Eldredge Needs Four Turns To Turn The Corner American Knows Quad Jump Is Best Chance For First Olympic Medal
And now, Todd Eldredge faces the great quad question.
After skating an immaculate short program, Eldredge must decide whether to include the four-spins-to-win move in the 4-1/2-minute free skate that will decide the figure skating gold.
The quad is used by the other top skaters - Elvis Stojko of Canada and Russia’s Ilya Kulik and Alexei Yagudin. Each has landed it in competition, unlike any American.
Eldredge, who practices the jump, tried his first one with medals at stake in the nationals last month and came close before losing it on his landing. He compensated for the crash with an otherwise flawless routine to win his fifth championship - the most for an American skater since Dick Button won seven in the 1950s.
Still, Eldredge has never medaled in the Olympics.
The long program highlights tonight’s coverage by CBS. The network’s schedule calls for showing the men’s and women’s hockey and nordic combined skiing in the afternoon, and packaging the women’s 500-meter speedskating, men’s cross-country skiing and the first two runs of the two-man bobsled with the figure skating at night.
The freestyle program accounts for two-thirds of the final mark in figure skating and its content is entirely up to the skater.
“You have to have the whole package,” said Eldredge, third following the short program.
“It’s more a question of whether another triple axel is more important than doing the quad.”
Eldredge would like to believe that judges prefer a more balanced package of traditional jumps and spins without the glitz of the quad. That said, he also knows the other skaters almost certainly will include it and that could make a medal difference.
For the record, he practiced the quad Friday. And he missed it.
xxxx What’s ahead Medals at stake: Men’s 120K ski jumping, men’s 100-meter speedskating, men’s figure skating (free skate), two-man bobsled, curling.