Eldredge Hopes for Elway Spin

NAGANO, Japan —  Todd Eldredge, the John Elway of figure skating?

“I was rooting for John Elway in the Super Bowl,” says Eldredge, five-time champion of the United States but never a medalist at the Olympic Games.

“I think what he’s gone through is kind of similar to my career. I’ve done a lot of great things, but the one thing I haven’t got is a medal.”

Elway finally got his ring in January. Eldredge hopes to get his piece of shiny metal this week. Thursday, Eldredge begins his bid in the men’s short program, with the long program scheduled for Saturday.

“It’s time to show people,” Eldredge says. “I know it sounds kind of corny, but I want to show people. This is it. I want to do my best stuff, like John Elway did.”

Actually, the Elway-Eldredge analogy is not as big a stretch as it sounds.

First of all, Elway’s Bronco costume is no less ridiculous than anything a male figure skater is likely to wear.

Second, both have been seriously banged up over the years, Eldredge having to put himself back together in December and January after separating his shoulder and pulling rib-cage muscles in the fall.

Third, Elway, like Eldredge, has never landed a quadruple jump in competition.

There is one glaring difference between the two, however.

Before Super Bowl XXXII, Elway never removed the drop-back pass and the handoff to Terrell Davis from the Bronco playbook and replaced them with the Statue of Liberty, the single wing and the third-down dropkick.

On the eve of the biggest competition of his 10-year figure skating career, Eldredge is changing both his short and long programs, a gamble that is either remarkably brave or foolhardy, especially coming from a skater notorious for playing it close to the waiter’s vest.

Eldredge has entirely scrapped the short program that helped him win his fifth U.S. title last month. Gone is the music Eldredge has used for the last two years, “Walk on the Wild Side,” replaced by a selection from “Les Miserables,” an old favorite from Eldredge short programs of yesteryear.

The long program is getting a make-over too, after receiving a tepid response in Philadelphia at the nationals.

It is an unorthodox strategy, to say the least. Doug Leigh, who coaches Canadian world champion Elvis Stojko, did some imaginative footwork of his own when asked what he thought of Eldredge introducing two revamped programs at the Olympics.

“To tell you the truth, I can’t comment,” Leigh said. “Todd and Richard [Callaghan, Eldredge’s coach] made a decision they believe is in their best interest. . . . Go for it!”

The way Eldredge figures it, he had to shake things up after placing second behind Stojko at the 1997 world championships and third behind Russia’s Ilia Kulik and Stojko at the Champion Series Final in December.

“You can’t go out there and skate what you think [the judges] might like,” Eldredge says. “It has to be a style you like first, a style you hope is also preferred by the judges. It’s kind of a game you play.”

Play it well enough, and long enough, and first place will come eventually, right?

Elway will always have San Diego. Why, Eldredge asks, can’t Nagano be his?