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Stojko has his work cut out for him
When Alexei Yagudin, Michael Weiss and Alexei Urmanov finished ahead of him Saturday, Stojko's underdog status for the season was confirmed. Holding off a clamoring horde of younger skaters to win a fourth world title appears, at first glance, impossible.
Of course, to know Stojko is to know that nothing is impossible.
"We know the road back is going to be hard," he admitted, looking naked without a medal on his chest. "This meet was about trying to get back my confidence, to get the ball rolling.
"I just wanted to come out and skate well and that's what I did."
It had been 8 1/2 months since he clutched an injured groin after winning Olympic silver.
"For where we are right now, it was excellent," said coach Doug Leigh. "It might not be his normal excellent, or what everybody would think is his excellent, but for where he is right now, for getting back in the game and being able to put out a lot of his ammunition, it was very, very, very good."
Very good -- and fourth best.
While Stojko's new free-skating program to music from the fantasy movie Merlin offered little between the jumps -- he landed five triples, Yagudin's creative Lawrence of Arabia routine -- spiked with nine triples -- was a complete, winning package.
Lasting Olympic impression: Ilia Kulik and his programs were so good that nobody, including Stojko whether injured or not, was going to beat him.
Skate America impression: Yagudin has a superior package and has to be favoured to win a second straight world title.
Kulik is not competing on the Grand Prix circuit, choosing to rake in prize money at open pro-am events. He is likely to skip the worlds in Helsinki next March but retain his Olympic eligibility.
Stojko, from Richmond Hill, Ont., competes later this week at Skate Canada in Kamloops, B.C.
"Are we 100 per cent out of the woods yet?" Leigh pondered when asked about the recovery from the groin injury. "No.
"When will we be 100 per cent out of the woods? We don't know that."
Being an underdog is nothing new for him. In 1995, doctors told him he'd never recover from an ankle injury in time to defend his world title, but he won gold a second time.
In 1997, he came from back in the pack and won gold a third time. Last February, injured and in pain, he won the silver Olympic medal.
Canadian pairs champions Kristy Sargeant of Alix, Alta., and Kris Wirtz of Marathon, Ont., also will compete in Kamloops. They finished second Saturday behind only world champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.
"I've made a breakthrough," said Sargeant. "Every time (in the past) when I've been in the top group, I just cracked."
Not this time.
A new long program to Duke Ellington jazz suits them perfectly. An improvement on their No. 7 world ranking is more a probability than a possibility now.
Jennifer Robinson's showing, however, showed how many light years she is behind the top women. Maria Butyrskaya fell twice and won gold. Robinson from Windsor, Ont., had no ice shavings on her dress and was judged eighth among 10.