the glow of victory, had not Lynn absolutely insisted we depart for the pairs finals. As we were leaving I caught a glimpse of a grinning Todd in the lobby, attired in suit and tie, accepting congratulations from a small crowd that had surrounded him.

Lynn hustled me back to the Arena with the chant, "We can't miss the Austrians!" Now bearing in mind that in the finals of a competition, starting order is based roughly on reverse order of finish after the short program and thus the worst skaters (or should I say the less-talented?) skate first, one might wonder why the rush to get to the competition on time. Well, if it were any of the disciplines other than pairs, the story would be different. While bad dance teams are merely boring and bad singles skaters (unless of the caliber of the fellow from Mexico and the girl from Hong Kong) mostly just pathetic, bad pair teams are hilarious and therefore, in their own way and of course for totally different reasons, as entertaining as the really good teams. And of course the most entertaining of them will be those who skate in the first group.

As entertainment, the first group of pairs did not disappoint. Definitely a high point were the side-by-side traveling sit spins. As the direction of travel was toward each other, a certain degree of suspense was added with wondering if the spins would end before the couple collided. The spins won, but it was close. Then there was the pair with the side-by-side jumps in which the lady waited to see if the man completed his before she did hers (she did the same thing in the short program). Add to that a couple of missed handholds (including one that had the man grasping air rather than his partner and her standing there outraged wondering what on earth he was doing) and the audience was definitely left in stitches throughout. With one or two exceptions (notably, the pair from Kazakhstan), the first 3 groups of pairs (9 teams) fell into this category of camp entertainment, and included the second and third Canadian teams (Higgins/Rice and Gaylor/Pelletier). If these two teams are an example of what Canada has on the horizon, then they are certainly in much worse shape than we are pairs-wise, with a successor to Brasseur/Eisler a long way off indeed.

At some point during the competition I became aware that Todd and Scott had entered the NBC broadcast area to watch the competition and cheer on the home teams. Michelle and Nicole later joined them, as soon as they were finished with their practice sessions at the Forum. Throughout the rest of the week, each competition would find the rest of the U.S. team right there, providing support for their colleagues. It was nice to see that although our guys may not be as loud and boisterous as the Canadians, they were by no means lacking in team spirit. Meanwhile, I noticed Elvis frequently watching events from the CBC area, which area was presided over by broadcasters Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini. I also noted Midori Ito and Yuka Sato presiding over the NHK section, while Isabelle Duchesnay did broadcasting duty for the French and Robin Cousins did likewise for the BBC. One entire side of the Arena (over and around the skater's entrance) was taken up with various broadcasting areas and furnished something very interesting to watch during breaks in the skating action.

With the appearance of the final twelve pairs, the competition turned serious. The Carrs from Australia led the first group of four, turning in a well-done if not technically difficult program to finish the competition in 11th place. Menzies/Bombardier, Canada's premier team, followed. This pair has certainly improved since their dismal finish at the 1994 Skate America; Menzies appears to have lost weight, as well as changed her appearance for a more mature look. They skated fairly well and managed to hold onto a 10th place finish, thus ensuring that Canada would only lose one pair team next year rather than two. Ina and Dungjen followed the Canadians and continued their pattern of a redeeming long program following a disastrous short to finish the competition in 8th place. The Ukrainian pair (Beloussovskaya/Potalov) concluded this first grouping; the weakest of the top twelve, they do show a certain degree of promise and finished the competition in 12th place.

During the ice-resurfacing prior to the performances of the final 8 pairs, I zipped over to the Forum rink to obtain some vital information - namely, what skate order Todd had drawn for the finals tomorrow night. I was considerably pleased to discover that he had drawn to skate second in his group - after Aleksei and before Philippe. It was a really good position for him. He'd get a chance to rest after warm-up, then go out and do his best and then leave the rest to the others and to the judges. Meanwhile, Scott would go after Philippe, followed by Elvis. Fittingly, considering where we were, Steven Cousins would conclude the competition.

The next group of four pairs was led by the French team, Abitbol/Bernadis. I was delighted to find that their short program skate was no fluke; not only has this team really improved dramatically, they also show signs of absolute brilliance, with a great deal of originality and creativity. I look to see great things from this team in the future. They finished the competition in 9th place, thus gaining an additional pairs team for France next year (I believe it will be the first time in many a year that France will have 2 pairs at Worlds - do they have another pair, I wonder?)

Meno/Sand followed the French, and I must say that their performance looked a whole lot better on the NBC broadcast than it did to me in person. However, the judges apparently noticed no problem, because the performance did result in rather high scores.

The third Russian team (Petrova/Sikharulidze) followed, a young but very promising team on the rise. They skated fairly well (to a 6th place finish) and were succeeded by Bereznaia/Shliakhov, the infamous Latvians. This is the team that will probably one day rule the pairs world, provided they stay together. Since they hardly ever speak to one another (and barely look at each other), it would appear that they don't get on too well. Right now while they are justly acclaimed for their spectacular twist throws, they are still relatively young and inexperienced (she's only 14) and have a lot of difficulty with other elements in their program. Here they ultimately finished in 7th place.

Regarding the performances of the final four pairs - I was of course distressed by Woetzel/Steuer's disaster; but then they are a relatively new pair and they will be back! On the other hand, I was outraged by the scores meted out to Eltsova/Bushkov. Granted their performance was not flawless; yet they were not given sufficient credit for the technical difficulty of the program they were doing. And their presentation scores were way too low. As the dismal scores were announced, Lynn and I definitely felt out of touch with our immediate environment. We were sitting right in the middle of a large block of Americans, all of whom jumped to their feet and roared with excitement at the realization the scores meant Jenni and Todd had won the bronze. We, meanwhile, remained in our seats, frowning over our score sheets and saying over and over "It's not fair, it's not fair!" It's a wonder we weren't lynched! Mind you, ultimately I was happy for Jenni and Todd; however, I still can't shake the feeling that Eltsova and Bushkov were robbed.

After the medal ceremony, Lynn and I drifted over to the Forum and stayed there long enough to ascertain that the men had all cancelled out on their scheduled late night practice session. Not surprisingly, considering the lateness of the hour and considering they had a morning practice session prior to tomorrow night's final. This delay made us somewhat late in reaching the Metropole and upon arrival we discovered that a free table was not to be found. I noticed a very large table area occupied by just two people and thought surely they don't need all that space and wouldn't mind us occupying the far end. As I approached the table, the couple were both turned away from me, talking to someone behind them. I had already got their attention and asked and received permission to occupy the desired space before it hit me that I had just asked Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin if we could join them. Lynn was looking at me as if to say "I can't believe you just did that" when we were spared potential embarrassment by our friend Dann Bunn's approach with an invitation to join him and his wife Christina at their table. After a brief moment's pause so the retreat would not seem too precipitate, we vacated the premises. Our new location was next to a table occupied by Menos and Sands, and we were thus afforded a perfect vantage point from which to observe the entrance (to thunderous applause) of Jenni and Todd, followed by a boisterous Meno/Sand families celebration. We had our own celebration, with me basically celebrating having survived the day, prior to cabbing it back to our hotel. With the men's finals at hand, tomorrow was definitely going to be another hair-raising day.

Thursday, March 9, 1995 Following the short program, the men had once again been regrouped - this time into the long program skating order. Of the original 30 competitors, the lowest 6 finishers had been dropped; this included Michael Tyllesen, David Liu and the Pole, Robert Grzegorczyk. This left 24, divided into 4 warm-up groups of 6 each. A final long program practice was scheduled this morning in the Arena. I managed to stumble into the place in time for Group 13-18, a group that now included Ilia, Eric, Zsolt Kerekes and the three Ukrainians. Other than to note that Eremenko was actually there and that Ilia was once again in full costume, I mainly divided my attention between Zago and Eric. Zago's practice efforts seemed half-hearted at best, and he departed the session early. Eric, on the other hand, looked focused and determined and was the last of the group to leave the ice. While this session was in progress, I watched Elvis arrive on the scene and greet Todd with a congratulatory handshake.

The session for Group 19-24, the top guys, was basically an exercise in tension and frayed nerves. Everyone looked a bit tense, and no one had what could be called a good practice. Uncharacteristically for them, neither Todd nor Elvis did a complete program run-through, choosing to do selected portions instead. Aleksei and Philippe didn't seem to be into it, and both left early, right after their music was finished. And poor Scott met with disaster. I was watching him when it happened, and I have no idea how it happened, but while skating forward away from the coaches table he apparently caught an edge and went down, flat on his back, with such force that when he got up his back was crusted with ice from neck to heels. It was the worst kind of fall, because it was unexpected and as a result the kind you can't shield yourself from to minimize the effects. Immediately afterwards he appeared to be favoring his right leg, as if in pain. My immediate thought was what rotten luck to have such a thing happen now, when he had done so well yesterday and with the finals that night. Prior to leaving the ice shortly before the session ended, he succeeded in landing several jumps, but I worried about possible bruising later. [Note: during the NBC broadcast Sandra Bezic reported that Scott had sprained his ankle in practice while attempting a jump. Either Sandra has a peculiar notion of what constitutes a jump or else she decided that sounded better than announcing he had sprained his ankle while skating slowly forward!] Meanwhile, Todd, Elvis and Steven stayed until kicked off the ice, determined to get the most out of their allotted practice time. Both Elvis and Steven were attired nationalistically, with Elvis wearing a black leotard with a huge red maple leaf on the back and Steven in black pants and shirt with WALES printed on the back. By contrast, Todd opted to masquerade as a Frenchman by wearing his old Les Miz costume.

Afterward, I headed to the Metropole lounge for what would probably be my only meal of the day. While I was there, Radka Kovarikova and Rene Novotny entered, with people gathering around them to offer congratulations. Radka was still obviously on the proverbial cloud nine, an uncharacteristic big grin on her face.

The Original Dance competition was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and, this being my first Worlds, I did feel duty-bound to see the whole thing. A big mistake which I shan't repeat next year. The competitors had only been pared down to 30 after compulsories, and that meant 30 versions of the Quickstep to sit through. With the exception of Roca/Sur (skating 10th), staying awake for the performance of the first 20 teams was a real struggle. I am simply not an ice dance fan, and this competition merely confirmed that for me. As a result, I have only one comment to make concerning this phase of the competition - Rahkamo & Kokko's performance was awesome!!, and I am hard-put to understand how that performance could have been placed after the performance of Gritschuk/Platov. (But then, what do I know?) It was well after 5 before the OD concluded and there really wasn't time to do anything prior to the start of the men's final at 6:30, so Lynn and I hung around the Arena. While in the Arena lobby we wound up having a fascinating conversation with an elderly lady from Cincinnati who was a former international ice dance judge, who was forced to retire when she turned 70 but who is still an active judge in the U.S. where no such mandatory retirement rule exists. I was reassured of sanity by her saying that had she been judging this competition, she would have put Rahkomo & Kokko first!

On the way to our seats for the men's final, Christina and Dann encountered us with the rumor that Scott had sprained his ankle and that it was questionable whether or not he'd skate. Not the greatest news with which to start the proceedings. However, all things considered, I was feeling fairly calm and confident. The competition began with the remaining Japanese, Naoki Shigematsu (the other, and in my opinion, better one - Shin Amano - had been eliminated after the short program). An unremarkable performance dropped him from 21st to a 23rd place finish. Florian Tuma from Austria followed, a young man of whom I had become quite fond during the past week. He can't be more than 16, and I think shows a lot of promise. This competition was a real ordeal for him, not the least because shortly after he began his performance, his boot strap came loose, the audience and judges immediately began yelling at him to stop, and it seemed to take forever for the judges to get his attention. When they did, and it was finally pointed out to him what was wrong, he was obviously very embarrassed. The problem rectified, he was allowed to restart his program - to much encouraging applause from the audience. Unfortunately, Florian finished the competition in last place, but considering his youth and inexperience, that he made it through qualifying and through the short program competition was really quite an accomplishment. I certainly hope to see him again in the future. Fabrizio was next up, and he did not disappoint me. I had been raving all week to everyone about "my Italian" and it was nice that he lived up to my advertisement. He managed to hang onto his jumps and completely wow the crowd, skating to music consisting in part of the Warsaw Concerto. As usual, the judges had a real problem with what do with him (as I've said, you either love him or hate him) so his scores were all over the place. The technical score range was 4.6 to 5.2., while his presentation scores went from 4.8 to 5.3. He finished 20th in both short and long programs, yet finished 21st overall (ordinal placing anomaly again).

Clive Shorten followed. Since I first saw him in the qualifying round I have been forced somewhat to revise my opinion of this guy. He still has a very long way to go, but I now see real promise. He has potential to be a great entertainer, and his footwork ability really is outstanding. I later learned that he is being coached by Tamara Moskvina, which explains why I saw her hanging around the mens practice sessions. His performance tonight was good enough to pull him up from 22nd to a 19th place finish, but I still question the legality of the Arabian/cartwheel/sideways back flip with which he ended the program!

Up next was Ronny Winkler. Choosing to skate to what has to be this (and last) year's most overused music (Last of the Mohicans soundtrack), he nevertheless did an excellent job and finished the competition in 18th place.

Zhongyi Jiao (my Chinese) was the last of this first group to skate. Skating to the Yellow River Concerto, he did a good job, hanging on to his jumps and demonstrating great artistry, but losing a bit of stamina towards the end. Another skater to watch for in the future, he finished the competition in 22nd place.

After the terrific performances of the majority of the first group, the first three skaters in the second group were a real let-down. Alexandre Mourashko from Belarus was first, skating his Superman program. Sloppy and uninspiring, he dropped from 16th to a 20th place finish. The third Frenchman, Thierry Cerez, was next, he who scores well because he is French. Thus in spite of two falls and a program that was boring, sloppy and colorless, he finished the competition in 16th place (although dropping down from 13th). Cerez was followed by the equally boring and colorless Markus Leminen from Finland, who does little but jump; but since jump he does he was able to finish the competition in 15th place.

With the appearance of the Romanian, Cornel Gheorghe, things looked up. Skating to a Glenn Miller medley, he opened with a huge triple axel and went on from there to skate rather well and very stylishly. This is a guy it was definitely worth waiting years to see (as I did) and I do hope to see more of him in the future. His performance pulled him from 17th to a 13th place finish.

Sebastien Britten followed Cornel, and had a fairly bad time of it, falling twice - first on a triple lutz and then on a spin. Following upon an equally disastrous short program, Sebastien finished the competition in 17th place (a real come-down considering his 8th place finish last year!) There was a certain amount of controversy about this, with the Canadians insisting he was marked down (and I would certainly question his finishing behind Leminen and Cerez!), but I do think the judges did what they could. His technical scores ranged from 4.7 to 5.2, while his presentation scores went from 4.8 to 5.4. Michael Shmerkin completed the second group with a really good performance, in the course of which he completed two triple axels, to pull himself up from a 14th to an 11th place finish.

Following ice-resurfacing, the third group took the ice, led by Ilia Kulik. Skating to a Gershwin medley, Ilia went a long way towards redeeming his disastrous short program performance by landing at least 7 triple jumps, including a triple axel/triple toe combination. He still looks very immature, with a tendency to hurry his other moves, but his jumps alone guaranteed his rise from 11th to a 9th place finish. The big surprise of this competition, Zsolt Kerekes followed Ilia, demonstrating style and presence on the ice and landing at least 6 triple jumps, including a triple lutz/triple toe combination. He finished the competition in 10th place, thus earning Hungary an additional skater next year (do they have one, I wonder?)

Eric Millot was next up, and proceeded to my delight to have the skate of his life. As near as I could determine, he skated flawlessly, landing 7 triple jumps, including a triple lutz/triple toe. His effort was amply rewarded, and he finished 4th in the long program to pull himself way up from 8th to a 5th place finish in the competition.

Eric was followed by a Ukrainian triple-header. Dmitri Dmitrenko came first, skating to music I understand he wrote himself. He gave a stylish, very original and entertaining performance, landing at least 6 triples in the process, and finished the competition in 12th place. Then came Eremenko, skating his Chaplin program, with difficulty. He still didn't look particularly well and it just was not his night. But a sense of style, coupled with a technically difficult program, still earned him a 13th place finish. Zago finished the trio and the group, skating his Sorcerer's Apprentice program. He did hit his triple axel/triple toe combination, but fell on his second triple axel, as well as suffering other difficulties along the way. His performance was good enough, however, to earn him a 6th place long program finish and to end the competition in that same position.

It was finally time for the top six, and other than my stomach briefly turning over, I was still doing relatively well. During the warm-up, most of the guys looked confident and determined. The exception was Aleksei, who looked really tense and nervous. As he would be the first of the group to skate, this did not bode well for him. Scott was looking good, with no sign that his ankle was bothering him.

My fear that Aleksei would not fare too well was justified. Although he managed to stay on his feet, his opening combination was badly botched and his performance over-all was decidedly lacking. He was nervous and it showed.

As Todd was announced, I took a deep breath and leaned forward to give what was to follow my undivided concentration. The triple axel/triple toe turned into a triple/double, not an unusual occurrence as it is rare for Todd to hit both triple/triple combos in the same performance, and the combination as executed was done beautifully. The triple loop, the triple lutz and the triple flip/triple toe came off with no problems. And then, of course, disaster struck with the fall on the second, solo triple axel. Later, in an interview, Todd said that he had been planning to make up for the earlier missed combination by adding a triple toe to the axel and that "he gave it a little too much." This of course I didn't know at the time, but then I had spent all week witnessing various sorts of Todd triple axel disasters (including two prior falls) so I was not unduly shocked by this one. Besides, he'd fallen on a triple axel before in competition and still won (1994 Skate America) and would do so again (1995 Los Angeles Pro-Am). So it was by no means over and all that was necessary was for him to remain focused and make no further mistakes. The triple salchow (probably his best jump) came off without a hitch, and we were soon nearing the end of the program. As we were now up by six triples and down by two, I quite naturally anticipated that Todd would end the program the way he usually does when he needs to make up for a lost triple - namely by pulling off the double toe/triple toe combo. This would at least give him seven triples, even if only one was an axel. But when the moment came, the approach seemed all wrong for a toe loop, and then when I realized what he was about to do two things happened - my heart stopped and my head screamed "You idiot! What are you doing?" But he pulled it off and the second triple axel was landed. I was probably one of the first people in the Arena on my feet (if only to keep from falling out of my seat onto the floor) and by this time I was vocally screaming at him - gushy, awe-struck praise of course.

Philippe was the next to skate, and I'm really sorry I missed his performance. Although I was in my seat, I was incapable of focusing on what was happening right in front of me. I was vaguely aware of a great performance that was sending Lynn into the stratosphere, but I was far too busy concentrating on restoring my heartbeat and telling myself to calm down, it was over now, I could relax. In other words, I was far closer to collapse than I'd realized. Meanwhile, Philippe concluded his program to thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

I achieved my goal of regaining focus in time to concentrate on the next performance. I really did want to give Scott my full attention and hopeful thoughts, for all the good it did him. Although he seemed to start off fairly strongly, once again the steam seemed to go out of him and he wound up landing only four clean triples. I don't know if the problem with his ankle had an effect on him, physically or psychologically, but then, unfortunately, what happened to him in this performance was not untypical of his performance in past international competitions. The ultimate result was his dropping from 3rd to a 7th place finish.

Finally it was Elvis' turn. It's really fortunate for me that Todd's chief rival here should be a skater I really liked, skating to a program I like almost as much as I do Gettysburg. But such is the case, and Elvis' performance tonight was as awesome as Todd's, and as full of surprises. Ultimately, Elvis simply outskated Todd (but only just) and thus his victory was fully deserved.

Steven Cousin's appearance after Elvis as the final skater in the competition was not as anticlimactic as you might think, as Steven was the British National Champion skating in his home country to a Beatles medley. I had certainly hoped to see him skate better, but unfortunately he took a hard fall on his triple axel and ultimately dropped from 6th to an 8th place finish in the competition. He will be back, however, and I certainly look forward to seeing more of him.

I was no means unhappy with the final results of this competition. Of course, if Todd had won the gold I would have been ecstatic, but then I did worry about his peaking too soon before the Olympics. There is always next year (although if, as planned, we do take the gold we may not get out of Canada alive!) In the meantime, at least we know that Elvis is beatable. After all, the competition was close. The decision for Elvis in the long program was by no means unanimous - three of the judges went for Todd, in spite of Elvis' having outtripled him. And the short program results demonstrated that if both skate cleanly, Todd can beat Elvis. Throughout, it really was a two-man race - Philippe came in a distant third. So all in all I was pretty satisfied with Todd's showing. And, on the whole, the men's competition was probably the best competition I'd ever seen in terms of good skating, a lot of excitement, and quite a few surprises.

After lingering to luxuriate in the medal ceremony and the sight of an American on the men's podium for the first time in four years (and the last time it was Todd too!), Lynn and I headed to the Metropole lounge so she could eat and I could get, if not drunk, then happily tipsy. I immediately secured five brown ales and lined them up in a row, confident that by the time I got to the last one it would have been restored to room temperature and thus have the best flavor. The waiters thought they had a real nut case on their hands (probably true, but then I'd been through a lot). When Scott arrived, he looked less than buoyant but not totally destroyed. Ultimately, Todd arrived for a late dinner with his parents and Richard. It was very nice to sit there, happily consuming my ale and watching people periodically going up to his table to proffer congratulations. It was 2 a.m. before I got through the last of the bottles (Lynn was most patient!). When we finally left to return to our hotel, Todd was still there celebrating (parents and coach having long since sensibly retired for the evening). Back in my room, I was still too wired to sleep and was also eager to make contact with someone back home, so I called Emma for a highly extravagant but thoroughly enjoyable hour's chat.

Friday, March 10, 1995 I arrived at the skating complex shortly before the 2 p.m. start of the ladies short program competition. I shall limit my comments on that competition to a few select observations.

Laetitia Hubert definitely seems to have found herself in the last year or so. Her short program performance was very well done, with great spins, speed, and flow on her jumps.

I found Surya Bonaly even more irritating to watch than usual. She positively sets my teeth on edge. One of the British papers put it quite well when it said she skates as if on a pogo stick. Add to that a hand-down on her triple lutz, and her placing ahead of the flawless Michelle Kwan is an utter mystery to me.

Krisztina Czako from Hungary really is a promising skater who needs to learn jump control and to pick up some speed. However, she is a great spinner and is the first woman I have ever seen do a skid spiral! She bears watching. In this competition, she placed 23rd, barely making the final cut.

Mojca Kopac from Slovenia deserved the questionable music award. She skated to something that sounded vaguely like the Blue Danube, but as if playing on a warped record. Someone behind me aptly described it as "Blue Danube in a flood." She ultimately placed 29th, and thus failed to reach the final.

Lucinda Ruh belied her qualifying performance by demonstrating that inability to land jumps is a universal Swiss problem. She fell twice, but her great spinning ability and other artistry still kept her in the competition and really won over the audience as well. A great example of how artistry can keep you up when technique fails you. Although her technical scores ranged from 3.9 to 4.4., her presentation scores went way up to a range of 4.9 to 5.3. She finished the competition in 23rd place, but still made the final cut so we would get to see her again. And of course Nicole was brilliant. More need not be said.

As the Free Dance competition began barely an hour after the conclusion of the Ladies Short. The dance teams had been pared down (finally) to 24, so I thought this final phase of the competition would be more watchable. Wrong! Next year I definitely plan to save my energy (and brain) for the top ten.

As I appreciate ice dancing as pure entertainment (when it is entertaining) and have no knowledge about its competitive aspects (and no interest in acquiring any), I have few comments to make about the Free Dance competition. There were two couples that were discoveries for me, confirmed by their Free Dance. First was Shae-Lynn Bourne & Victor Kraatz, a couple that had deeply impressed me from what I'd seen of them in TV broadcasts. In-person experience merely confirmed the impression. And then there was Anjelika Krylova and her new partner, Oleg Ovsiannikov. Their Free Dance was spectacular (a pity NBC chose not to show it), and all the more amazing considering how short a time the couple has been together. I thought they were grossly undermarked for it (but then, what do I know?) Meanwhile, much as I love Moniotte & Lavanchy, I really think their Free Dance this year did not suit them and do hope they return to the more traditional style they do best. And finally, I don't care about the criteria or what the hell judges look for or are supposed to look for (nor do I care, mind you), but no one shall ever convince me that Gritschuk & Platov are a better dance team than Rahkomo & Kokko!

Not wishing to stick around for the coronation (otherwise known as the medal ceremony), Lynn and I left immediately after the final scores (for Bourne & Kraatz) were posted. This way we were also able to exit the Arena with speed, unhampered by the usual mass of departing crowd, and make our way totally unimpeded to the Metropole lounge for a late dinner. On our way, we stopped briefly at the information table in the lobby to pick up Ladies Short Program results and the skate order for tomorrow's final. In the process, Lynn paused to pick up a yellow sheet from a huge stack of such sheets. When we reached our table, she presented me with the yellow sheet and kept insisting that what she had were the Ice Dancing Final Results. I spent some time (prior to doing the sensible thing - namely look at the sheet!) arguing with her that that was absolutely impossible. The final scores of the competition had been announced barely ten minutes ago, the Medal Ceremony was still in progress, and even given instantaneous computer print-outs, the yellow sheets were produced at the administration headquarters back at the Exhibition Centre and there was no way a stack of them could have reached the information table in the hotel before we did (assuming, of course, they were not teleported there). I am making no charges, here, mind you, I am merely stating what happened.

As we made our way through dinner, the Lounge filled up with a crowd of men and women in fancy attire, very loud and boisterous. We later learned they were a group of insurance salesmen, at the hotel for some kind of banquet. Meanwhile, Richard had taken up a position at the table next to ours, and I was fairly confident that sooner or later Todd would appear. He did, and later I had a chance to have a brief chat with him. After I had offered my congratulations on his medal, I was unable to get him to promise that he would keep Gettysburg next year. He had still to give it a lot of thought, but said if he didn't keep it he would choose something similar. He also hadn't decided what he would be performing on tour.

Lynn and I managed to tear ourselves away from the action (and noise) by 2 a.m. so as to obtain some sleep prior to the final day of competition.

Saturday, March 11, 1995 I arrived at the skating complex at about 11 a.m., and upon entering the lobby between rinks was instantly nabbed by an ISU representative and set down for an interview. He had a whole survey of questions to ask me and I was all too happy to oblige. After ascertaining that I was a fanatic skating fan and that my favorite event was the men's competition, we got down to weightier questions, among them, would I be interested in a quarterly ISU publication (of course I would) and then, would I be interested in acquiring a videotape of highlights from the past season? The silliness of this latter question prompted a small diatribe from me concerning the relative scarcity of pre-recorded videos available to the fan and that the ISU was thereby missing out on a golden opportunity to raise money (if by chance they were interested in such a thing - since his eyes lit up at the mention of the word, I assume they are). I thought it ridiculous that no videotapes of the present competition would be available. He tried to counter with saying he thought no one would be interested because everyone could tape the event themselves, to which I responded nonsense and besides, if that were a concern, they could always forbid videotaping during the competition (as is done in the States). I do hope I made some sort of impression on the man.

The ladies final would not begin until 1:30. The reason for my early arrival at the complex was, of course, to catch the men's exhibition practice in the Forum. The top five finishers in each discipline were scheduled to participate, so in the case of the men this meant Elvis, Todd, Philippe, Aleksei and Eric, plus Steven who, as home champion, would be giving a special performance. Eric was a no-show today as was Philippe (no surprise there - Philippe practice for an exhibition? No way!) So the practice ice was left to Todd, Elvis, Steven and Aleksei. Todd was the first out and noticing a huge pile of ice left behind by the departing Zambonis, he skated over to it and started trying to remove it with the blade of his skate. Just then, Steven arrived on the scene, dashed over to Todd and the ice, and obviously saying something like "Oh, that'll take too long," proceeded to pick up a handful to drop over the side of the boards. Todd followed suit, then on the second ice-run, Steven began throwing bits of ice at Todd and soon a small "ice-ball" fight ensued between the two. The competition was over and it was definitely time to play! Soon after, Elvis came out and he and Steven (great friends and now training partners in Canada) devoted themselves more to play than practice, leaving Todd trying to have a serious practice session. Not easy, with the guys racing around the rink, trying to rope him into their games. I kept watching Todd at this point in the warm-up, trying to ascertain from his moves what his exhibition program would be, and to my delight soon saw unmistakable signs of Gethsemane emerging.

Meanwhile, as Elvis and Steven were cutting up and Todd was trying dutifully (and often failing) to remain serious, in another corner of the ice Aleksei was all alone, trying to master a new exhibition program. The attempt turned into a tragi-comedy on a grand scale. Poor Aleksei was ending a dismal week with an even more dismal exhibition practice. The program was called "Dream of the Harlequin" and involved use of a cape, white with large buttons (resembling a clown suit) on one side, red (resembling a matador's cape) on the other. He spent some time prior to the start of his music adjusting the cape on his shoulders; then when this extremely bizarre music started (sounding like either a warped record or a record played backwards) he began to skate. And of course at the first jump the inevitable happened. He jumped and the cape flew right over his head - and stayed there. Totally blinded, he still managed to come down on his feet, but the audience couldn't avoid cracking up. After skating to an eternity of warped music, the cape finally came off and the Carmen Toreador song came up (played normally, thank goodness) with Aleksei now using the cape to imitate a Matador's action. Then the cape was dropped while he skated around it and I worried that one of the other guys might skate over it. Aleksei then proceeded to skate into a triple axel that ended with him on his backside; followed shortly thereafter with a series of Arabians that ended with the same result. At the second fall, the poor guy just sat there on the ice, literally sputtering with anger, with something coming out of his mouth that could only have been a whole series of Russian expletives. When he finally got to his feet, to skate back to his coach in total disgust, it was to a round of appreciative applause from the audience which, I fear, did absolutely nothing to lift his spirits. Surprisingly enough, although he had just managed to make a total fool of himself, he did so in such an incredibly charming manner that my opinion of him went up yet another notch. Shortly thereafter he left the ice, looking totally demoralized.

At some point during the session Steven took a bad fall (I believe he tripped), face forward onto vital parts, producing first a gasp and then a titter from the crowd. Steven, being Steven, played up the incident for all it was worth - shouting out to everyone not to worry, he was all right - and doing so in a falsetto voice!

Todd had a really good run-through of Gethsemane (the high point of my day!) and then later tried to leave the ice, only to find his way blocked by Elvis and Steven. Looking very conspiratorial, they started talking at him, furiously, obviously trying to talk him into something. What are those nuts up to?, I wondered. Todd shook his head, trying to resist. They persisted. Finally, Todd gave in, realizing no doubt that they wouldn't let him leave until he did. The three immediately began racing around the rink, Steven leading the way, followed by Elvis and then Todd. After about four such circuits, they headed side-by-side straight down the length of the rink and concluded by going into body-slides. Todd is of course a master at such a move; Steven showed he wasn't too bad at it; but Elvis' body is just not built for a slide. In his case, what we got was more like a body roll. It was very funny. By this time there was a substantial crowd in the Forum (I estimate as many as 900, mostly composed of people killing time while waiting for the Ladies Final) and the guys managed to bring the house down (as I'm sure Elvis and Steven knew they would!).

Once again, I shall confine my remarks concerning the ladies final to a few select observations. It was announced at the start of the competition that Tanja Szewczenko (who'd had a fairly disastrous short program performance, finishing in 11th place) had withdrawn. We learned later it was because of injury. With six of the seven lowest scorers of the original 31 being eliminated (Jenna Arrowsmith was the 7th), Jenna added and then Tanja withdrawn, this brought the number of competitors to 24. Skating third, Lucinda Ruh once again wowed the audience while at the same time evidencing continuing jump landing problems; she ultimately pulled herself up from 23rd place to an 18th place finish.

Of the first 13 skaters, the really stand-out performance was delivered by Hanae Yokoya of Japan, who landed 7 clean triples and would have been a serious medal contender had she not been handicapped by a 16th place finish after the short program. She shows promise of being Japan's next female superstar, and her effort earned her an ultimate 10th place finish. Thankfully so, since it would be a shame if Japan could only send one lady next year. Junko Yaginuma is not far behind Yokoya in talent (and finished in 12th place) and Kumiko Koiwai also shows great promise. Irina Slutskaya suffered a fall but otherwise skated well enough to pull herself up from 12th place to a 7th place finish. On the other hand, Marina Kielmann had what had to be the most disastrous performance of her career. I've seen her suffer disaster in the past, but nothing on the order of this. I honestly lost track of how many times she fell; I believe it was at least four times, beginning with her very first jump. After the second fall, she really became rattled and from then on, only seemed to go through the motions. She had not had a great short program (finishing in 9th place), but this performance dropped her all the way down to 13th place. What a horrible comedown after her 4th place finish last year. As a result of this, Tanja's withdrawal and Simone Lang's 17th place finish, it was not a good year for Germany. Next year they will only be able to send one lady (no doubt it will be Tanja and she will have to go through qualifying).

In total contrast to Marina's disaster, Laetitia Hubert had the skate of her life. I was certainly right in thinking she has finally pulled it together. Suddenly she has a focus, confidence and determination (and a maturity!) I have never seen her have before. Tonight she skated beautifully and flawlessly. Albeit her program was not as technically difficult as that offered by the other top ladies, what she did she did well and sold in full measure to the audience. I could not resist participating in a standing ovation for her. I just love it when a skater finally puts it all together! She very deservedly ended the competition in 6th place.

Laetitia's teammate, Marie-Pierre Leray, followed her and must have absorbed some of her aura, because she too had what was for her a very good performance; Marie-Pierre is another one of those skaters who has a tendency to do a decent short program and then completely blow the long. Not today. This performance was good enough to allow her to hold on to her 8th place position. I was not terribly surprised that Nicole's nerves apparently got the better of her during her performance. She certainly never expected to be in first place going into the final, and I imagine the pressure of that and the thought she might actually win the thing got to her. Right now she just doesn't have the experience to handle it. On the other hand, I certainly am proud of what she did do. The technical difficulty of her program (not to mention landing a triple lutz/triple toe!) combined with her artistry ensured that she would still achieve fairly high scores - which of course she did. I must admit I was frankly terrified that Nicole would win the gold at this event (given Bonaly's notorious inconsistency and Lu Chen's not being her usual self this week). It would have been way too soon and might well have ruined her. Consequently, I found myself really rooting like crazy for Lu Chen for reasons other than my liking for her. On the whole, I was quite happy with the final results of the competition - a bronze was just what I'd hoped to see. And I was gratified to see during the medal ceremony that Nicole herself looked pretty happy with the result.

With no events scheduled for that evening, Lynn and I decided to treat ourselves to a leisurely dinner in the Metropole restaurant; but it still being a tad early for dinner, we decided to pause in the Lounge first for a couple of before dinner drinks. On the way through the lobby we passed by Victor Petrenko, Oksana Baiul and company (namely, Nina Petrenko and Galina). Lynn had encountered them earlier in the day, checking out of our hotel in the city, and had warned me that Oksana looked about 25 years old. Now I could see that she had not exaggerated; Oksana did indeed look quite mature, in full make-up and wearing 3-inch (?) spiked heels. The effect was slightly spoiled, however, by her carrying a large stuffed animal under her arm, no doubt a gift from a fan she had encountered sometime during the day.

Shortly after we'd settled ourselves in the Lounge, Lucinda Ruh entered, accompanied by two ladies who could only be chaperones. I instantly went on red alert - or I should say, Swiss alert, mindful of an as yet unaccomplished mission I had promised to undertake for my friend, Emma Abraham. At the 92 Worlds in Oakland, Emma had discovered Patrick Meier and had taken a picture of him that she now wished me to present to him. His failure to qualify had put a dent in what I had thought would be ease in accomplishing this task, as I was then deprived of a week's worth of practice sessions during which I could learn to identify him off the ice and then later pounce with gift. However, I had not yet given up hope. After claiming a table in the lounge, Lucinda bounced off leaving the ladies at my mercy. Figuring I had nothing to lose and this might be my last chance, I made my way over to the table and politely asked the ladies if by chance they were with the Swiss delegation (I do work in Washington, D.C., after all, and am thus conditioned to think "delegations" rather than "teams). Ascertaining that yes, they were, I then asked if Patrick Meier was still in Birmingham. Yes, he was. I then produced the picture and asked the lady who'd been doing all the answering if she could give it to him. Once she understood that the picture was intended as a gift for Patrick from a fan in the United States she absolutely insisted I present it to him in person, a suggestion I welcomed as I could then tell Emma that I had personally placed the item in the hands of the intended recipient. The lady said she was scheduled to meet Patrick in the lobby in half an hour and could I meet her there at that time. I agreed.

Half an hour later, the lady met me in the lobby with profuse apologies. Patrick had been delayed, she explained, because Philippe Candeloro had called some kind of skaters meeting and he was still in that meeting. She promised, however, that as soon as he appeared she would bring over to my table in the Lounge. Returning to our table, I explained to Lynn that our dinner would be delayed and why. Lynn was slightly put out with me that I had neglected to ask the lady why Philippe had called a meeting - what could be the purpose of it? I defended myself by saying the purpose of the meeting was scarcely relevant to the situation with Patrick (and none of my business), but informed her that whatever it was about, it was apparently of no interest either to Elvis or to Eric, as both those fellows were in the lobby at the time I was with my Swiss lady friend and thus not at the meeting.

After another 20 minutes or so, I spied the Swiss lady making her way towards us, accompanied by a very charming young man who could only be Patrick Meier. When I presented him with the picture it was hard to tell what overwhelmed him the most - the picture or the news that he had a dedicated fan in the United States who had followed his career for the last three years. When I mentioned I'd seen his qualifying performance, he quickly said "I wasn't very good." I hastened to reassure him, saying I thought he was very good indeed, with a lot of wonderful qualities. We discussed the upcoming Worlds in Switzerland, with my saying how much I looked forward to visiting their country and the lady saying that the competition site was at a really beautiful location. They then overwhelmed me by presenting Lynn and me (and Emma) with Swiss Team pins. Our visit concluded with my saying I hoped to see Patrick next year in Edmonton, and the Swiss lady saying quite decisively "He'll be there!"

After a dinner that fully lived up to our high expectations for it, Lynn and I opted for a final after-dinner drink in the Lounge, after which we had every intention of retiring early for a real night's sleep. Of course we didn't make it. Meanwhile, the skaters were having a disco party in a room right off the lobby, with a natural spill-over into the Lounge. For some reason, the French in particular seemed to be all over the place.

With all that was going on, not surprisingly it was once again 2 a.m. before we were able to tear ourselves away for the journey back to our hotel.

Sunday, March 12, 1995 Exhibition practice sessions were scheduled to take place in the Arena this morning and were supposed to be closed to the public, but Christina, Dann and I managed to sneak in and catch about 20 minutes of the men's practice before we were ejected. During this period Todd and Steven had the place to themselves, although Aleksei and Eric arrived as we were leaving. There was no sign of Philippe (of course) nor of Elvis. The session began with Steven lying flat on his back on the judges' table, to widespread laughter from the audience. He was then asked to test the microphone, as he would be needing to use it during his performance. This was a big mistake - giving a microphone to Steven Cousins is roughly equivalent to handing a homicidal maniac a gun. You are asking for trouble. And sure enough, Steven was delighted with his new toy and once he had ascertained it was in perfect working order, he wouldn't give it back. Instead he skated around with it, testing out various settings - falsetto, bass - entertaining the audience. Meanwhile, of course, poor Todd was once again trying to have a serious practice session, but discovering that it is very difficult to jump and laugh at the same time. At one point, after watching Todd skate for awhile and seeing he was about to go into a jump, Steven said brightly "Jump, Todd." A short time later, Todd came out of a lutz landing to find Steven waiting for him with the microphone and the question - in falsetto, "How did your lutz feel?" Whereupon, finding the microphone thrust under his nose, Todd got into the spirit of the moment by taking the microphone and responding - also in falsetto "It felt marvelous!" Most definitely, should Steven Cousins ultimately fail as a skater he could easily have another career as a stand-up comedian.

After ejection from the Arena, I made my way to the Metropole for a leisurely breakfast. Afterwards, with a couple hours remaining before the start of the Gala Exhibition, I took advantage of the time to retreat to the Lounge to catch up on my notes, stopping enroute to acquire a batch of Sunday papers to extract and read what little there might be concerning the previous day's competition. Coverage in the British press had been amazingly meager all week, even in the local Birmingham Post. You would think the presence of a World Championship would be a big deal in a country, and especially in a city, but apparently it wasn't. And, of course, Nicole's legal problems back home had received an inordinate amount of attention. Today the papers were finally forced (by her outstanding performance yesterday) to take notice of Michelle Kwan; so of course one of the London papers immediately decided to paint a good girl/bad girl scenario, hoping no doubt to try to promote a recreation of the Nancy/Tonya saga.

The Gala Exhibition that afternoon was a nice, if as always bittersweet, way to end the week. I had spent a great deal of time raving to all those I knew who had not been in Providence about Nicole's Circle of Life program; and she performed that same number so well here that numerous people afterward told me I had not exaggerated in my raving. Ditto Todd's Gethsemane program, for those who had not previously had the privilege of seeing it in person (and NBC's decision to "chack" it makes no sense whatsoever!).

And then there was poor Aleksei. The best that can be said for his performance is that he managed to stay on his feet. However, the cape again flew over his head when he jumped, the weird music sounded even worse in the Arena and I had at least three people ask me (I guess because they knew I was a fan) in all seriousness if he had lost his mind (had a fourth place finish totally unhinged him?) For the sake of his reputation, I am truly glad this performance was not shown on the NBC broadcast. I hope never to see it again. I do wish somebody out there would take this poor boy by the hand, tell him to lose the props (and the god-awful costumes!), just skate, and please, please, please, save the experiments with the avant-garde until after he has established a reputation as a truly accomplished skater!

After the Gala, Lynn and I headed straight back to our hotel to pack and to participate in a farewell banquet for our Skatetours group. It was off for home early the next morning and the end of a fabulous week of adventure.