US Nationals Men’s Short Program
2008 US Figure Skating Men’s Technical Routines
A final group of Senior level skaters took to the ice in St. Paul for the first skate of the final Men's championships. Here, short program results are ranked in order.
Johnny Weir
Said to be refocused and rededicated to his sport, Weir his short program interpretation of a Russian sailor who chooses his trade over love and dies for that decision.
Johnny’s decision to front-load his short program with triples fared him much better. His skating was soft, characteristically interpretive, and clean.
His footwork included brackets, deep edges, and intricate choreography into a combination spin that developed from a sit up into an eggbeater. His confidence in a job well done was obvious in his final pose.
Scott Hamilton noted that we’ve always known he can skate, but we wondered if Johnny could learn to compete. This technical program showed his ability to learn the art of competition. 83.40 points was his personal best short program score.
Alone in the “Truth Booth,” Johnny had yet to cool down from his performance before he began a Dear Diary report. At first, his high and breathlessness left room for the ego to dim and a young man who just skated his best to show through. Weir’s smile showed excitement – without pretense or cockiness – and was refreshing.
“I called on God before I skated to try and help me, and I’m not religious at all. I thought I just needed a little extra help tonight.” He finished his “truth booth” informal interview in true Johnny style: “I feel like I should talk about my roommates, the won who drinks too much and the one who sleeps around, but it’s just Johnny.”
Evan Lysacek
“You can do this. This is sport.” Evan’s coach, Frank Carroll, had those words to say to the skater as he took to the ice. A quad toe, triple toe jump combo opened this powerful technical program. He two-footed his quad, thereby earning full credit at least for the rotations, but he doubled the toe.
Evan under rotated his triple Axel, but landed his triple Lutz. He looked tight before the footwork sequence, but he let loose and played to the crowd through his quick steps.
Dressed in black down to his finger tips, this defending champion wowed the crowd and showed tremendous control with a long set of about eight twizzles followed by a combination spin to end. His program wasn’t clean but it had more technical bonuses than Johnny’s.
Evan’s energy drove the program component scores up to 82.05, which was a personal best and slightly behind Weir. “That’s right where we want to be. It’s all in the long anyway,” Frank assured Evan after his scores posted.
Evan’s focus is long-term, Vancouver, to be exact. He’s not relying on quadruple jumps simply for a win here at Nationals. He’s getting consistent quads now in preparation for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
Stephen Carriere
Stephen overcame his usual struggles in the short program, opening with his short program circular footwork, presumably to get settled on the ice. After a straight-line footwork sequence, his unique tight curve into the triple Axel didn’t quite work.
He did land a clean triple flip, triple toe before spinning with obvious focus instead of relief – before landing another jump. This time it was a clean triple Lutz. Stephen accented his “Stairway to Heaven” instrumental with fast footwork, a nice combo spin, and a high kick to the last beat of the music.
His score of 76.66 put him above Ryan. “Wow,” was all he had to say about what some are calling his breakthrough performance. It’s not that his skating was particularly amazing, but it was basically clean and had enough technical point value to prove that Stephen may now be consistent enough to skate with the big dogs.
Ryan Bradley
A chipped bone in his ankle didn’t seem to affect this focused performance to “The Godfather.” His quad pass turned in to a triple Axel. His triple flip, triple toe was clean, although less in value than his planned quad combo. Periods of slower speed at the beginning of this routine unfortunately carried through to a spin.
Single-foot edging showed technique enunciated the character of the music, but a repeated broken-leg sit-spin position became a bit boring. After this basically clean performance, Ryan said: “Man, was I scared.” Nobody else could tell. His score for this program was 74.20.
Jeremy Abbott
This former US Junior Champion’s opening jump was supposed to be a quad toe, triple toe, but he fell out of the first jump and nixed the second. He couldn’t hang on to the triple Axel either, but this time it was over rotated. His program, choreographed by Kurt Browning, showed off some sexy dance moves and dynamic footwork that we would expect from Kurt.
Jeremy threw in a triple Lutz triple toe combo and landed is cleanly. He’s still a bit awkward in stature, but Kurt’s energetic style burst through this skater and ignited the crowd. Abbott earned 73.28 points for his effort. He expressed it best: “I just had the most fun skating that I’ve ever had in my life.”
Other Competitors: Scott Smith, Wesley Campbell, Shaun Rogers, Tommy Steenberg, Dennis Phan, Parker Pennington, Geoffry Varner, Eliot Halverson, Braden Overett, Derrick Delmore, Douglas Razzano, Michael Villarreal, and Rohene Ward.
