AP Photos NY180-NY182 of Nov. 29; NAGO101 of Dec. 1
By BARRY WILNER
AP Sports Writer
If you can't rotate four times in the air, you can't go anywhere in men's
figure skating these days.
It has become a fact of life in the sport that without a quadruple jump,
medals are a longshot. All of the world's top skaters do them with regularity.
So do all of the rising stars, including American Tim Goebel, who stunned the
skating world by hitting three quads in one free skate program at Skate
America.
"It was inevitable, it is evolution," says Canada's Elvis Stojko, who
refined the jump and won three worlds titles and two Olympic silver medals with
the quad a major weapon in his repertoire. "Someone sets a world record and
then it gets bigger and bigger, moves ahead and ahead some more. It's amazing
to see, it's what the sport is all about, to push forward."
Until the late 1980s, the quad was an aberration. Skaters practiced it and,
once in a while, tried it in competition. Usually, they fell or landed on two
feet or didn't get around four times.
At the 1986 European championships, the Czech Josef Sabovcik came close. His
jump actually was approved at the time, but weeks later, officials viewed a
videotape and disallowed it, saying Sabovcik's free foot also touched the ice
on landing.
Kurt Browning of Canada was the first "quad man," hitting the jump at the
1988 worlds at Budapest. When he nailed it, Josef Dedic, vice president of the
International Skating Union, said, "The quad will become an everyday event, at
least in the men's category."
He was wrong. For years, it was still a novelty, and skaters such as Victor
Petrenko and Todd Eldredge vaulted to the top of the sport without a quad as a
key element in their programs.
"I remember that there were a few people landing the jump (in practice)
long before I did, and by watching them I was inspired to try it myself,"
Browning says. "After landing it, I certainly expected more skaters to start
doing it in competition. I was surprised in the next few years when that really
did not happen."
Browning actually dropped the quad when he won the free skate and the gold
medal at the 1993 worlds.
In 1996, Eldredge, easily the best skater never to master the quad, won the
world title with a brilliant technical and artistic showing. It seemed as if
the big jump would remain secondary to a skater's overall presentation.
Instead, that's when the quad really took off. With skaters from China,
Latvia, France, Ukraine, Japan, Australia and Bulgaria conquering it, the men
from the powerful skating nations - Russia, Canada, the Czech Republic and the
United States - knew they had no choice but to embrace the quad.
"In the past few years the quad is finally becoming the expected thing for
the men to do," Browning says, "but I am surprised that it took this long."
The Russians, who have dominated men's competition recently, are masters of
the quad. Ilia Kulik, the 1998 Olympic champion, two-time world champ Alexei
Yagudin and Evgeny Plushenko consider them just another necessary maneuver.
Not that Yagudin isn't thrilled with how he and his peers are stretching the
parameters of their sport.
"It feels great to be a part of it," he says, "and to be involved in it
at the top for so many years. It's become so difficult to stay there and you
have to push yourself year after year.
"My first world championships, when I was 17," the 19-year-old Yagudin
says, "I was doing quads in practice. Then I pushed them into the program
because I had to.
"The jump has taken a step forward and it's great to see."
Goebel, of course, took it several steps forward at Skate America. He hit a
quadruple salchow, a quad toe loop in combination and a quad toe as a solo
jump. That makes the triple axel, which every man has done throughout the
decade, look almost puny - even though, for example, only two women
successfully have done the 3½-revolution jump.
"It's more important to do the quad than the triple axel," he says.
"Maybe nine or 10 years ago, the triple axel was the benchmark. That's changed
now."
How much more change might be ahead? Browning, now a touring professional
with Stars on Ice who rarely competes, believes this is just the beginning for
the quad.
"Of course, we are getting close to a quad axel," says Browning. "I just
find it difficult to believe that it will ever truly be a consistent jump such
as the quad toe seems to be.
"I knew a skater in Alberta in 1982 who could do a quad loop. My point
being that there are always people out there who can jump bigger and better
than you."
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