U.S. Skaters Now Thinking Dream Team

After the favorites had fallen and the Russian singles skaters didn’t quite measure up to their countrymen in pairs and dance, the Americans were left standing atop the world.

In their most successful World Figure Skating Championships in nearly a decade, Americans won four medals, two of them gold. First Todd Eldredge became the first U.S. skater to capture the men’s crown since Brian Boitano in 1988. Then Michelle Kwan finished off the first U.S. sweep of the individual events in 10 years.

The other U.S. medal winners were Rudy Galindo in men’s and Jenni Meno and Todd Sand in pairs, both bronze.

“It says a lot about the depth of the American team,” said Frank Carroll, who coaches Kwan. “They all got along together. It was one of those Dream Team kind of things.”

Kwan capped it off with perfection, and she needed it. The 15-year-old from Torrance, Calif., hit seven triple jumps, including an improvised one at the very end of her free skate Saturday. She earned two perfect 6.0s for artistry and barely edge China’s Chen Lu, the defending champion.

“It’s been a dream of mine, something I thought about doing, since I started out,” said Kwan, the thirdyoungest world champion. “I can’t really get it in my brain that I did it.”

The strong performance by the U.S. team came just as skaters begin to seriously think about the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Kwan won all but one of the competitions she entered this season - she was ill at St. Petersburg, Russia, and wound up third. Eldredge proved he has the jumps, artistry and guts to handle the impressive array of men on the scene.

“It shows the U.S. is doing its part darn well,” said Eldredge, who culminated a two-year climb back from injury and indifference with his first world crown. “U.S. skating is looking really strong just two years before Nagano.”

“Last year, we started doing that, setting ourselves up. Then, anytime you go to worlds and get a good placement, it makes everyone aware of you and around the world, they know you’re in the running.”

The last U.S. sweep came in 1986, when Brian Boitano won the men’s title and Debi Thomas the women’s.