Kwan, Eldredge Win At Skate America

It’s too early in the season for perfection, so Michelle Kwan will settle for coming close.

Todd Eldredge is just happy he wasn’t hurt worse in a nasty fall Saturday at Skate America.

Kwan easily won her first matchup with Tara Lipinski, sweeping the judges’ panel with a flawless free skate. Lipinski fell on a triple lutz and her program didn’t have the overall artistry to match Kwan.

“Even in warmups, I thought, ‘This is really going well,”’ Kwan said. “When I got off the ice, Frank (Carroll, her coach) told me, ‘Don’t be overconfident.’ I knew I had been training really hard, so there is not much more I can do.”

So the initial salvo in what promises to be an intriguing duel leading to the Nagano Olympics goes to the 1996 world and U.S. figure skating champion. Lipinski, who unseated Kwan for both titles, was second. Russia’s Elena Sokolova edged another American, Angela Nikodinov, for third.

Eldredge fell in warmups, spraining his right shoulder.

The four-time U.S. champion crashed to the ice near the sideboards. He lay flat on the ice after breaking his fall with his right arm while coach Richard Callaghan and a doctor tended to him.

After nearly 4 minutes, he got up and left the ice under his own power.

“There was a chunk of ice frozen to the surface and I was just trying to steer away when I hit it,” he said. “I felt my shoulder go out right away. And then I turned over and felt it slip right back in.”

U.S. pairs champions Kyoko Ina and Jason Dungjen finished second behind Russia’s Marina Eltsova and Andrey Bushkov, the 1996 world champs. And Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow, the four-time U.S. champions beginning their final season as Olympic eligibles, took the dance competition.