Late show a great show
Lysacek, Weir truly sparkled
SPOKANE, Wash. -- It was the biggest night in American men's skating in ages, but unless you were a spangles-and-sequins junkie (a dwindling species) or a channel-flipping insomniac, you didn't see it.
"With the buildup and the rivalry between him and me, it was probably the headline event of the competition," said Evan Lysacek, after he'd knocked off Johnny Weir with a spellbinding performance here Saturday night. "So it was disappointing."
It was after 1 a.m. on the East Coast when Lysacek did what no US male had done in 72 years, dethrone a three-time defending champion. "He didn't just beat me," conceded Weir, who ended up third behind Ryan Bradley. "He kicked my [butt]."
Not since Brian Boitano has a champion dominated the field as forcefully as Lysacek did here and he put himself in terrific position to become the first Yank male to win a world title since Todd Eldredge in 1996. "Bring it on," declared Lysacek, who has earned bronze the last two years.
Time was when the US males ruled the planet. From 1948 through 1959, they won every year. From 1981-88, Scott Hamilton and Boitano claimed six titles. The high-water mark came 11 years ago, when Eldredge and Rudy Galindo went 1-3 in Edmonton.
Since then, the Americans have taken home something shiny every year but one (2004), but never a gold. The difference has been the quadruple jump, which everybody from France to Japan does routinely but which only the retired Tim Goebel mastered here.
Until now, you could win a national title without the quad -- Weir still hasn't landed one cleanly and double-footed his attempt here. But if he wanted to claim his first crown, Lysacek knew he had to up the ante. "Better land the quad," coach Frank Carroll told him.
Lysacek never had managed it on one foot, but when he nailed his opening quad toe-triple toe combination, it was the springboard to the night of his dreams. For nearly five minutes, he was in an odd, almost quiet place, where he was able to put 10,000 spectators on mute and silence the voices in his head.
"I would do something and I would be like, 'Oh, my God, this is so cool,' " Lysacek marveled. "But then I would go back to my super-mental zone."
One after another, the jumps spooled out of him -- triple axel, triple loop, triple salchow, triple axel-triple toe, triple flip-double toe-double loop, triple lutz, double axel. When the music stopped, Lysacek dropped to his knees in wonder. Who was it who'd just done all that?
Now the question is whether Lysacek can replicate it on the global stage in Japan in March. His monster overall score of 248.88 (169.89 of it for the long program) broke Weir's US record by more than 23 points. Some of that, Lysacek conceded, was domestic grade inflation. But there was no quibbling with the technical strength of the program, which featured eight triples after the quad and three combinations in all.
Given the diminished state of international skating, that might be enough to win gold at the World Championship in Tokyo. The Russians, who grabbed seven straight between 1998 and 2004, are finished. At last week's European championships, they failed to make the podium for the first time in 14 years.
Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel, the two-time defending champion, has had motivational issues this season and likely will be a no-show. That leaves France's Brian Joubert, last year's runner-up, as the main obstacle.
If Lysacek can win, it will be a badly needed boost to US men's skating, where the ranks drop off markedly after the top two. Bradley, who'd never finished higher than sixth in six previous bids, finally made the team at 23. "I thought my ship had sailed," he confessed.
Virtually all of the most promising candidates have been stuck in dry dock. Derrick Delmore, the world junior champion in 1998, hasn't come close to making the national podium (he was sixth here at 28). Scott Smith, Parker Pennington, Nick LaRoche, and Dennis Phan, former US junior champions all, have yet to win a senior medal. Perhaps 21-year-old Jeremy Abbott, who placed fourth in his senior debut here, could be the man.
What's missing is a cadre of aces who can push each other. In 1988, the ranks included Boitano, Christopher Bowman, Paul Wylie, and Eldredge, who ended up winning 14 Olympic and world medals among them.
What we had here was a two-man show and they've been battling each other for eight years. Without Lysacek at his heels, Weir wouldn't have won three straight crowns, which nobody had done since Boitano. Without Weir ensconced firmly on the throne, Lysacek wouldn't have had to lay down the quad-triple, which Weir now will have to match.
This was the first time since Hamilton and Boitano had at each other that the men's competition was at the top of the marquee and it deserved to be in prime time. If the US Figure Skating folks get another network contract next year (stay tuned), maybe you won't have to prop yourself up on a pillow to watch the rematch in St. Paul.
John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com. 