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Working wonders Goebel wins first title at U.S. Skating Championships
Updated: Saturday January 20, 2001 11:56 PM
BOSTON (AP) -- First the old champion stumbled. Then the young one crumbled. All the Quad King had to do was stand up. Instead, he soared. With Todd Eldredge cutting down jumps and Michael Weiss struggling to stay on his feet, Timothy Goebel stuck with what always works for him. He landed a quadruple jump, two triple axels and four other triples Saturday to win his first men's title in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. It was hardly a perfect program, and not really even a memorable one. But when everyone else is struggling to stand, being able to fly is good enough. "Although I skated well, I can skate the program a lot better," said Goebel, who won five of the nine judges. "I was obviously a little sloppy at the end, not having been through the program much." Eldredge, the five-time champion who returned to nationals after a two-year absence, was a very shaky second. Weiss, hobbled by injuries all season, had what might have been the biggest collapse by a defending champion. He was fifth in the free skate, dropping him all the way to fourth overall. Matt Savoie was uninspiring, but he managed to stay on his feet and that was good enough for third place. "This was not our best night of skating," Goebel said. "It was just sort of an off competition in general. The shorts didn't go as well as we'd hoped, nor did the longs." This was supposed to be the toughest men's competition at nationals since 1994. Weiss, Eldredge and Goebel were vying for the United States' two spots at world championships, where the results determine how many spots the Americans have at the Salt Lake City Olympics. Instead, it was a horror show. Eldredge popped his quad, tried only three kinds of triples and landed only five triples total -- less than some of the junior men manage. By the end of his program, he was doing double loop and double salchowanted, he cut the salchow down to avoid a piece of his costume that had fallen on the ice, but that's a jump he mastered when he was about 10. As his music ended, Eldredge shook his head in disappointment -- or was it disgust? "Obviously, it didn't go as well as I hoped, but that's the way it goes sometimes," he said. "It was disappointing because the practices were going well." Eldredge left the door open for Weiss and Goebel. But instead of taking it, Weiss opened it wider and then stuck a door stop in it. He fell on his quad, two-footed a triple axel and then fell on his next axel attempt. He managed only two clean triples. He didn't land any jump until 3:17 into the program. Goebel, on the other hand, did three jumps in the first 60 seconds. "It's been such a long year, and as soon as I missed the quad, it took the gas out of me," said Weiss, who's missed most of the season with a stress fracture in his foot. "I was hitting it so well and it took me off-guard. Once you're knocked off-balance, it's hard to get it back." He never did. As if botching his jumps wasn't bad enough, Weiss was slow and sluggish. And despite his bronze medals at the last two world championships, the judges weren't about to prop him up. One judge gave him a 4.9 -- when's the last time the defending champion saw that? -- for technical merit, and another gave him a 5.1. His artistic marks went up, but not nearly enough. "It's more disappointing than anything," Weiss said. "I feel like I'm the best skater in the country and it was not there for me today." So that left Goebel. Despite a knee injury that curtailed his training, he still has springs. He knocked off his quad salchow-triple toe jump combination like it was a warm-up move. His triple axel was huge, and a smile crossed his face. He popped his quad toe and fell on another salchow, but when he nailed his triple flip and triple salchow in the final moments, the title was his. "I thought it was gutsy," Carroll said. "He went for all the quads. I'd like it he'd landed the second quad salchow, and I think that's the only thing he could have done better." Goebel's artistry still needs to improve, and he can't win a world medal until it does. His jumps are thrilling, but the stuff in between is boring and simplistic. Despite all his hours with Carroll, he reverts back to his old robotic form once the heat is on. "Last year I didn't skate well, I jumped well. That was the problem," he said. "I'm skating overall a lot better this year. "I know I have a ways to go, but that's sport. It's a work in progress."
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