Athlete profile: Todd Eldredge

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

His short program is skated to music Walk on the Wild Side, but it the Puritan work ethic is often part of a New England upbringing that has helped Eldredge navigate his course...the son of a Cape Cod commercial fisherman, Eldredge was a two-time national champion at age 19...but after years of back problems, illness and self-doubt, Eldredge will try and become the first US Olympic men's figure skating gold medalist since Brian Boitano in 1988...like Boitano in 1988, Eldredge has a military theme -- with music from the Gettysburg soundtrack..."It's the desire to be on the Olympic podium that has kept me fired up for so long," says Eldredge, the 1997 World silver medalist...if Eldredge wins at Nationals in January, he will surpass Boitano and fellow Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton with his fifth national title...fifth in the Worlds at age 18, Eldredge won bronze the next year -- and the 20s looked like his decade...but a nagging back problem -- doctors diagnosed two joints rubbing together -- forced Eldredge out of the 1992 US Championships...he received a medical waiver onto the US team but managed only 10th in Albertville..."The injury hurt my confidence," says Eldredge. "It brought my attitude down. My mind wasn't into it. I wasn't thinking too highly of skating or of myself"...in the spring of 1993, Eldredge displayed little of the work ethic his long-time coach Richard Callaghan had come to admire...at the age of 10, Eldredge had left home to follow Callaghan across America -- Philadelphia, Colorado Springs, San Diego, and Bloomfield Hills outside of Detroit...so Callaghan was mystified to see Eldredge that spring of 1993 actually slacking off at practice..."That wasn't Todd," recalls Callaghan. "Maybe he had just worked too hard and been frustrated too much. I told him to take some time off and figure out what he wanted to do"...after a month playing tennis and golf, Eldredge returned to the rink, setting his sights on Olympic redemption in Lillehammer...but at the 1994 Nationals, Eldredge was blindsided by influenza -- he fainted on the bathroom floor with a 104 degree temperature...Eldredge finished fourth -- his third straight year off the podium -- and did not qualify for the Olympics..."We talked that four years was a long, long time," said Callaghan. "But when he came back after the layoff, I knew he was back to skate the best he could. And getting sick at Nationals precluded him from doing that"...to compensate for his bad back -- and uneven legs resulting from the wear and tear - Eldredge had a heel lift inserted in his shoes and skates...that adjustment helped his feel for the ice...in 1995, he returned like a Phoenix, winning Nationals and finishing second in the Worlds...then in 1996, he lost his national crown stunningly to upstart Rudy Galindo (now professional)...Eldredge had spent the weeks leading up to the Nationals garnering a reported $90,000 from an appearance on the Nutcracker on Ice tour...immediately after Nationals, Eldredge reneged on a number of commitments (and a reported $100,000) and returned to the rink...he showed up at the 1996 Worlds in Edmonton, thanking Galindo for making him go back "and get my act together"...Eldredge and Russia's Ilia Kulik were first and second after the short program as they were the only skaters to land cleanly a triple Axel-triple toe combination...then in the long program, Eldredge hit eight triples and two combinations (to Kulik's one) en route to his first world title..."I had to always believe that someday it would happen," said Eldredge after hanging the gold medal around the neck of his mother, Ruth. "That's the best I've ever skated"...after the Worlds, Eldredge bought his dream car -- a 1996 red 355 Ferrari convertible -- yet remained as disciplined as ever...last year in Lausanne, he seemed ready to defend his title, but with a minute left in the long program he singled a planned triple Axel...sensing the world title slipping to Canadian Elvis Stojko, Eldredge tried to turn a planned double Axel into a triple with 20 seconds left in his program and fell..."It was dumb to do that," Eldredge said afterwards. "I've done that jump well how many times? The triple Axel is one of my easiest jumps. I made one mistake and it cost me"....part of the pressure on Eldredge is he has to make every one of his triples and combinations perfect because unlike his chief rivals -- Stojko, Kulik and Russia's Ilia Kulik -- Eldredge doesn't have his quadruple jump cemented in his program...others feel Eldredge's skating is so good he doesn't need the jump..."I don't think it's a must," he agrees. "It could give you that extra little tenth on the technical mark. But you don't just get one mark. You also get an artistic mark. The most well-rounded program with the jumps and the artistic elements is going to win. It's a strategy thing. It depends on how I've placed in the short and what the draw is. If I skate after everyone else and they all did well and they all landed quads, it becomes possible I would try"... during the fall season, however, Eldredge did not unfurled his quad in a competition...Eldredge won Skate America, gallantly after injuring his shoulder and rib in a training fall...then at Trophee Lalique in Paris, Eldredge became unhinged, failing on three triple Axels and placing fifth in his worst performance in years...on the ice, Eldredge rarely gets queasy from pressure; however, on the water, his seasickness was one reason he never envisioned the life of his father and brother as fishermen...his father John canvassed the waters off Cape Cod for tuna and did not have the means to support Todd's figure skating training...the townspeople of Chatham (year-round population is 6,800) established the Chatham Youth Hockey Todd Eldredge fund to support Todd and local youth hockey programs...volunteers raised $30,000 a year via door-to-door pledges, clam bakes and a Christmas ball..."Thank God for these people," John Eldredge says. "We could never have kept it up. It would have buried me. Without [them] there is no way Todd would be skating today"...for John Eldredge, the depletion of fish in the waters off Cape Cod has made fishing tougher each year...Todd has repaid Chatham in kind, building baseball fields and other recreational facilities in town..."It makes me feel really good because this is not just the story of this little rich boy that made it good in the sport," says Ruth Eldredge, a nurse who lived on the road with Todd for much of his youth as he followed Callaghan around the country. "This is just not the case. We couldn't support him any more, so the community did, and it made us one big happy family"...the Eldredge marriage remained strong despite John and Ruth seeing each other only at major competitions...now Ruth is back at home...John's boat used to be called the SCROD: SC is for Scott; R is for Ruth, and OD is for Todd...he traded in the boat, and his new boat is SKATE -- after both the fish and the sport...as Todd foregoed the seas because of seasickness, his brother Scott, stopped skating because spins made him dizzy...Scott used to work as a fisherman, but now lives in Colorado...