HELSINKI, March 25 – Fairfax native Michael Weiss began the 1999 World Figure Skating Championships surrounded by doubts and questions. There were murmurs that U.S. men's skating had declined with the semi-retirement of five-time world medalist Todd Eldredge. Weiss was generally expected to finish fourth or fifth here.

But Weiss ended the competition tonight with a bronze medal on his neck and his arms raised in jubilation. Next to Weiss on the medal podium stood Russia's Alexei Yagudin, who won his second consecutive world title, and countryman Evgeni Plushenko, who captured the silver.

With a powerful performance under immense pressure, Weiss moved up from fourth place entering the decisive free skate, salvaged respect for the United States and proved that he deserves to be counted among the best skaters in the world.

"My goal coming into here was to hit three solid programs," said Weiss, 22. "I ended up doing that. I ended up saving my one best performance for the end."

Three-time world champion Elvis Stojko of Canada finished fourth overall after finishing fifth in the free skate, worth 50 percent of the total score. Former Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov, who many predicted would be part of a Russian medal sweep, fell to fifth overall, followed by Japan's Takeshi Honda.

"This year was a developmental" year for the U.S., said Audrey Weisiger, Weiss's coach. "Michael proved we can compete at the highest level."

And he did it under trying circumstances. Moments before taking the ice to compete in the short program Tuesday, Weiss's pants split. He borrowed another pair for the warmup while his were hastily mended.

Fourth entering tonight's competition, Weiss was the last skater to compete. On a video monitor in the bowels of Hartwall Arena, Weiss watched the other competitors and heard their scores.

"I was very nervous, both before tonight's long and the short program," Weiss said.

This much was clear even before Weiss's turn: The top two medal spots were all but sealed by Yagudin and Plushenko. Yagudin performed a flawless program that included a quadruple toe loop and seven triple jumps. It earned a rare 6.0 technical mark, drew a standing ovation from the crowd of about 8,000, and reduced him to tears.

"It was much harder to keep this title," Yagudin said. "It is very hard for me to explain in the English language what was wrong exactly."

Plushenko, just 16, had topped the 19-year-old Yagudin in the recent Russian national championships but he couldn't overtake him after tonight's dramatic effort. Plushenko, in the lead after the short program, put his hand down on his quadruple jump attempt and stumbled on footwork.

Stojko, the first skater in the final group of six, landed a quadruple toe loop but did little else to stir the judges, opening the door for Weiss to claim a medal. Urmanov, too, failed to move the judges. Not only did he not attempt a quad, but he also turned two triple jumps into doubles.

Neither he nor Stojko commented afterward.

As soon as Weiss took the ice, with a minute or two to loosen up, the crowd began doing "the wave," accompanied by cheering and hooting. Weiss said he chuckled as he readied himself, knowing his friends and family would be concerned that the noisy production was a distraction.

It wasn't. But what was troublesome, he said, was the half-hour wait between the time of his official warmup and his performance, which caused him to get off to a somewhat shaky start. Early in his program, Weiss flubbed his quadruple toe loop by landing on two feet and turned a triple-triple combination into a triple-double.

Those, however, were the only flaws in performance to music from the movie "Mulan." He seemed to develop momentum as he went on, feeding off the crowd and nailing six triple jumps. By the end, the pro-American crowd was on its feet, and Weiss was pumping his fists.

"At that point, it didn't matter," whether he had won a medal, he said. "[I] performed and delivered at a very strenuous time in the competition."

Americans Tim Goebel and Trifun Zivanovic finished in 12th and 16th places, respectively. Goebel attempted to become the first skater to land two quadruple jumps in competition, but he landed only a quadruple Salchow. He fell out of an attempted quad toe loop.

The U.S. men will be represented by just two skaters at next year's world championships based on the results in this event. The finishes of two U.S. competitors had to add up to 13 for the United States to secure three berths.

Without Weiss's performance, the United States would have failed to win its first world championship medal in the men's competition since 1994. Eldredge won three silvers and one gold over that period, and Rudy Galindo won a bronze.

"I think the journey to this bronze medal started at the beginning of the year," Weiss said. "I knew it would take a lot of steppingstones."

Skating Notes: The International Skating Union announced today it would review a tape by a Canadian television station of two judges – from Russia and Ukraine – communicating before posting marks during the pairs free skate Wednesday night. All discussions between judges are strictly forbidden.

"It doesn't look particularly good," said Sally Stapleford, the chair of the ISU's technical commission. "There appears to have been some kind of communication."

© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

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