http://www.examiner.com/figure-skating- ... ittle-time2002 Olympics look back: So many quads, so little timeIf you can believe it,
the top three men at Salt Lake City landed seven clean quads between them in the free skate. To put it in perspective, this feat, to the best of my knowledge, has never been repeated, and it’s something that I guarantee will not happen at this year’s Worlds. In the end, Alexei Yagudin kept the top position to win gold, while rival Evgeni Plushenko recovered from a fall in the short to move up to second.
Fourth after the short, it would have taken a whole lot to beat Yagudin, but Plushenko did pretty much everything in his power to give himself the chance. And though he had two mistakes, it would have been tough even had he skated perfectly because of his fourth-place placement. Yagudin had such momentum coming in from the short program, and with the added advantage of skating last, there was no derailing that train.
Plushenko, to his credit, left nothing in the bag – quad toe-triple toe-triple loop combo to begin (he stepped out of the loop), another quad toe, and then a very unique and super difficult triple axel-half loop-triple flip combination – to this day, he’s the only person I’ve ever seen even attempt that combo.Yagudin’s gold was well-deserved, though his marks were a tad high, especially on the technical merit side. But his two quads and six clean triples were stronger than Plushenko’s two quads and five clean triples. The 6.0s in presentation were really not about the program that was skated that night - it wasn't skated all out, and I didn't find those 6.0s to be at all justified. But either way, the placements were correct (thankfully).
Goebel’s skate of a lifetime
As a point of reference, Goebel’s program as skated in Salt Lake City is worth more in jumps-only base value than the free skates of anyone has achieved this season. (Note that Kevin Reynolds has a higher planned base value this season, but he has never received full credit for all of his jumps.)
It’s an incredible feat, and it would be the free skate of his career – three quads, including a quad sale in the second half of his program (unheard of even today), two triple axels (turned out of the second), and four other triples. Keep in mind that this is a program not designed to cater to the point-getting strategies appropriate to the IJS. It remains today one of the most difficult programs ever – how there weren’t 6.0s for technical merit is just beyond me. But the bronze was still well-deserved.
Eldredge-Stojko-WeissThe three combined were not nearly as decorated, but there was something about the Todd Eldredge-Elvis Stojko-Michael Weiss combination that was reminiscent of Boitano-Browning-Petrenko in 1994. All of them had issues with the short program, and all of them would come back in the free skate with strong programs.
In a lot of ways, Eldredge’s eight-triple program was undermarked, even with the fall on the quad toe. That program should have beaten both Takeshi Honda's and Alexander Abt's free skates without a doubt. And though he would end up sixth both in the free skate and overall, he had to have been satisfied that he finished his career with a strong free skate that ranked amongst one of his best ever.
Stojko, like Sale/Pelletier before him and Michelle Kwan later in the week, chose the nostalgic route and returned to the free skate he used to win the silver in Lillehammer. Though his style of skating isn’t always what I find most interesting, I still contend that he should have won the gold in Lillehammer over Alexei Urmanov. But a lot of the magic that made the Dragon/Bruce Lee free skate so great eight years before was a bit lost in 2002. He was really dragging toward the end and ended up dropping to eighth.
Weiss opened with a great quad toe-triple toe-double loop combo, and for me, it was probably the greatest technical feat he had been able to put together in competition. There were some scratchy points during the free skate, but it also must have been satisfying for him to hit that quad in Olympic competition. After winning another U.S. title a year later, he tried for his third Olympic berth in 2006 but was just short of it, finishing fourth at Nationals.
Names still in competition
It’s amazing to think that this was ten years ago, and three of the skaters who were there have still been skating this season. Plushenko, of course, made his second comeback this season at 29 (yup, he was favored for gold and won the silver when he was 19). Belgium’s Kevin Van Der Perren, 12th in Salt Lake City and also 29 now, has said that this season would be his last. A wrist injury forced him out of Europeans before his free skate, and that was supposed to have been his final competition. But now he hopes to wrap his career up at Worlds on a good note. Now 27, Brian Joubert was 14th and went on to win a World title.
And like Plushenko and Van Der Perren, he’s still going strong, quads and all.MEN (final standings)1. Alexei Yagudin RUS
VIDEO2. Evgeni Plushenko RUS
VIDEO3. Timothy Goebel USA
VIDEO4. Takeshi Honda JPN
VIDEO5. Alexander Abt RUS
VIDEO6. Todd Eldredge USA VIDEO
7. Michael Weiss USA VIDEO
8. Elvis Stojko CAN VIDEO
9. Chengjiang Li CHN VIDEO
10. Anthony Liu AUS VIDEO
11. Frederic Dambier FRA VIDEO
12. Kevin Van Der Perren BEL
13. Ivan Dinev BUL VIDEO
14. Brian Joubert FRA
15. Stephane Lambiel SUI
VIDEO...
PLAY-BY-PLAYAlexei Yagudin RUS – quad toe-triple toe-double loop (nice), quad toe, triple axel (solid), triple salchow, triple lutz, triple loop, triple flip (hangs on) – the two opening quads and the triple axel were beautiful, but I did find it interesting that he chose to play it conservatively after those three passes – and he was this close to losing it with that triple flip
Alexander Abt RUS – quad toe (fall), triple axel-triple toe, triple lutz (turn out), triple axel, triple salchow, triple flip, triple loop, triple toe – decent program, but this should not have finished higher than Eldredge
Timothy Goebel USA – triple lutz, quad salchow-triple toe, tentative spread eagle into triple axel-double toe, quad toe, really cool single loop (was that supposed to have been a walley?)-reverse one-foot salchow into a camel spin, triple axel (turn out), quad salchow (3:15 into the program!), triple flip, hydroblade into triple loop – he still didn’t move like the best of them, but that is, hands-down, still technically one of the most difficult programs ever done
Evgeni Plushenko RUS – quad toe-triple toe-triple loop (step out of loop), quad toe, triple axel-half loop-triple flip, triple axel, triple lutz, double axel, double salchow – that was some crazy set of jumping passes to start the program, really great of Plushenko to come back strong after the disappointment in the shortTakeshi Honda JPN – steps into triple flip (huge), quad toe (step out), triple salchow, triple axel-double toe, triple axel (smooth), triple loop, triple lutz, walley into a spread eagle – this was a really superbly-choreographed program, and it was actually a bit of a precursor to the structure of programs in the iJS – not in terms of overdesigned step sequences and spins with weird positions, but lots of in-between transitions, there was just no way that six triples and a fallout of the quad toe were going to be able to compete with Goebel’s three quads
Chengjiang Li CHN – quad toe-triple toe (hangs on), double salchow, single axel, double lutz, triple loop (possibly underrotated), triple axel (nice), triple salchow – what a powerhouse this guy was, but that was also some nonexistent choreography
Anthony Liu AUS – quad toe (hand down), triple axel (fall), triple lutz-triple toe (hangs on), double toe, triple loop (possibly underrotated), triple salchow, triple flip (hangs on)
Ivan Dinev BUL – triple toe, triple axel (hangs on), single lutz, triple axel-triple toe, triple flip (hand down), triple loop (hand down, possibly underrotated), singl elutz, two half-loops into triple salchow
Frederic Dambier FRA – triple axel, quad salchow (hand down, foot down), triple axel-double toe, triple flip (fall out, hand down), triple salchow, double lutz, inside spread eagle into triple loop (hangs on), spread eagle into triple toe (hangs on)
Michael Weiss USA – quad toe-triple toe-double loop (one of the few times in his career that he hit a fully-rotated clean quad in competition), triple axel (hangs on), double loop, triple axel-triple toe sequence, triple flip (fall out), triple salchow, triple lutz (two-foot)
Elvis Stojko CAN – it really is the Olympics for nostalgic revivals (Sale/Pelletier w/Love Story, Stojko w/Dragon, and then Kwan w/Rach) – quad toe-double toe, quad toe-double toe-double loop (turn out), triple lutz, triple axel (fall out)-double toe, triple flip, triple loop (hand down), triple salchow – this was one of my favorite programs in Lillehammer, but it lost its luster here, unfortunately
Todd Eldredge USA – quad toe (fall), triple axel-triple toe, triple lutz, triple loop-triple toe, triple flip, triple axel, triple salchow - quad toe aside, it was a great way for him to cap off his competitive career – he would finish sixth both in the free skate and overall, but he really should have been fourth in the free skate (the perils of skating early – it’s less of an issue these days with IJS, but still a part of the skating judging)