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Upstaged by a clown
Russia's Yagudin leads Stojko after short program
But last night at Skate America, Stojko was left trailing a skater disguised as a clown.
In his first competition since the 1998 Nagano Olympics, where he staggered to a silver medal despite suffering a serious groin injury, Stojko placed second in the men's short program behind defending world champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia.
Yagudin, who at 18 is one of the new breed of skating wunderkinds, performed a marvellous circus-inspired short program, landing a triple Axel-triple toe jump combination, a triple Lutz and a double Axel while also tossing in a little hydro-blading for good measure.
Stojko's short program last night might best be defined as crazy, in both senses of the word.
As in the way a burned-out '60s poet might use the word as a compliment.
And crazy as in: Why would a guy, still recovering from a serious groin injury, attempt a quadruple toe loop in his first competition in eight months?
Stojko's answer: Why not get it over with?
During the off-season, the International Skating Union passed a rule allowing men's singles skaters to add a quad to their short program.
No man had ever done it before and Stojko, injury or not, was going to give it his best shot in his first opportunity.
Halfway through his Taiko drums-inspired program, shortly after landing a triple Axel-triple toe combo, the Richmond Hill skater threw himself into the air and, in a sight witnessed by very few in the past, landed on his butt.
Still, the three-time world champion managed to hold on to second place heading into tomorrow's long program, ahead of Michael Weiss of the U.S.
Ultimately, his miss was not that big of a deal after all. The top three heading into the long program all basically have an equal shot at victory because the skater that wins the long almost always wins the gold.
Stojko explained later that he wanted to put some mileage on his quad, whether he missed it or not.
He didn't say so in as many words, but it was quite obvious that he wanted to be the first man to nail a quad jump in the short program.
%BC%Skating pioneer%EC%
Just like he was the first male skater to nail a quadruple in combination with another jump and a quad-triple jump combination.
"It's like baseball. The World Series was great and all that, but it was the (home run) records that brought (all the interest)," he said. "That's the thing people remember."
Stojko, 26, said he felt tremendous relief at finally getting a competition under his belt.
He said the quad was perfect in the warmup, but that his leg tightened a bit while he waited for five skaters ahead of him to perform. The men's singles competition began at about 9:15 p.m. and Stojko finally skated his program at about Stojko also was relieved that afterward he felt only a "twinge" in his groin, something he expected.
Interestingly, Alexei Urmanov of Russia, the 1994 Olympic champion who missed all of last season because of a groin injury, skated poorly, falling on a triple Lutz attempt. He placed fourth.
Tomorrow, Stojko will unveil his new long program, skated to the music of the children's fantasy film Merlin.