Boitano Stands Tall in a Short Program : He Gets Eight 6.0s; Thomas Leads Women After Compulsories

DENVER â€”  The United States has had more celebrated men’s figure skating champions, 1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton for one. But never has it had one who was closer to perfect than Brian Boitano was Thursday night in the national championships.

After watching Boitano, a three-time national champion, skate his short program to the military beat of Les Patineurs, eight of nine judges gave him perfect scores of 6.0 for his presentation, unprecedented for an American. Only the British ice dancing pair of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean ever received nine perfect scores.

It appeared for a few moments as if Boitano, who is from Sunnyvale, Calif., might match them 6 for 6. A crowd of 9,804 at McNichols Arena saw the eight perfect scores go onto the scoreboard before the ninth judge, Elaine Demore of Cleveland, broke the spell. But Boitano could not be too disappointed with that score. Demore gave him a 5.9.

Seven judges gave him 5.9s for his required elements, the combination of scores, along with his victory in the compulsory figures Wednesday, giving him a comfortable but not insurmountable lead entering tonight’s long program.

Still recovering from a sprained ankle, Christopher Bowman of Van Nuys finished second in the short program to retain his hold on second place overall, while Paul Wylie, a Harvard social studies major from Denver, remained in third place with his third in the short program. The first three will represent the United States in next month’s Winter Olympics at Calgary, Canada.

Wylie had the dubious honor of following Boitano onto the ice.

“It was a blessing,� he said. “There was such a wave of emotion, I felt inspired to go out there afterward.�

Boitano, 24, said he just felt nervous before his performance, a condition that did not ease until he cleanly hit a difficult triple axel-double toe loop combination.

Only then did he develop the attitude his choreographer, Sandra Bezic, prescribed for him. Bezic also taught him the night’s most clever move, in which he swipes the ice off his blade and flips it cavalierly over his shoulder. It appears impromptu but is planned.

“Sandra said, ‘You’re going to be arrogant,’ � Boitano said. “But I have a hard time being arrogant. When I’m nervous, I can’t be arrogant because it makes you look stupid when you make a mistake.�

If he made one in his presentation Thursday night, only Demore noticed. “I was standing with Sandra and (Coach Linda Leaver), saying, ‘Please give me some 6.0s,’ � Boitano said. “But when they came up with eight in a row, that was amazing. I would have been happy to get just one.�

Before this season, Boitano, the 1986 world champion and the runner-up in 1987, had received only one 6.0. But in the short program of the Novaret Trophy at Budapest, Hungary, this winter, he received four 6.0s. One night later, in the long program, he received three more.

He was even better here, moving Bowman to say, “My jaw just dropped when I saw what he did. Wow! I was astounded by everyone. I’ve never seen so many guys skate so well at the nationals.�

Their performances moved them onto center stage, ahead of the women, who were expected to provide most of the excitement here. They had little opportunity for that Thursday, competing in the compulsory figures, which may become as extinct as Sonja Henie movies.

Officials of the International Skating Union (ISU) will vote on a controversial proposal at their World Congress in May that would eliminate the figures in world championships, European championships and the Olympics and reward skaters based solely on their freestyle performances.

Former world champion Debi Thomas might have wished for a while Thursday that the ISU had made its decision before this year.

In what might have been the last compulsory figures competition at the U.S. national championships, Thomas faltered on the first of her three figures at the South Suburban Ice Center, enough so that the judges put her second behind Caryn Kadavy.

“I got a little bit angry after that first figure,� said Thomas’ Scottish-born coach, Alex McGowan. “I told her that she was skating like a jelly bean. That’s an English expression. Maybe you would say Jell-O.

“I told her to get angry because I was angry. I told her that even if she lost, she should skate like a skater because I didn’t want a wimp out there.�

Taking the pep talk to heart, Thomas, from San Jose, won the next two figures. That gave her the lead over second-place Kadavy of Erie, Pa., and third-place Jill Trenary of Minnetonka, Minn., going into today’s short program at McNichols Arena. Toward the final score, the compulsory figures count 30%, the short program 20% and Saturday’s long program 50%.

“Whoever wins the long program is going to win the championship,� said Carlo Fassi, who coaches Kadavy and Trenary, the defending champion, at the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs. “It’s a freestyle competition now.�

If some ISU officials have their way, all important international competition in the future will be freestyle. According to the proposal, not only would compulsory figures be eliminated but the short program would require nine elements instead of seven and be extended from 2 minutes 15 seconds to 3 minutes.

Also, world rankings would be established to seed skaters into the short program. The compulsory figure standings now determine seedings.

Officials of the United States Figure Skating Assn. say the proposal would have been adopted if the vote had been last summer. But they and Canadian Figure Skating Assn. officials have been campaigning to retain the figures. There is debate about how many voters they have persuaded.

Predicting that a compromise will be reached, Fassi said: “You’ll see the figures again. There may be only two figures, but they’ll keep them in. I think the short program will come first, followed by two figures, and then the long program.�

Peggy Fleming, the 1968 Olympic champion and a commentator here for ABC, disagreed. “It’s inevitable that the change is going to be made,� she said. “We can’t stop that. They’re interesting for the people who do them. I was good at them. But they’re not very pretty.�

Adjectives used to describe them often begin with boring. For spectators, watching the figures is like watching an artist paint but never being able to see the canvas, even after the picture is completed.

Basically, the skaters perform Figure 8s on the ice and then stand by nervously as the judges scrutinize the circles. Then the skaters wait in line to do it again, twice more. At the national championships, figures routinely take five hours. At the World Championships, they can take eight hours.

Still, figures have their advocates. Historians point out that skating competition began in the 1880s with skaters attempting to draw the most elaborate figures on the ice. That is why the sport is called figure skating.

“Figure skating is based upon figures,� said Dick Button, a two-time Olympic champion who also is providing commentary here for ABC. “A hundred years ago, nobody knew about free skating. That didn’t exist. Figure skating was an art form in itself. It was like penmanship to the hand.�

Others have argued that figures to the skater are like scales to a pianist and barre exercises to a ballet dancer. They contend that if skaters do not become accomplished in the basic figures, they will not be able to perform clean freestyle programs.

But the bottom line for many who favor figures, particularly coaches, is the bottom line.

“We’d lose 50% of our jobs, and rinks would lose 50% of their rink time,� Fassi said. “It would be a disaster financially for many rinks. Figures are practiced from 5 until 9 in the morning. That ice (time) is difficult to sell.�

Since the proposal applies only to international competition, countries could still decide to retain figures in their national meets. USFSA officials say that they will decide after the World Congress but that they likely will go along with the majority.

Even though he could not perform lifts because of a herniated disk suffered in November, Scott Gregory of Auburn, N.Y., and his partner, Suzanne Semanick of Bridgeville, Pa., won the ice dancing competition Thursday night, earning a berth on the Olympic team with the runner-up couple of Susan Wynne of Syracuse and Joseph Druar of Buffalo.

When their free dance program was completed, Gregory, grimacing with pain, had to lean on Semanick for support. They were the defending champions.

Because the United States’ highest finish in ice dancing at the 1987 world championships was the fifth place earned by Semanick and Gregory, only two teams can represent the nation at Calgary. The third-place team here, April Sargent of Ogdensburg, N.Y., and Russ Witherby of Cincinnati, are the first alternates.