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Skate America 2000 - Men's FS Reports

Results!

Laurie's Log

Laurie's Impressions

Kim's Reports and Photos

Brenda's Trip

                Carole's Impressions

Nicole's Trip

Laurie's Report of the Ladies' Free Skate

Laurie's Report of the Men's Free Skate

The Exhibitions!


All photos by Kim Lockwood.

Okay, here are my notes from the men's finals:

Alexei did his stretching exercises on the balcony while the first group was warming up. He actually sat down to watch them, but went back inside when their warm up was over. He was wearing a gray mock turtleneck sweater with a white design on it we couldn't read from where we were sitting and beige pants. We got to see the famous Alexei saunter and a hair flick or two....

Judges:
France Canada USA China Germany Japan Russia

First group:

Silvio Smalun - was wearing a blue and black bodysuit, a little bit sparkly, and skated to classical piano music. He fell on his triple axel and then fell out of his triple lutz. He also took a fall on a double axel. He did manage a triple loop, triple flip, and triple sal. He had a lot of Besti squats in this program. His final spin was a camel/sit spin/back sit spin/scratch spin combo.

Technical:
4.6 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.7 4.8 4.6
Presentation:
4.9 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.9
Kaden - was wearing black with a brown leather vest with straps which criss-crossed in back. The music was techno. Opening triple lutz, fell on triple axel. This was a dancey program full of interesting moves. Stepped out of his triple loop/triple toe. Ina Bauer, quick fan spiral, fell on triple flip.

Technical:
4.5 4.6 4.5 4.6 4.5 5.0 4.4
Presentation:
4.6 4.7 4.6 4.9 4.6 4.9 4.6
Trifun Zivanovic - wearing a black suit with a white ruffled shirt and a purple ribbon and skated to "Dracula" music. Good choice for him with his intense style. Triple axel/double toe, triple axel, deathdrop, spread eagle and Ina Bauer, doubled lutz and flip. There was one cute moment when the TV camera was right on him and he played to it.

Technical:
4.8 5.0 5.0 5.3 4.9 5.1 4.6
Presentation: 4.7 5.0 5.3 5.3 4.9 5.2 4.6
Roman Serov - We like this very nice guy, by the way. He was wearing a black and white top, half-and-half, with gold trim, black pants, and skated to pastoral classical music. Fell on his triple loop. Triple axel/triple toe was good, triple lutz, four other triples were good. Did a spread eagle move into a single axel.

Technical:
5.2 5.4 5.4 5.4 5.4 5.3 5.2
Presentation:
5.3 5.3 5.4 5.4 5.3 5.4 5.3
Tamura - wore black with a beige design and blue and red trim around his neck and skated to "Phantom Menace." Popped his quad attempt, fell on triple toe (another quad attempt, I think), stepped out of triple lutz, two footed a double flip, triple flip/triple toe was wonky, fell right after a double axel - don't know if he got credit for a completed double axel. He seemed completely exhausted by the end of the program. The audience just felt for him. He came over right in front of us to pick up a stuffed animal somebody hadn't thrown far enough. He bowed to us (because people were still clapping for him 'cause he looked so sad and tired) and endeared himself even more.

Technical:
4.7 4.7 5.0 4.8 4.9 4.7 4.6
Presentation:
4. 4.5 4.7 5.0 4.8 5.1 4.5

Second group:

Tim Goebel - wearing blue pants and blue velvet vest with cream colored shirt and skating to dramatic music which changed to slow sad music. Triple lutz, quad sal/triple toe, triple axel/double toe, quad toe, triple axel, and quad sal. Need we say more? Best I've seen Tim skate. His presentation really does seem improved, but he is still easily beatable in that area.

Technical:
5.8 5.8 5.9 5.8 5.8 5.7 5.8
Presentation:
5.6 5.7 5.7 5.7 5.6 5.6 5.5
Todd Eldredge - wearing his "The 13th Warrior" costume and skating to that music, of course. Started with a triple loop with extra steps triple toe combination, fell out of his triple axel, triple lutz was okay, triple flip, triple axel/double toe, and ended with a three sal, I think. Spins all great, of course. Finished with his usual camel/sit/back sit/scratch spin. Glad to see him come back after that horrible collision in practice the day before.

Technical:
5.4 5.5 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.6
Presentation:
5.4 5.5 5.8 5.7 5.7 5.5 5.6


Todd in practice

Vincent Restencourt - wearing brown pants and cream shirt and skating to "The Mummy." Popped what I think was a quad attempt, triple axel/triple toe with wonky landing, triple axel, triple flip, popped lutz, two other triples okay. He finished with that jump change foot spin combo we like so much - seemed exhausted at the end.

Technical:
5.4 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.2 5.3 5.3
Presentation:
5.2 5.4 5.0 5.5 4.9 5.3 5.2
Alexander Abt - wearing a different costume than we had seen in practice (sniff!), this one was a rust and white scarab look, and he skated to "Gladiator" - very similar cut to Alexei's version. Opened with a quad toe with a lot of ice spray - maybe two footed but we thought it looked okay. Fell on triple axel, another triple axel was good, nice spiral and Ina Bauer, triple loop, nice camel spin, triple lutz with wonky landing, doubled his last two jumps, looked exhausted.

Technical:
5.6 5.4 5.3 5.6 5.2 5.4 5.4
Presentation:
5.4 5.5 5.5 5.6 5.5 5.5 5.7

Sasha in practice; the gang hoped this was the "Gladiator" costume. Alas, it was not...
 

Emanuel Sandhu - wearing half blue/half black top with black pants and skated to techno music. Fell on quad attempt, fell on triple axel, triple flip okay, popped axel, triple sal okay. Nice spread eagle, crossfoot spin nice - really nice presentation despite the jump problems - crowd loves his dancey footwork and so do I. Triple loop/triple toe, triple lutz, stepped out of last jump and slipped on his spin combo.

Technical:
5.2 5.2 5.4 5.3 5.3 5.5 5.2
Presentation:
5.4 5.6 5.6 5.8 5.6 5.7 5.5
Alexei Yagudin - wearing his latest "Gladiator" costume and skating to "Gladiator," of course. We were really anxious to see this as he had never run through the program completely in practice and we've only seen the exhibition and pro/am versions before. He opened with a quad attempt in our corner, doubled it, and then went to the other corner to try again and also doubled it. The audience seemed shocked at this point, and when he followed that with a hand down on his triple axel, the place seemed very quiet. But he rallied with a nice triple flip/triple toe (this had been a triple flip/triple loop in practice), another triple axel that looked like he might have a hand down but I think he saved it, did a spin combo here, spread eagle into Besti squat, followed by a good triple loop and another good triple (sal?) and then doubled his lutz, then his final spin combo which included a Mazurka and martini glass spin. Presentation was quite good, actually, despite the technical problems in the program. I think he knew he was in trouble after the two popped quad attempts and decided to save the program on presentation, which I think he did. He looked very tired at the end, and extremely dejected in the Kiss and Cry. He left when he saw the presentation marks up, but before they were announced.

Technical:
5.5 5.6 5.5 5.7 5.5 5.5 5.6
Presentation:
5.8 5.8 5.7 5.8 5.8 5.8 5.8
Well, it wasn't the men's finals we wanted to see, of course.

We were all thinking that Alexei simply *must* spend at least three or six months training at a high altitude location prior to Salt Lake City. But the exhibition programs from the medalists were held right after the men's finals, and he rallied so fantastically in his exhibition program to "Gladiator" (and, no, he didn't change to the "thights" version - darn! LOL, another "inside-board" joke...), when he should have been at death's door, that we're wondering if maybe he's psyched himself out into thinking he has a bigger problem with altitude than he does. I mean, he definitely has a problem with altitude, but we were just amazed at the vitality and energy he came up with for the exhibition. Of course, Alexei is usually able to gut his way through something we think might be impossible for anyone else, so maybe that's how he got through his exhibition program. But, really, if you had seen it (they never show SA exhibitions on TV, so you won't get to see it - too bad, because he was *so* good!), you would never have known this same guy strugged through his long program just a little while earlier.

Some of us saw him later at the hotel. He seemed quiet and sad.

And we still think Alexei should move his training location to a high altitude place for at least three to six months before the Salt Lake City Olympics take place. If for no other reason than confidence building.

Laurie



Tim and Todd during the photo op after the medal ceremonies. Alexei didn't stay afterwards.