They Were Thrown Together

ST. LOUIS —  Leave it to the L.A. guy, the one with the blond hair and bare chest, to celebrate skating history as if it were beach volleyball.

Shortly after John Baldwin threw and twirled Rena Inoue from here to Turin, he shouted and pumped his fist at her.

Then he made out with her.

At center ice.

“C’mon, I’ve kissed her before,” Baldwin said.

“But never, ever on the lips in public,” his father, John Sr., said.

Call it an Olympic-sized smooch, intimate and extravagant and just perfect for a Santa Monica couple that Friday night made the jump from skating bums to prime time.

And, dude, what a jump.

The first throw triple axel in world pairs skating history -- he tossed her into the air like a bean bag, she spun 3 1/2 times like a pinwheel -- pushed the couple from fourth place to the national championship and their first Olympic berth together.

“We wanted to put our mark on the sport,” Baldwin said.

In a sport of icy formality, it is a splendidly odd mark indeed, weathered and wrinkled and as comfortable as that afghan draped across your couch.

Angelenos will watch the pair in Turin next month and think, haven’t I seen them in the neighborhood?

And, actually, you probably have.

They hang out in a rented home in Santa Monica. For fun, they pile into their van and drive down to the beach to ride bikes or play volleyball.

Baldwin is the oldest guy in the competition -- at 32, he might be the oldest guy still wearing competitive skates.

He’s also the only skater whose biggest complaint about the sport is that it’s too ... cold?

“What can I say, he doesn’t like to be in rinks,” shrugged his father, a used-car salesman from San Diego.

Baldwin won a U.S. novice title in 1987, but through occasional lack of dedication and constant insistence on leading a normal life, he hasn’t won much of anything in the 19 years since.

Then along came Inoue, his exact opposite, his perfect match.

She is a former Japanese star, a two-time Olympian, once in singles, once in pairs. Nearly six years ago her country sent her to the rink at Lake Arrowhead to attempt a comeback. It was there she was spotted by Baldwin’s father, who visualized company for his son’s misery.

He immediately tried to hook them up. She resisted. He insisted. Finally she agreed to skate with Baldwin once.

It was love at first height. She is nearly a foot shorter than his 5-foot-9 frame. They look like a broom skating with a dust pan. But somehow, it worked.

Said Baldwin, in all seriousness: “I really look up to her.”

Together they won the 2004 national championships, but they finished only 10th in the world that year, and stumbled to second in nationals last year, and then literally stumbled in the short program Wednesday.

Sitting in the stands Friday, Baldwin’s father was approached by an acquaintance who said what many were thinking.

“You know, your son is 32 years old and maybe ...” said the acquaintance.

“Don’t say it, don’t say it,” replied John Sr., cutting him off. “He is not done yet.”

It was the throw triple axel that proved it.

The couple had tried it twice before in competition. Both times they did it perfectly in final warmups, yet both times Inoue slipped in the competition.

So this time, their coach, Peter Oppegard, had an idea.

“He told them, ‘You only have one in you, so this time, let’s save it for the competition,’ ” related John Sr.

So this time, they didn’t practice it, they preached it, nailing the difficult move as the tense Savvis Center fans erupted in a standing ovation.

“I feel like I was in school 20 years and just graduated,” Baldwin said.

Inoue spun and landed with a perfect chill that will be felt in skating circles throughout Europe and Asia today.

“We thought about how we wanted to be remembered in this sport,” Baldwin said. “When we leave the sport, we don’t want to be like dust in the wind.”

They left the Savvis Center, instead, with sweet anticipation in the wind.

Could they become the first U.S. pairs team to medal in the Olympics since their current and former coaches, Oppegard and Jill Watson, won a bronze in 1988?

If they pull off the throw triple axel again, and add a few difficult moves that were purposely left out of their program because of Baldwin’s sore toe, it’s possible.

Could they become the first U.S. pairs team in years to make America even care about pairs?

That’s more likely, given the normality they showed in the victory, from the fist pumps to the long kiss to Baldwin’s summoning his parents down from the stands for a rink-side hug.

“That’s never happened before, either,” his father said. “And he probably couldn’t have gotten away with it after just an average performance. But this was different.”

And so are they, as evidenced again by Baldwin’s final quote of the night.

He was entertaining the media after his news conference when officials reminded him that it was time for drug testing.

Usually, upon hearing this, athletes immediately and quietly leave. But not Baldwin.

“I don’t have to go to the bathroom yet,” he said.

“You still have to be in that room,” the official said.

“Well, OK,” he said, shrugging and standing up. “But I’ll see everyone later.”

Looking forward to it.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous Plaschke columns, go to latimes.com/plaschke.