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Reported by Fran Buhman Assisted by Lynn Rutherford

hotel rooms AmsterdamThursday, March 13, 1997

Todd arrived at Lausanne at approximately 1:00 p.m. this afternoon (localtime). He says the sore ankle is still tender, but points out that there isstill another week before the competition finals, and he is hopeful that allwill be okay by then. Because he'd had a long hard day of travelling, he wasinitially inclined to skip this evening's practice session, but later changedhis mind, saying he thought he might as well try it out (jet-lagnotwithstanding).

For the pre-qualifying practice sessions, the men are divided into six groupsof eight guys each (with the exception of Group 1, which has seven), meaning atotal of 47 guys currently registered for the qualifying rounds. Only 30 of themwill qualify for a chance at the actual competition.

Todd is in Group 4, along with the other Americans (Dan Hollander and MichaelWeiss), and Marcus Leminen (Finland), Konstantin Kostin (Latvia), MichaelTyllesen (Denmark), David Liu (Taipei), and Matthew Van den Broeck (Belgium).

Today's practice session took place at the practice rink, instead of the mainarena (the Sport Centre of Malley).

At 9:45 p.m., five of Todd's group took the ice for a short program practice.Weiss, Tyllesen and Liu were missing. Todd was definitely skating jet-lagged,and as a result didn't push himself very hard. His short program runthroughdidn't go terribly well: he fell out of the triple toe (of the tripleaxel/triple toe combination) and he wobbled a bit on the double axel landing(but the triple lutz looked good), however, he did prove that even a case ofjet-lagged fatigue could not interfere with those incredible spins. Althoughduring the course of the session, a lot of jumps did get popped and doubled, hestill managed to execute two good triple axel/triple toes.

Notes on Todd's main competitors: Urmanov and Zagorodniuk were no-shows thisevening. Kulik did not have a particularly good session, doubling a lot of jumpsand appearing to have some serious triple axel difficulties, which culminated ina triple axel fall during his runthrough that apparently damaged his skate bladeand which forced his withdrawal from the session (not the competition) beforehis music had ended. Stojko looked fairly strong in practice tonight, doing aflawless short program runthrough, complete with triple axel/triple toe,although he did struggle a bit with some of his jumps, both before and after therunthrough. Hollander stumbled a bit during his runthrough on both his tripleaxel combination and putting a hand down on the triple lutz.

Reporter's Personal Prerogative Note: Patrick Meier's (Switzerland) tripleaxel has really improved. This evening he actually executed two rather goodtriple axel/double toe combinations.

Practices tomorrow start at 10:30 a.m.

More from rinkside tomorrow, after reporter and skater return to theirrespective hotels and finally get some sleep.

Friday, March 14, 1997

Todd looked really good in practices today, although he is deliberatelyholding back with the triple triples. The triple toe loop is the one jump thatreally aggravates the sore ankle, since this is the jump that requires him topick with the sore foot. Takeoff doesn't seem to be a problem, but picking is.Richard Callaghan thinks it's getting better every day and he is hopeful thatTodd will be in top form by next week.

Todd's group took to the ice for its first session of the day (a free skatesession) in the practice rink at 12:20 p.m. (local time). Todd was in a relaxed,cheerful mood, even stopping briefly during the session to greetenthusiastically an arriving Eric Millot. Todd's long program runthrough wasflawless, although with triple-doubles in place of triple-triples, and wasreceived very appreciatively by the audience. He did manage to execute one goodtriple axel/triple toe prior to the session's end.

His group next took to the ice in the arena at 5:00 p.m. for a short programpractice (this was Todd's first practice session in the arena). He once againexecuted a flawless runthrough, although substituting a double toe for thenormal triple toe in his combination. However, prior to the end of this session,he executed three triple axel/triple toes (the first two with somewhat wobblytriple toes, the third one perfect), as well as a good triple flip/triple toe.

At both sessions, he spent some time working on solo triple toes, leadingsome to think he was working on the quad. In fact, he was merely testing theankle on solo triple toes.

Tomorrow, Todd is scheduled to practice his free skate program in the arenaat 6:55 a.m., and his short program in the practice rink at 4:45 p.m.

Notes on Todd's main competitors: Kulik was among the totally missing today,skipping both his scheduled practices, leading one to wonder if he's offsearching for a new skate blade to replace the one he damaged yesterday.

In contrast, Urmanov and Zagorodniuk attended both of their sessions today.Alexei is looking absolutely terrific! This morning, he landed a whole bunch oftriple flip/triple toes, and one really good triple axel/triple toe, and alsoseveral quads, one right under the nose of an Elvis warming up in the wings(unfortunately, a fall right afterward on the same jump and under the same nosesomewhat mitigated the effect). However, Alexei does seem to be landing morequads than he is missing. Zagorodniuk looked fairly good, and appears to haveput the 'Tano lutz is his short program. It will be interesting to see if heactually does it in the competition.

Stojko did not have a particularly good day. This morning, heuncharacteristically quit on his free skate runthrough after a few mistakes.When he resumed the program, he flubbed both axels. He appeared to be havingboth axel and quad problems. He did land some nice axels at another point in thesession, including a triple axel/triple toe, but as near as this reporter couldtell, he tripled every quad he tried. He did not appear for his afternoonsession.

Eric Millot arrived today, and is looking good, but continues to have tripleaxel problems.

Also arriving today was Michael Weiss, who attended both his sessions and islooking pretty good. Dan Hollander also attended both his sessions, and seemedto be having good practices.

Notable continuing absences: Dmitri Dmitrenko, David Liu, Szabolcs Vdrai,Gilberto Viadana, Michael Tyllesen.

Draw for the qualifying rounds take place tomorrow evening. More tomorrowfrom rinkside.

Saturday, March 15, 1997

Todd reported that he felt pretty good this morning and went on to prove itby having two really good practice sessions.

Todd's group (with David Liu and Michael Tyllesen finally present) took theice in the arena at 6:55 a.m. (local time) for what would be their final (andTodd's one and only) free skate practice on the arena ice prior to thequalifying rounds. Within seven minutes after hitting the ice, Todd executed agood triple axel/triple toe. His runthrough began at around 7:15 a.m., anddespite the early hour, he gave a flawless performance, this time complete withboth triple-triples. The triple toe landings are still not totally solid but aregetting better. Prior to the close of the session, he did two more tripleflip/triple toes and a triple loop/half loop/triple toe sequence jump.

The group's second session of the day was a short program practice whichbegan in the practice rink at 11:45 a.m. Once again, he had a flawlessrunthrough, this time complete with the triple axel/triple toe combination, andhe also executed two more triple axel/triple toe combinations prior to the endof the session.

Notes on Todd's main competitors: Kulik was back on the ice today, lookingfairly good and landing triple axel/triple toes during the free skate practice,but no quads that the reporter saw. He skipped the later short program practice.

Portugal hotelsUrmanov continues to look really solid, triple-triples galore plus some quadsalbeit not without the occasional fall. This was in the free skate practice, ashe also skipped the short program practice. Zagorodniuk, whose practices havebeen kind of up and down so far, spent some time at the second session workingon his quad with no discernable success.

alberghi a DublinoStojko was really up and down today. His free skate practice went horribly,with his missing at least four jumps, including the lutz and the loop, but thelater short program practice went very well, and included a flawless runthroughand two successful quad/triple toe landings.

Michael Weiss had a decent free skate runthrough, with a few mistakes, and afairly good short program runthrough (after executing a great triple lutz andtriple axel/triple toe, he singled the double axel). Dan Hollander did not havegood runthroughs today, and appears to be having some jump problems.

The Draw for the Qualifying Rounds tomorrow took place this evening at 6:00p.m. Todd is in Qualifying Round A, scheduled to begin at 12:00 noon tomorrow.He will be skating third in the second group (#8). Others skating in this groupinclude: Alexei Yagudin (#6), Cornel Gheorghe (#10), Patrick Meier! (#11), ElvisStojko (#12), and Viacheslev Zagorodniuk (#19). There are a total of 22 guys inthis group, 15 of whom will advance to the competition.

Group B, scheduled to skate at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow, consists of (amongothers): Ilia Kulik (#1), Alexei Urmanov (#5), Jeff Langdon (#7), Dan Hollander(#9), Takeshi Honda (#11), Michael Hopfes (#17), Michael Weiss (#18), EricMillot (#19), and Steven Cousins (#22). Twenty-three guys are in this group, 15of whom will advance to the competition.

Todd's warmup for the qualifying round is at 7:35 a.m. tomorrow morning. Morefrom rinkside tomorrow.

Sunday, March 16, 1997

The Men's Qualifying Rounds were held as scheduled this afternoon, with Toddskating eighth in his group of 22 men (Group A). After the last man of the grouphad skated, Todd was judged the winner of the group, taking five of the sevenjudges, with the following scores and ordinals:

Judge #1 (the Canadian judge) placed Stojko first, while Judge #5 (theRomanian judge) placed Zagorodniuk first and Stojko second.

Todd's performance came dangerously close to being perfect, sending thisreporter into a total panic, fearing that he might leave his best performance onthe qualifying ice. First a perfect triple axel/triple toe (one of his best),then a perfect triple lutz, perfect triple loop, perfect triple salchow, analmost perfect triple flip/triple toe, and just as the perfect program wasturning into reality, he fell on the second triple axel. It was essentially adumb mistake, but he recovered from it quickly, coming up again with a wide grinon his face, obviously laughing at himself. Later, he said he was basically tootired at that point to pull off the axel, but he assured reporters afterwardthat had this been the final, he would've landed it, regardless. He seemed morethan satisfied with the final results.

He has a relatively easy day tomorrow, with only one practice session,tentatively scheduled to begin at 3:40 p.m. (allowing skater - as well asreporter - to sleep in!).

Notes on Todd's main competitors: On the whole, Stojko skated a very goodperformance in the Qualifying Round, making only one major mistake (a fall onthe quad, from which he quickly recovered). He landed an excellent tripleaxel/triple toe combination, followed by a really good triple axel, and finishedwith a triple lutz/double toe combination (a triple loop and a triple salchowwere also executed). Technical elements scores ranged from 5.7 to 5.9,presentation scores ranged from 5.6 to 5.8. He achieved a second place finish inthe group.

Zagorodniuk skated fairly well, if not brilliantly, for the third place spot,with scores ranging from 5.5 to 5.8 (technical elements) and 5.5 to 5.9(presentation).

Sad Group A note: Patrick Meier failed to qualify, but as he is the onlySwiss man on the team, he will nevertheless advance to the competition.

Qualifying Round B began at 4:00 p.m., with a sparkling performance fromKulik. He opened with a flawless quad, followed by an equally impressive tripleaxel/triple toe. While not quite measuring up to his beginning, the remainder ofhis program was clean and creditable. His scores for both technical elements andpresentation were 5.8s across the board, demonstrating an unusual unanimity onthe part of the judges. Perhaps realizing the white costume was not bringing himthe best of luck, he has gone back to the original black costume.

Also making a major costume change, Urmanov shed his ersatz tux for a blackand white ensemble featuring a sheer white shirt with silver chain clasps andstriped black pants. Most remarkably, he was gloveless. Like Ilia, Alexeiexecuted a flawless quad and a triple axel/triple toe combination in the firstminute of his performance. In fact, a doubled loop was the only flaw in anotherwise perfect performance. He received scores ranging from 5.7 to 5.9(technical elements) and one 5.8 and six 5.9s for presentation, for awell-deserved Group B win and one of only two standing ovations of the night.(Laurent Tobel of France got the other standing ovation.) This performancepushed Kulik into second place for the group.

The next skater in this group was Dan Hollander. Unfortunately, hisperformance was a complete and total disaster. After stumbling out of hisopening triple axel, then landing triple lutz with a resounding thud, Dan seemedto lose heart. He reduced his remaining jumps to doubles. With scores rangingfrom 4.0 to 4.4 (technical elements) and 4.3 to 4.8 (presentation) Dan landed in18th place, and failed to qualify. This means in order for the US to send threemen to the Olympics, Todd and Michael Weiss's final placements can add up to nomore than 5 points, meaning at worst, one will have to win, and the other finishno lower than fourth.

Finally, Michael Weiss had a solid if not spectacular outing, tripling thequad but nailing the triple axel/triple toe and five other triples for a totalof eight. With scores ranged from 5.5 to 5.7 (both technical elements andpresentation), he finished fourth in the group. A rejuvenated Eric Millot tookthird in the group, with a rare, clean triple axel. Jeff Langdon came in fifthin this group, executing a nice triple axel/triple toe combination. Histechnical scores went from 5.1 to mostly 5.3, and his presentation scores wereone 5.2 and the rest 5.3s. Laurent Tobel came in sixth in Group B (earning astanding ovation); Takeshi Honda seventh; Konstantin Kostin eighth; StevenCousins ninth; and Michael Hopfes came in tenth.

Tomorrow night, the draw order ceremony for the short program will be held.More tomorrow from rinkside.

Monday, March 17, 1997

Todd had one practice session today from 3:40 to 4:15 p.m., a free skatesession in the practice rink (Note: the practice rink is quite a bit shorterthan regulation size, creating considerable adjustment problems for theskaters). The 31 men who will skate the short program were divided for this dayonly (prior to the opening draw) into five groups of approximately six men each.Todd's group was the first (Group A) and consisted of the top six men whoqualified (in addition to Todd, Elvis Stojko, Viacheslav Zagorodniuk, AlexeiUrmanov, Ilia Kulik and Eric Millot). Of this group, only Todd and Eric attendedthe session. As Todd's music was the first to play, and started as soon as hetook the ice (there was no prior warmup period, as is usually the case), he didnot even attempt to do a runthrough of his program. He was very relaxed duringthis session, and seemed to be in excellent spirits. Within ten minutes oftaking the ice, he executed a perfect triple axel/triple toe and followed thisup a short time later with a perfect triple flip/triple toe. After workingbriefly on isolated jumps (in the process, producing a couple of gorgeous tripleaxels), he concentrated on solo triple toes, and then concluded with landing aperfect quad. The ankle, needless to say, is doing much, much better!

Notes on Todd's main competitors: As may be gathered from the above, Kulik,Urmanov, Zagorodniuk, and Stojko took the day off. Millot appeared to have anexcellent practice session today. His triple axel looks fairly secure, and hehad no trouble landing a very good triple axel/double toe.

Michael Weiss, in Practice Group B, had a very good session, featuring aperfect runthrough save for a fall on the quad.

The Draw Ceremony for the Short Program was held this evening. Todd drewthird, and needless to say, will be the first among the major contenders toskate. Draws for the other main competitors are as follows:10 - Elvis Stojko; 11- Michael Weiss; 15 - Takeshi Honda; 17 - Ilia Kulik; 25 - ViacheslavZagorodniuk; 28 - Eric Millot; 30 - Alexei Urmanov; 31 - Alexei Yagudin.

Todd will be practicing tomorrow at 8:40 a.m. (a short program practicesession in the practice rink). Later, he is scheduled for a free skate practicesession at 6:25 p.m. More from rinkside tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 18, 1997

Todd had two practice sessions today. The first was short program practicesession in the practice rink beginning at 8:40 this morning (local time). Withineight after taking the ice, he landed a triple axel/triple toe; his runthroughwas almost flawless, the only flaw being that the triple toe of the tripleaxel/triple toe combination was not as solid as it might have been. After therunthrough, Todd experienced some equipment problems (namely, a popped skatehook). It was quickly fixed amid minor hilarity, and then Todd continued withthe session, landing two triple flip/triple toes. On the whole, he looked verysolid.

He had a free skate practice this afternoon at 6:25 p.m., also in thepractice rink. A triple axel/triple toe was landed within ten minutes after hetook the ice. Then, after doing a triple flip/triple toe he did a runthrough ofhis free skate program that was again nearly flawless, except that the tripletoe landings were not as smooth as they could have been.

Notes on Todd's main competitors: Disdaining complete runthroughs, Kulikspent the bulk of his afternoon practice session working on two moves - thespread eagle into triple axel, and the quad. He succeeded brilliantly on theformer, and failed eight out of ten times on the latter.

Zagorodniuk spent much of his time this afternoon working to perfect his 'Tanolutz. He was frustrated on his many attempts: one wonders why he is so intent onincluding this rather singular jump.

Urmanov attended both practice sessions today, throwing off triple-triplesgalore (triple axel/triple toes and triple salchow/triple toes) at bothsessions, although having a few problems in the afternoon with the solo tripleaxel (including a couple of falls and fallouts). However, at the same session,he also landed two quads in a row. On the whole, he's still looking very solidindeed.

Also looking very solid is Eric Millot, having a near-flawless runthrough ofhis free skate program this afternoon and landing more than a few triple-triplesof his own (including a triple axel/triple toe).

Stojko had an excellent practice session this morning, featuring anotherflawless short program runthrough, as well as a quad/double toe landed later inthe session. Michael Weiss also had a near flawless short program runthrough andis looking fairly good.

The Men's Short Program competition begins at 1:15 p.m. tomorrow. Todd isscheduled for a short program practice session at 6:00 a.m. He plans to attendin order to runthrough a few isolated jumps. Since that is all he intends to do,and this reporter has been assured she will miss nothing, said reporter intendsto sleep in in preparation for the arduous day ahead. More from rinksidetomorrow.

Wednesday, March 19, 1997

The Men's Short Program was held this afternoon at 1:15 p.m. (local time).Todd (skating third) was the first of the major competitors to skate. He gaveone of his finest short program performances. All elements from a perfect tripleaxel/triple toe to the triple lutz to the footwork and spins seemed effortless.Buoyant, relaxed, Todd was completely in command, and was rewarded for hisperformance by a huge standing ovation. Ultimately, scores and ordinals were asfollows:

Had Todd skated later, the scores in all likelihood would have been higher.He ultimately finished in second place.

The next main competitor to take the ice was Elvis Stojko. He too wasflawless, executing a triple axel/triple toe and all his other elements. Thereaction from Team Elvis was joy. However, his marks (7 5.7s, 1 5.8, and 1 5.9required elements and 5.6 to 5.9 presentation) ultimately landed him in fourthplace.

Michael Weiss followed Elvis with a good if not brilliant performance. Heexecuted a triple axel/triple toe, but with an obvious two-footed triple toelanding. With scores ranging from 5.1 to 5.6 (required elements) and 5.4 to 5.6(presentation), Michael ultimately finished in ninth place.

The next main competitor up was Ilia Kulik. Continuing the trend ofnear-perfect performances, Ilia turned in one of his finest, featuring a perfecttriple axel/triple toe, a triple lutz, and breathtaking footwork into a doubleaxel. With scores ranging from 5.6 to 5.9 (required elements) and 5.6 to 5.9(presentation), Ilia ultimately finished in third place after having remainedfor most of the rest of the afternoon tied with Todd for first place.

Viacheslav Zagorodniuk was the next main guy to skate. Although he executed afine triple axel/double toe, the main points of interest in his performance werenot one but two "'Tanoesque" arm movements: a 'Tano lutz and a foldedarm exit on the double axel landing. With scores ranging from 5.4 to 5.6(required elements) and from 5.5 to 5.9 (presentation), Zagorodniuk finished insixth place.

Skating fourth in the final group, Eric Millot unfortunately showed form ofold and completely wiped out on his triple axel combination. He now stands inthirteenth place.

hoteles SalzburgoThe two Alexeis finished the afternoon with great aplomb. First, AlexeiUrmanov had a stellar performance including a triple axel/triple toe, triplelutz, and other elements executed with brilliance. It was one of his finestshort program performances and earned scores ranging from 5.6 to 5.9 (requiredelements) and all 5.9 in presentation to finish in first place. Yagudincontinued to display remarkable maturity, turning in a clean triple axel/tripletoe performance that earned him a fifth place finish.

The Men's Free Skate begins tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. Starting order for thefinal group is as follows:

Ilia Kulik

Viacheslav Zagorodniuk

Elvis Stojko

Todd Eldredge

Alexei Urmanov

Alexei Yagudin

The group will have a practice session at 12:10 p.m. and Todd is scheduled totake the ice for his Free Skate performance at 9:47 p.m. (3.47 p.m. EasternStandard Time). More from rinkside tomorrow.

Thursday, March 20, 1997

The Free Skate portion of the competition was held this evening at 6:30 p.m.It was a bizarre competition, to say the least. It began with a one-minutemoment of silence in memory of Carlo Fassi, who died after a massive heartattack this afternoon following his collapse during the men's practice sessionin the arena. It was a sombre note to begin the evening.

Unfortunately, several of the top men's performances proved similarlymelancholy. First, Todd. After executing the first three and a half minutes ofhis program flawlessly - including a triple axel/triple toe and tripleflip/triple toe combination - Todd popped his second triple axel into a single.Attempting to turn his final double axel into a triple proved costly, as he fellin the effort. All in all, a good performance and a fine competition, marredonly by two mistakes at the end of his long program.

Now to the competition: Unfortunately, Eric Millot was not able to duplicatehis sparkling performance in the Qualifying Round, managing only four cleantriples and no triple axel. Overall, he landed in twelfth place. Michael Weissfared much better with a somewhat improvised program. After missing his firsttriple axel combination, and tripling his quad, Michael threw caution to thewind and added a second triple axel/triple toe toward the latter half of hisprogram. Michael debuted well at Worlds, finishing in seventh place.

Ilia Kulik had a disappointing outing. After tripling his quad attempt, heseemed to lose interest in his program. Dull and slow, he landed nocombinations, and stumbled out of a triple flip. He dropped to fifth place. Upnext, Viacheslav Zagorodniuk was similarly disappointing. While he landed aclean 'Tano lutz, it was the highlight in an otherwise uninspired performance.Like Ilia, he managed two triple axels, but no combinations. Zagorodniukfinished the evening in fourth place.

Now, to Elvis Stojko. He had two things in his favor this evening: guts andluck. The guts: a quad/triple toe combination; triple axel/triple toecombination followed by a second triple axel and a triple lutz/double toe in theclosing moments of his program. The luck: Alexei Urmanov was announced aswithdrawn after Elvis left the ice. Despite a slight turnout on his triple loop,Elvis received one technical mark of 6.0, eight 5.9s. In presentations, one 5.9,six 5.8s, and two 5.6s.

News of Alexei's withdrawal was greeted with groans and in some quarters,stunned silence. A conversation with his coach Alexei Mishin yielded the newsthat Alexei Urmanov pulled a groin muscle during the short program performance,and was unable to continue.

Alexei Yagudin rounded out the evening with a fine performance one yieldingan impressive triple axel/triple toe combination and more energetic second halfthan we have seen in the past.

He won the bronze medal.

The next report will be on Saturday, following the exhibition practicesession.

ERROR MSGSaturday, March 22, 1997

Lausanne Post-Mortem: The 1997 World Figure Skating Championships ended on ahigh note today with Tara Lipinski (Todd's training partner) becoming the newworld champion. A very pleased and proud Todd watched from the sidelines as Taraskated to victory and as the gold medal was placed around her neck. RichardCallaghan can now truly be called "Coach of World Champions."

The Championships conclude tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (local time) withthe Parade of Champions Gala Exhibition in which Todd will be skating to This isthe Moment. The Gala will feature performances by the top four finishers in eachof the four disciplines, as well as by the Swiss National Champions (PatrickMeier and Lucinda Ruh).

After returning home from Switzerland, Todd plans to take some days off priorto preparing to appear in the Hershey's Pro-Am in North Carolina, and thenstarting the Tour of Champions.

Note: Following the injury that forced his withdrawal from the competition,Alexei Urmanov has been confined to bed in his hotel room in Lausanne under adoctor's care. His coach Alexei Mishin hopes he will be up in time to be able toattend tomorrow's Gala.

Sunday, March 23, 1997 Lausanne, Switzerland

The Exhibitions (Gala) were held today, and Todd skated to This is the Momentin the Walk in the Wild Side costume. He landed a great triple axel during theprogram. He received one of the strongest standing ovations of the night.Everyone was called out to do an encore, and Todd executed six Russian splits ina row.

Note: Fran also reported that she saw Alexei Urmanov following theExhibitions, and he is recovering from his injury.

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