Ice Queens

A more rewarding show of heart was displayed by the two-time U.S. men's champion, 19-year-old Todd Eldredge . Taking the ice last Thursday night as the last of the final five skaters, Eldredge needed a flawless performance to have any chance of passing Petr Barna of Czechoslovakia to win the bronze—a finish that would allow the U.S. to send three men to next year's Olympic Games in Albertville , France . Eldredge is one of those rare skaters who performs best when there is no margin for error, and when he nailed his triple Axel-triple toe loop early in his program, the audience erupted.

From that point, Eldredge , not known for his on-ice charisma, pretty much had his way with the crowd. "I wanted to get the program off the ice and into the stands," he said. "I feel it was the best I've skated, and it sounded like the audience got into it, too."

When it was announced that Eldredge had, indeed, taken third, the heavily North American crowd gave him almost as loud a cheer as Browning had received. "I heard from people who've been around a long time that this was one of the best last flights of figure skating they'd seen in their lives," said Browning. "I think the skaters who took over after 1988 have finally come into their own."

That can certainly be said of the American women, especially considering that the 1990 world champion, Jill Trenary , was back in Colorado Springs , recuperating from surgery on her right ankle. "I think it's wonderful," she said when informed of the U.S. women's sweep, accurately adding, "It means next year's nationals is going to be like the Olympics."

Stay tuned for that one, a competition that will include: two world champions, Yamaguchi and Trenary; the defending national champ, Harding; and two world bronze medalists, Kerrigan and Holly Cook (who finished third in the '90 worlds)—all vying for just three spots on the U.S. Olympic team.

The American women, of course, have always been both strong and deep. In truth, though, no one can remember when the European women skaters have been as weak as they are now. The European champion, Bonaly, is a marvelous jumper and spins nicely, but she runs into trouble in between, when she actually has to skate. She might as well be on double runners as she glides stiff-leggedly from one trick to the next—the best of which, a back flip, is not allowed under the rules.

Ito, of course, is a force to be reckoned with, especially if she learns the dimensions of the rink. Entering the competition as the favorite, she introduced a daring short program from which she was fortunate to emerge with her life. First, during warmups, Ito and France 's Laetitia Hubert crashed into each other while winding up for their jumps. Ito, who suffered bruised ribs in the crash, slumped against the boards for a full minute, in tears. She pulled herself together and, in the final seconds of the warmups, was finally able to land her combination jump. But she nearly hit the boards in doing so and had to pull up abruptly.

Said Harding, who was leading the short program to that point, "After she ran out of room in the warmups, I thought she'd make an adjustment."

Ito didn't. Over the years she has acquired a reputation for skating too close to the boards, and once again she waited too long to begin her combination triple Lutz-double toe, so that an instant after she landed her second jump, she hurtled over the 12-inch-high barrier that had been cut into the boards to accommodate an ice-level television camera. She quickly reemerged and finished her program. The judges, several of whom did not deduct the mandatory .3 or .4 for the fall, gave her rather generous third-place marks; afterward she was whisked off to the hospital for precautionary X-rays.

Yamaguchi 's short program was superb—even Kristi allowed she could hardly have skated it better—and she stood first. Still, she needed to win last Saturday afternoon's free skate in order to take home the world title. Not even her mother, Carole, was confident she could do it. "I don't know if she's mentally tough enough yet," Carole said. "And she doesn't have that triple Axel."