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Langdon's got world of hope
Entering this competitive season, the world's No. 8-ranked male skater faced the demoralizing prospect of having to beat three-time world champ Elvis Stojko at January's nationals in Ottawa to qualify for the 1999 worlds in Finland.
Because of the International Skating Union's points system, which governs how many skaters a country can send to the world championships, Canada was only going to get one men's entry at the '99 event. Barring injury or Stojko's retirement from the "eligible" skating ranks, that was an unlikely scenario, indeed.
Langdon tried to look toward other goals, but the disappointment weighed on his mind.
"I didn't go, 'well, I'm not going to make it, just forget it,' " Langdon said yesterday, in between his events this week at Skate Canada. "I said maybe I'm not going to make it to worlds, but there's still Four Continents (in February at Halifax), I can still come second (at Canadians), I can still get medals on the Grand Prix circuit."
Some days, that was small consolation for a situation brought about by Stojko's skipping worlds with a groin injury and the collapse of fellow Canadian Emanuel Sandhu in the worlds qualifying round in Minneapolis last March.
"There was that (feeling that), even on a good day, it doesn't matter anyways. It's hard, but you just have to overcome it."
Then came the ISU's fall congress, when it restructured the points system. The result allows Canada a second men's berth. For Langdon, it was like a rebirth.
"That was nice. I'm lucky because I've been training hard anyways, so I didn't have to start from scratch on Oct. 1."
With that worry out of the way, the 23-year-old can focus on to ensuring he gets that second spot at worlds. Sandhu is expected to mount a strong challenge for silver in Ottawa, so both will be watched closely this fall. If he can battle through a severely sprained ankle, in tonight's free skate, Langdon can reaffirm he is the favourite in that battle. He is fourth after the short program.
"I want to go out and perform and get a medal tomorrow night. But it's hard because if you think about the medal, tension could rise, so you've got to focus on the job, and after that hope for the medal."
His free skate is to Puccini's Tosca.
"I've wanted to skate to it for a couple of years and this year I felt I was ready to do it justice," said Langdon, who knew he needed not only maturity in his skating, but also an international reputation to sell music already used by several top-level skaters.
His unique twist involves something other than just footwork to tie his major elements -- the spins, jumps and footwork sequences -- together.
"I've really tried to use the line, the spread eagles and the spirals," said Langdon. "That program has come along really, really quickly. I thought it would take a lot of time, but everything clicked."
After this weekend and Grand Prix series events in Germany and Russia, he has one more mountain to conquer -- the quad. He trained the quad Salchow several years ago, but was about to start working on the jump again when the sprain occurred.
"I would have liked to try the quad in Russia, in the short program, because it is not my points competition," he said. "I'm going to work on it after Russia and try to showcase it at Canadians, maybe not be doing it (in the program) but get some out in practice so people are seeing that you've taken that next level."
Where a couple of years ago working on a quad was a big psychological leap, Langdon says now "actually it isn't too bad anymore ... now that everything else is coming together, it is kind of natural for me to take that next step. For me to feel like I'm improving, I have to."
Improve he must, with the challenge of another world championship ahead.