he fans had left the building, the skaters were heading off to dinner, the service people were cleaning the restrooms and US Figure Skating's international committee was still sitting in a room at the FleetCenter Saturday night, trying to find a second guy to send to the World Championships in March.
The nationals were really about Olympus, about making sure the Americans won't get their axels kicked on their home ice in Salt Lake City next winter. And after what we saw here, the selectors have their fingers crossed. Could be three medals, could be one. Could be one gold, could be none.
That's how the form sheet would look if the Games were held next week. Michelle Kwan, the defending world queen, would be a narrow favorite to win gold. Tim Goebel and Sarah Hughes would be iffy for bronzes. That's it. And there'd be enough Russian flags hanging from the Delta Center rafters that folks would think they were inside the Kremlin.
For all the talk about how skating has boomed since Nancy and Tonya, the Yanks aren't the dominant nation. They won two medals at last year's worlds in Nice, France, and failed to pick up an extra men's spot that should have been a gimme. And though the women's team is the deepest in the world, the men are a quadruple jump behind the Russians and the pairs and dancers aren't even on the global radar.
The fact is, the United States was decidedly stronger five years ago than it is now. In 1996, Todd Eldredge and Rudy Galindo went 1-3 at worlds, Kwan won the gold medal (at 15), and Jenni Meno and Todd Sand took the bronze in pairs.
Now, the association's selectors are afraid to send the two-time defending men's medalist, and they gave a ticket to a dance couple just up from juniors who won't even be eligible for Salt Lake. The reason: ''They're our future.''
And yet, the committee had to reach into the past for the second man to accompany new champ Goebel. Eldredge hadn't competed at nationals in two years. He's never landed a quadruple combination in competition. And Saturday night, he turned in his weakest performance in a long program in this event since his Phoenix sleepwalk in 1993. But when the list came out, Eldredge's name was on it. ''I live to see another day,'' he exulted.
Fact is, Eldredge may be the best hope to get the US males the third Olympic entry that seemed automatic last year until Goebel blew apart and finished 11th. Though he's had his miseries at Olympus, Eldredge has been no lower than second at his last four worlds and is the only Yank to win the title (in 1996) since Brian Boitano in 1988.
Eldredge may be 29 and he may not be the quadmaster, but he's usually steady and reliable and should place among the top six. If Goebel does anything at all, the men should get their third entry for Salt Lake. But after what the selectors saw here Saturday night, which could have been mistaken for a drunken all-skate on the Frog Pond, they're crossing their fingers.
That's why they didn't dare send Michael Weiss, even though he's been on the global podium twice. His splatter job in the long program was so frightening and his soundness (after two stress fractures in two years) so questionable that the committee wouldn't even make him first alternate. They didn't want Weiss anywhere near British Columbia when the music starts.
And after Goebel fell on two of his three quads Saturday, skating insiders were wondering whether he had the stuff to go up against Alexei Yagudin and Evgeny Plushenko without cracking again. ''For myself, especially, there is a little added pressure,'' Goebel admitted, ''because I'm the one who cost us the spot last year.''
There's no such squeeze on the women, who've had a full team at every Olympics except 1994 (the year after Nancy Kerrigan blew up in Prague). In fact, odds are they'll have all three (Kwan, Hughes, and Angela Nikodinov) in the top six. The three women who pulled out hurt here (Sasha Cohen, Naomi Nari Nam, Deanna Stellato) would be the world team for every other country but Russia.
Yet, for all that, Kwan is no slam-dunk to repeat. Irina Slutskaya has beaten her twice this year and Kwan is still struggling to land triple-triple combinations, which she'll need to do if Slutskaya does them. Kwan was the goddess of 6.0 here last week, but all nine judges had US passports. They won't in Vancouver.
''I always felt that the national championships is deciding whether you move on,'' Eldredge was saying, as the selectors were deciding to give him the green light. ''The world championships is deciding where you end up.''
