After slow start, Weir finds gear
ST. LOUIS -- The defending champ awoke feeling like something at the bottom of a pond, maybe even Old Man River around the corner. Was this how the whole day was going to go for him?
''I made myself get up, had my
After a rocky autumn, which began with a blown-up ankle and ended with a bunch of emotional issues, Weir had no idea how he'd perform. But as soon as he landed a silky triple axel at the beginning of his swan-themed program, he was off and winging.
''I'm very, very excited about how today went," said Weir, 21, who's bidding to become the first man to win three straight titles since Brian Boitano claimed four between 1985-88. ''I thought I could skate well, but not as well as I did. I'm just very elated now. It was lovely, really."
Lovely enough, at least, on a day when his top pursuers were flawed. Michael Weiss, who at 29 is trying to become only the fourth American male skater to make three Olympic teams, double-footed his quadruple jump. Evan Lysacek, the world bronze medalist, fell down on a simple straight-line step sequence. ''I'm disappointed," said Lysacek, who'd had the best season of the contenders. ''It's uncharacteristic." And Tim Goebel, who won the bronze in Salt Lake City four years ago, touched down on his quad and staggered out of his triple axel.
Under the old 6.0 scoring system, those two mistakes likely would have buried Goebel, who's in fifth going into tomorrow's decisive long program. But under the new code of points, being used for the first time at these nationals, the former champ still has a fighting chance. ''I'm 4 points out of third," he remarked. ''Four points is nothing."
The new system will make for a lively scramble in the finale, where the first three finishers (the victor is automatic) are likely to make the team for the Winter Games. After the short, the order was Weir (83.28), Weiss (77.55), Lysacek (74.03), Matt Savoie (72.50), and Goebel (70.27). Nobody was betting that it would stay that way.
''There's a great group of men's skaters right now," said Weiss, the three-time champ who's competing in his 13th nationals. ''A lot of guys certainly have the goods to make the Olympic team."
When he's healthy and focused, Weir has the most luxurious goods of the bunch, a graceful package of jumps, spins, and footwork that's made for a complex scoring system that rewards both difficulty and nuance. His short program, light and lyrical, wasn't designed to get the crowd clapping rhythmically, as it did for Ryan Bradley's earlier Zorba routine. But it worked.
''This one, they kind of sat back and had their cognac and cigarettes and relaxed and watched," Weir mused. ''His was more like a vodka shot-let's-snort-coke kind of thing . . . Sorry about those drug references."
The relaxed thing reaped Weir the highest total of the day for both technical elements (43.64) and program components (39.64) and left him marveling at skating's ''amazing ride." In a few hours' time, he observed, he'd gone from pond scum to a flower growing up and out of the murk. All he needs to do now, Weir figures, ''is to stay a flower until Saturday."
