ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 25, 1996 TAG: 9603270100
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: EDMONTON, ALBERTA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE U.S. TEAM won two gold and two bronze medals at the World Figure Skating Championships.
After the favorites had fallen and the Russian singles skaters didn't quite measure up to their countrymen in pairs and dance, the Americans were left standing atop the world.
In their most successful World Figure Skating Championships in nearly a decade, Americans won four medals, two of them gold. First Todd Eldredge became the first U.S. skater to capture the men's crown since Brian Boitano in 1988. Then Michelle Kwan finished off the first U.S. sweep of the individual events in 10 years.
``It says a lot about the depth of the American team,'' said Frank Carroll, who coaches Kwan. ``They all got along together. It was one of those Dream Team kind of things.''
Kwan capped it off with perfection, and she needed it. The 15-year-old from Torrance, Calif., hit seven triple jumps, including an improvised one at the very end of her free skate Saturday. She earned two perfect 6.0s for artistry and barely edged China's Chen Lu, the defending champion who also got two 6.0s.
``It's been a dream of mine, something I thought about doing, since I started out,'' said Kwan, the third-youngest world champion behind Sonja Henie and Oksana Baiul. ``I can't really get it in my brain that I did it.''
The strong performance by the U.S. team came just as skaters begin to seriously think about the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Kwan won all but one of the competitions she entered this season - she was ill at St.Petersburg, Russia, and wound up third. Eldredge proved he has the jumps, artistry and guts to handle the impressive array of men on the scene.
``It shows the U.S. is doing its part darn well,'' said Eldredge, who culminated a two-year climb back from injury and indifference with his first world crown. ``U.S. skating is looking really strong just two years before Nagano.
``Last year, we started doing that, setting ourselves up. Then, anytime you go to worlds and get a good placement, it makes everyone aware of you and around the world, they know you're in the running.''
The last U.S. sweep came in 1986, when Boitano won the men's championship and Debi Thomas took the women's crown.
That bodes well for Eldredge, because Boitano won the 1988 Olympics and world title. Thomas, however, won only one more major crown, the '88 nationals, but did get a bronze at Calgary.
Kwan, however, is far more solid a skater than Thomas ever was. She has more jumps and, thanks to Carroll, the artistic impression international judges look for.
``I think you have to be very athletic and do the difficulty,'' Carroll said. ``But with the girls, they look for that artistic quality, and if you don't have a good look or choreography - without that combination, it is impossible to be a world champion.''
The other U.S. medal winners were Rudy Galindo in men's and Jenni Meno and Todd Sand in pairs, both bronze.
Galindo's stunning rise after years on the fringe of American singles skating also makes him a contender for the 1998 Olympics. None of his peers are as artful, and he now has a world-level resume.
Meno and Sand got their second straight bronze. They have won three consecutive U.S. crowns. To move up, they need to land side-by-side triple jumps, and Sand has struggled in that area.
The United States finished 1-3-10 (Dan Hollander) in men's singles; 1-8-11 (Tonia Kwiatkowski and 13-year-old Tara Lipinski) in women's singles; and 3-6-10 in pairs (Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen; Shelby Lyons and Brian Wells).
Only in dance is the American team lagging, and a seventh place for three-time U.S. champions Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow was impressive enough.
The Russians, of course, dominated dance, finishing 1-2. Oksana Gritschuk and Evgeny Platov, who won at the Lillehammer Games, took their third world title in a row.
Pairs was a jumble, with none of the couples particularly impressive. Favorites Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov faltered and didn't win a medal. The winners, Marina Eltsova and Andrey Bushkov, also of Russia, hardly look unbeatable.
Perhaps the biggest winners, other than the Americans, were the organizers. The event drew more than 150,000 - official attendance figures were unavailable - and the International Skating Union indicated it would consider returning to Canada in less than six years, the usual cycle.
The Americans would welcome such a decision if another singles sweep came with it.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Michelle Kwan was nearly perfect in her free skateby CNBon Saturday, which helped her win the gold medal at the World Figure
Skating Championships.