'Maybe ... I wanted it too bad'

Eldredge's dream of Olympic medal left unfulfilled

Posted: Sat February 14, 1998 at 3:16 PM ET

Eldridge tumbled near the end of his routine   AP

NAGANO, Japan (KRT) -- He didn't even look at the monitor.

Todd Eldredge had been chasing the Olympics this entire decade, and the one before it as well. Five times he had been crowned the best male skater in the United States. Once he had won the world championship. But an Olympic medal always eluded him.

The first time, at Albertville in 1992, when he was already a two-time U.S. champion, he competed with a back so sore he could barely lift a suitcase. He fell on a double Axel at the end of the short program that year and finished 10th.

By the time the next Olympics rolled around in 1994, his career was in eclipse. He questioned why he kept skating and his coach suggested he take time off to get his head on straight. He missed the Olympics completely that year, the year of Nancy and Tonya.

Four more years went by. More work. More waiting. And then a comeback. Three more U.S. titles. A world title. And then, finally, another shot at an Olympic medal.

He put himself in position for a gold medal with a mistake-free short program Thursday, placing third, and still was in contention for a medal with only two skaters remaining in Saturday's free program. One of them, Elvis Stojko, was already ahead of him in second place. The other Phillippe Candeloro, was behind him and thus the only one in position to take away Eldredge's long-coveted medal.

Yet when Candeloro took the ice, Eldredge didn't watch. While Candeloro, a master performer, was dueling across the ice and playing to the crowd, Eldredge didn't watch. While the crowd's applause for Candeloro rose louder and the long-sought medal was being decided, Eldredge didn't even bother to turn his head to look at the television monitor a couple feet behind him.

Instead he politely answered questions from a crush of reporters about whether a bronze medal would fulfill the dream that began with his first lessons when he was 5 years old.

And all the while he talked, he knew that medal was being taken away from him.

He talked briefly, and when he finished, he edged his way past the reporters until someone shouted another question about him. "I guess I'm the one who has to ask the question about the quad ..."

"Didn't do it," Eldredge said, walking away. And then under his breath, "The quad didn't matter. The triple mattered."

Ah yes, the quad. That was the pre-skate focus, whether the two skaters ahead of him, Ilia Kulik and Stojko, would land a quadruple jump. Whether Eldredge would even attempt one. Whether he would need to.

And then the final round began and Kulik went out and not only landed the quad, but every other jump in a magnificent performance. Just before Eldredge began his routine, Kulik's scores were announced, a seemingly endless string of 5.8s and 5.9s. And Eldredge knew he had no chance at a gold medal.

Still, he could win the silver or at least the bronze; either medal would be enough to fulfill the goal. He still could get win the medal he'd thought of and worked toward for so many years. His strategy was to avoid the quad and skate a flawless program that would be good enough on its own.

It wasn't.

Eldredge missed his first combination, doubling the back end of what was supposed to be triple jump. And then he missed another. And then near the end, he fell. And when he finished his routine, and he listened to the applause, there no longer were any thoughts of a medal.

So, he said, there was no need to see what the other skaters did after him, no need to watch Candeloro.

"I knew that how I skated, more than likely that wasn't a medal performance," Eldredge said. "There were plenty of guys left who could beat me."

After that first wave of reporters, Eldredge retreated to the dressing area where he changed out of his skating costume. While he did, he heard Candeloro's marks announced, all the 5.8s and the 5.9 that were enough to beat him. Quickly calculating that he had finished fourth, that there would be no Olympic medal, he packed his equipment into a bag.

Then he left the room. He had to provide a urine sample for the drug testers. Then it was back to face reporters again, trying to tell them what it felt like to have a 22-year-old dream die in four minutes and 40 seconds.

"It was just a real good feeling to be here," he said. "I don't know. It's just something I wanted, maybe I wanted too bad. I wanted it too bad. I didn't skate aggressively enough to do what I needed to get done."

Eldredge said he will skate at the world championships next month at the Target Center in Minneapolis. A professional career awaits beyond that. Asked whether these were his final Olympics, his final chance at a medal, he replied, "Probably."

"[A medal] is something that I really wanted but everybody doesn't get what they want," he said. "I look back at Kurt Browning. He had four world championships but never won an Olympic medal. Certain people may win an Olympic gold medal but maybe they're lacking something else."

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