Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502130045
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PROVIDENCE, R.I. LENGTH: Medium
Eldredge won his third U.S. Figure Skating Championships men's gold medal Saturday; it was his first since 1991, before back injuries and disappointing performances stymied his career.
Hours later, Bobek, whose only significant victories came in 1991, outskated highly touted Michelle Kwan to win the women's title.
It was a rare double for coach Richard Callaghan, who has been with Eldredge for years, but began teaching Bobek only last fall. The last coach to have both U.S. singles champions was Gus Lussi in 1950.
``This means a lot. It goes to show a lot of pain and a lot of suffering is all worth it,'' said Bobek, 17, of Chicago.
Bobek has worked with a handful of coaches, none of whom could extract the kind of performance she put on in Saturday's free skate. In fact, leading up to nationals, she was in a slump, finishing seventh at the Goodwill Games and at Skate America, and fifth at the U.S. Pro-Am.
But this time, Bobek nailed nearly every element of her program, to ``Dr. Zhivago.'' She hit four triple jumps and her spins were superb, but she won this championship with her artistry, which clearly was more attractive than what Kwan or Tonia Kwiatkowski - winner of the short program on Friday - displayed.
Kwan wound up second, but as in the short program, when she was third, her routine seemed lackluster.
``I don't feel the pressure got to me,'' said Kwan, who, despite being only 14, was heavily favored to win.
Kwiatkowski wound up third.
Eldredge also was favored to complete a comeback that began last summer in Russia at the Goodwill Games, when he was second to Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov. Then he won Skate America, the U.S. Pro-Am and the NHK Trophy in Japan.
All of that wouldn't have meant much, however, if the 23-year-old Eldredge hadn't come through Saturday.
``The biggest obstacle the last three years was trying to put all the bad performances out of my head,'' Eldredge said after sweeping the judges in dethroning two-time defending champion Scott Davis.
There were a lot of bad performances since, at 18, he won the U.S. crown in 1990 and repeated in '91. He was victimized by chronic back problems in 1992, forcing him out of the U.S. championships. Given a medical bye, he was 10th in the Albertville Olympics and seventh in the world championships.
That began a severe spiral, the bottom of which came in the 1993 nationals, when he finished sixth at Phoenix.
``After Phoenix, I told him to take as much time off as he needed, and to get out of the rink for a while and kind of reassess and figure out what he wanted to do,'' Callaghan said. ``At that point, I felt if he wanted to quit, he should quit, that he had been very successful.
``On the other hand, if he wanted to continue, he had to learn how to love to skate again, and try and clear his mind of everything else that was in there instead of just skating. It took a long time.''
Eldredge felt ready in last year's national, but then came down with the flu and wound up fourth.
He's been teriffic ever since. On Saturday, he nailed seven triples, including two triple axels, one in combination, and a triple flip-triple toe loop combination. On his eighth triple, a lutz, he touched down with his hand.
``This is tremendous. I'd say this means the most, because of the three hard years I had since I won,'' he said.
Aren Nielsen, the third-place finisher last year, repeated that placing.
Davis hit four triples, but put his hand down on one, stepped out of another, and cut another to a double jump.
``I felt comfortable out there,'' said Davis, who has struggled this season and even was sidelined for awhile with a stress fracture in his back. ``This is an improvement from my last competition. Hopefully, I will do better at worlds.''
Eldredge, winner of four straight international events - three times over Davis - won a bronze medal in the 1991 worlds. He will try to better that next month in the worlds at Birmingham, England.
Eldredge joined a select circle of three-time U.S. champions that also includes Dick Button, Hayes Jenkins, David Jenkins, Scott Hamilton and Brian Boitano.
by CNB