Quad count

Mark A. Lund is the publisher of International Figure Skating and is currently covering the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. To read more about the sport of figure skating, please check out http://www.ifsmagazine.com/.

Question: What were your overall impressions of last night’s men’s short program?

Lund: The men’s skating was rather interesting. We saw some surprise performances and we saw some performances that surprised us in so far as not doing so well.

Question: What were the strengths and weaknesses in Alexei Yagudin’s performances?

Lund: I didn’t see any weaknesses in Alexei Yagudin’s performances at all. I thought it was a top-notch, championship level performance and was certainly worthy of first place.

Question: How stunned was everyone that Evgeni Plushenko fell?

Lund: I don’t think people were too stunned about Plushenko winding up on the ground. Generally, he’s very consistent, but lately he hasn’t been.

Question: Are there indications that the fall is due to this groin muscle pull he’s been nursing since the Grand Prix Final?

Lund: We haven’t heard anything like that.

Question: The TV commentators kept saying that after Evgeni Plushenko fell, Todd Eldredge shouldn’t do the quad. What are your thoughts?

Lund: The quad is always very questionable with Todd Eldredge. His attempt at it was noble, but it obviously didn’t work for him. It shook him a little bit and thus he fell on his triple axel. But you don’t change a short program based on the performance of another skater. If Todd wasn’t going to attempt the quad, that decision would have been made before he got to the arena. It would not be based on the performance of Evgeni Plushenko.

Question: Talk about the surprise person in second place, Takeshi Honda.

Lund: Takeshi Honda is a good skater, he’s just not a consistent skater at all. Last night he was quite good and certainly deserving of second place. I don’t see him holding on to second in the long program, but he certainly has the talent for it.

Question: What about Timothy Goebel?

Lund: His jumps were certainly dead bang on. But he did skate a bit slow toward the end of the program.

Question: Final thoughts on some of the other skaters?

Lund: Clearly, the quad has become the defining factor in the short program. It shows the direction in which men’s skating has gone. The quad was only allowed into the short program since the 1998–99 season. Unfortunately, the first man to land a quad in the short program, Min Zhang of China, didn’t hit it last night. Despite errors, Elvis Stojko showed a lot of fire in his performance. The quality level did drop off substantially after the top 10. But overall it was an excellent evening of skating.

Question: Thoughts on the free skate?

Lund: It’s Yagudin’s to win, but he has to skate for it. I’m sure there are more surprises to come.

Question: Are people still talking about the pair final?

Lund: Absolutely, but the men deserve our respect and attention, and I think the audience gave it to them.

 

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