Look Who's Standing

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

Imagine for a moment last week's men's figure-skating competition as a feature film in preproduction, with the team of Olympic judges as the venture's casting directors. For the role of leading man, the producers have asked for someone the world can call a champion. But whom to choose? Do they opt for a sinewy 20-year-old talent, all Baryshnikov grace and DiCaprio innocence? Or do they go with a stockily built he-man, a comparative veteran of 25, whose brash moves and manner suggest a cross between Michael Flatley and Steven Seagal?

With the world's current crop of elite male skaters all master technicians and wizardly athletes, the competition at the Nagano Olympics first appeared as though it would amount to a contest of aesthetics: the classical artistry of Russia's ballet-trained Ilia Kulik, a first-time Olympian, pitted against the don't-fence-me-in aggressiveness of Canadian Elvis Stojko, a black belt in karate and three-time world champion. Both men performed well and cleanly during Thursday's short program (the 2-min. 40-sec. execution of eight required elements), but Kulik led the event, suggesting a judicial preference for his traditional brand of physical elegance.

But style mattered little in the end as the contest came down to a rather old-fashioned battle of stamina. Although the world didn't know it, Stojko--as his coach revealed after the competition was over--had been suffering from a groin injury for the past month. The strain on his body became all too evident during the crucial 4.5-min. free skate on Saturday. (The free skate counts for two-thirds of a competitor's final score.) Kulik won the gold with an effortless show, and Stojko was forced to settle for silver, as he did in Lillehammer. Except this time the Canadian hobbled to the medals podium in pain, hugged his rival and went straight to the hospital for treatment.

The tussle for bronze turned out to be an unexpected test of strength as well. In fifth place following the short program, Frenchman Philippe Candeloro, 25, an international heartthrob of the Lorenzo Lamas school, won his second consecutive bronze in the Olympic games, keeping Todd Eldredge, 26, the five-time U.S. national champion, from medaling.

With its ever increasing penchant for mawkish soap opera and garish costuming (and no one is a bigger culprit here than Kulik), figure skating has become camp spectacle. Perhaps as a corrective, the judges of the men's competition sent the message that skating is indeed still an earnest sport where fierce athleticism matters. In other words, yes, the much discussed quadruple jump counts. Of the top medal contenders, only two skaters, Kulik and Alexei Yagudin, also a Russian, attempted one, and only Kulik landed his: a perfectly executed quadruple toe loop.

It was not that move alone, however, that secured Kulik highest honors. His entire routine, skated to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, was playful and precise. He landed every one of his eight triple jumps flawlessly. And when the competition was finished, the generally impassive skater even managed to show a trace of humor. "The shirt won," he joked to reporters, referring to his less-than-becoming giraffe-print top. "It's lucky. I don't think I'll be getting any more questions about the shirt."

In the course of his six-year competitive career, Kulik, who moved to Marlborough, Mass., from Moscow in 1996, has not always performed so brilliantly. In recent months, though, he has moved up the rankings, largely thanks to his work with Russian ice-dancing coach Tatiana Tarasova, who two years ago came out of retirement to oversee Kulik's career. Last summer she put him on a regimen of cycling, running and weight lifting to bolster his conditioning. In December, Kulik, who has never won a world championship, defeated Stojko and Eldredge in Munich at the Champions Series final.

Stojko's long program last week seemed more labored than usual. Skating to the sound track from the movie The Ghost and the Darkness, he seemed sapped and uninspired. The sport's most explosive jumper, he failed to awe the audience as he so often does. Although a master of the four-revolution jump (he was the first skater to land a quad-triple combination in competition), he couldn't muster the fortitude to show one off in Nagano. Moreover, he was sloppy in landing a triple loop, normally an easy move for him. Stojko had hoped to break the "Canada curse" and win for his country its first gold medal in men's figure skating.

Eldredge too had high hopes of overcoming what seemed like a curse. After falling out of a simple double Axel and finishing 10th at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, he failed even to qualify for a spot at Lillehammer, owing to a bout with the flu. Nagano looked promising. Eldredge ranked third after the short program, but bad luck returned to escort him through the long one. He turned two triple-triple jump combinations into triple-doubles, singled one triple Axel and fell while trying to insert another at the end. Watching the performance, his training partner and friend, gold-medal contender Tara Lipinski, nervously gripped the arm of U.S. pairs skater Jenni Meno. When Eldredge fell, Lipinski covered her eyes in sadness. "Nothing went all that great," he said later. "I'm disappointed. It took me six years to get here. Maybe I wanted the medal too badly."

Eldredge's ill fortune made all the difference for Candeloro, who skated after him in Saturday's lineup to the theme from The Three Musketeers. Skating's flashiest showman, Candeloro, who was laid up with an ankle injury last year, played the swashbuckler with abandon, complete with pretend sword fights. The crowd at the White Ring roared in appreciation. His jumps were high and upright, as they generally are, but his execution was messy.

Prior to Nagano, Eldredge had indicated that he would turn pro after the 1998 world championships. But his disappointing showing last week may compel him to give the Olympics another go in four years. None of the other top finishers have revealed their plans for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. But there will be new faces to watch, particularly America's Michael Weiss, who attempted a quadruple Lutz at Nagano. He failed, but he is still the only person ever to try that jump in competition, and by week's end he had climbed from 11th to 7th place. Yagudin, whose coach said he was running a high fever, placed fifth at Nagano; only 17, he is already a force to contend with. China's Guo Zhengxin, eighth, also seems a potential star. Guo shot for two quadruples in the finals last week and landed one of them impressively.

The quad could be more important than ever in Salt Lake. The International Skating Union's technical committee has proposed that the rules be changed to allow the quad as an option for the solo jump in the short program. The vote will take place in June. That means that male skaters who want to win competitions and duke it out at the top levels will not be able to avoid the quad. A bad shirt, maybe; but powerhouse acrobatics, no.

--Reported by Alice Park/Nagano

With reporting by Alice Park/Nagano