LOS ANGELES - They've revamped the scoring system to make it slightly less complicated than a quadratic equation, but one thing hasn't changed in figure skating. The résumé is huge. That's why France's Brian Joubert, who botched his opening combination in yesterday's short program, is on the verge of reclaiming his men's world title tonight at the
"The new system just took away some of the judgmental stuff," said Canada's Patrick Chan, who's sitting third behind Joubert and two-time former medalist Evan Lysacek. "It's still a bit about reputation."
Joubert has three silvers plus the gold he won two years ago in Tokyo. Chan, who's only 18, was ninth last year. The way the judges apparently see it, a six-place improvement isn't bad. And for Lysacek, who missed last year's event with an upper-body injury and lost his United States crown to Jeremy Abbott this season, just being back in medal position is reason to celebrate.
"Tonight, I felt a lot of nerves," said Lysacek, who trains down the road in El Segundo. "The feeling of, I not only want to represent my country very well, but to represent my city very well, started to come into the picture."
After Abbott imploded yesterday, Lysacek was left as the only American medal hope. "I'm really upset with myself for allowing that to happen," said Abbott, who was buried in 10th (two places behind rookie teammate Brandon Mroz) after touching his hand to the ice at the end of his triple flip-triple toe combination and stumbling out of his triple axel. "It started in training, trying too hard to be perfect, and it carried over. I tried too hard to recreate the success I had earlier instead of trying to create new success."
Joubert wasn't worried about being perfect. Even after he put a hand down on his quadruple toe and stepped out of the subsequent triple toe, he still received 10.60 points for trying. The difference between him and the rest of the contenders is the quad. "[There] are not a lot of skaters who do a quad in the short program," said Joubert, who was the only one of the top three who tried one.
It irked Joubert that he lost his crown to Canada's Jeff Buttle, who skated quad-free, and he said so. That brought a sharp retort from Chan, who has succeeded the retired Buttle as top Canuck. "If [Joubert] doesn't win, he always has an excuse for not winning and not skating well," Chan said earlier this week.
Joubert allowed that nerves caused him to go too slowly into the flawed quad combo. "I'm a little disappointed, but I'm not at all destabilized," he said, after outpointing Lysacek 84.40-82.70, with Chan another 15-100ths behind. "I'm satisfied. I have a good score, even with a big mistake at the beginning. It is not bad."
If Joubert can hit the quad in the long program, his points and pedigree should be enough for him to reclaim his crown. Even Chan conceded that. "I'll just chase Evan now," he said. Lysacek likely would have to nail a quad and then some to overtake the Frenchman and become the first US victor since Todd Eldredge in 1996. Or else he may have to hack into the scoring software. The new math aside, one thing hasn't changed since Ulrich Salchow's day. What's already in the trophy case matters.
Later, Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy were bidding to become the first pair to keep their title since Russia's Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin four years ago. "What makes us sleep well tonight is that we did well and are in first place," said Szolkowy, after he and Savchenko had outpointed Russia's Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, 72.30-68.94, in Tuesday's short program to take the lead going into last night's free skate. "But we know well that everything will be decided in the free program and the difference in points to second, third or fourth place is not big."
The Chinese, who'd won consecutive titles before the Germans dethroned them last year, were sitting in third and fifth with Olympic silver medalists Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao and former champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian on either side of Russia's Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov.
Well out of contention, as expected, were the two American entries, both of whom are making their global debut. Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker were in ninth ahead of teammates Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett. "It didn't have anything to do with nerves," said Brubaker, after McLaughlin fell on her triple Salchow and touched a hand down on their throw triple loop. "We just made some mistakes."
For Barrett and the 15-year-old Denney, just being at the world championships is a thrill after skating together for only nine months after a two-year hiatus. "That was so much fun, that was awesome," exulted Denney. "First worlds, here in the US. The whole opportunity and experience has been amazing."
