Splatfest Canada And Why it's All CTV's Fault!

Written by "Elvis Stojko's mother" (explanation at the end)

It is all CTV's fault! Each of the six skaters in the final warm up group went to the referee to request an ice resurfacing due to the poor condition of the ice following the completion of the first group of skaters' programs. Each skater was then turned down by the referee The referee said that there would not be an ice resurfacing because it would interfere with CTV's live broadcast of the event. Rather than have the broadcast run over-time (like say a golf tournament, CTV would rather make world class skaters look like fools as well as risk the possibility of jeopardizing their safety by forcing to compete under such poor conditions. Does Canada have the equivalent of OSHA? '

Alexei confirmed this in the post skate press conference when asked about the events that transpired that evening. When the reigning world champion does a face-plant on a spiral and comes up laughing, you know that there's a major problem with the ice.

Needless to say, there were no quads successfully landed in any programs that evening. It was a shocking display of missed jumps, falls, fall outs, face plants, and/or shoulder slams by all the skaters. There was not one cleanly skated program.

Todd Eldredge (USA)
Judge	CHN	JPN	GBR	RUS	USA	GER	UKR	CAN	SUI
Required Elements	5.3	5.2	5.3	5.3	5.1	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.2
Presentation	5.3	5.5	5.6	5.5	5.5	5.6	5.6	5.6	5.5
Total	10.6	10.7	10.9	10.8	10.6	10.9	10.9	10.9	10.7
Ordinals	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Music	The 13th Warrior
Costume	Brown shirt, black and white vest with brown suede, black pants

It's a real shame that there's no tape of Todd's complete run through of the 13th Warrior from the Friday practice session because if only folks could have seen that performance they would have seen the real program. He had the audience on their feet at the end. He landed all of his jumps cleanly -- 3 Axel-3 Toe, 3 Loop-1/2 Loop-3 Toe, 3 Lutz, 3 Flip, 3 Axel and finally a 2 Salchow which he claimed he did on purpose just for Fran. The performance was awesome and we were really looking forward to seeing the program again on Saturday. Unfortunately, the ice conditions made it virtually impossible for any skater to have any kind of chance to cleanly skate his program. As a result, Todd's program was reduced to a 1 Axel-3 Toe, 3 Loop-1/2 Loop-3 Toe (with a turn out), a really nice 3 Lutz, a doubled Flip and had a bad splat on the 3 Axel. But he did manage to land the 3 Salchow. <G>

Todd remained in fourth place in the final standings.

There's no truth to the rumor that following Todd's program, Fran pulled the Harbour Station fire alarm triggering the whooping sirens and flashing lights that went off during Laurent Tobel's program. (BTW, the referee did not stop the program and Laurent got a huge standing ovation from the audience at the end).

Other odd and silly things seen and heard.

Preceding the Men's Free Skate, the camera operator seated on the hydraulic lift encouraged the audience to do the wave by being raised and lowered on the lift as the wave passed through his area.

A group of fans waved Todd Pennants at the Thursday night Short Program. A nearby group of Elvis fans liked the idea and arrived for the Free Program bearing Elvis Pennants. The groups joined forces and choreographed the Dancing Todd and Elvis Pennants. Who knows if this will appear on the television broadcast since ABC may once again pre-empt the Men's competition because of a golf tournament.

According to a group of Canadian skating fans, a Canadian newspaper (that shall remain nameless) printed a news item that indicated Todd had gotten married over the summer. When informed of the recent nuptials the "alleged" bridegroom's father was upset he hadn't been invited, his coach was unaware of it, his agent exclaimed, "congratulations!" and Todd proclaimed, 'well, it's news to me!"

The Costume Report: Well, we've got another one of those too difficult to describe costumes. It definitely has a warrior-like theme about it. The highlight would have to be the brown suede sash and belt. The shirt looked to be a chocolate brown (but who is to say). The vest appeared to be a print of muted purple and white. Of course, the pants are black, what were you thinking?