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In the course of his six-year competitive career, Kulik, who moved to Marlborough, Mass., from Moscow in 1996, has not always performed so brilliantly. In recent months, though, he has moved up the rankings, largely thanks to his work with Russian ice-dancing coach Tatiana Tarasova, who two years ago came out of retirement to oversee Kulik's career. Last summer she put him on a regimen of cycling, running and weight lifting to bolster his conditioning. In December, Kulik, who has never won a world championship, defeated Stojko and Eldredge in Munich at the Champions Series final.
Stojko's long program last week seemed more labored than usual. Skating to the sound track from the movie The Ghost and the Darkness, he seemed sapped and uninspired. The sport's most explosive jumper, he failed to awe the audience as he so often does. Although a master of the four-revolution jump (he was the first skater to land a quad-triple combination in competition), he couldn't muster the fortitude to show one off in Nagano. Moreover, he was sloppy in landing a triple loop, normally an easy move for him. Stojko had hoped to break the "Canada curse" and win for his country its first gold medal in men's figure skating.
Eldredge too had high hopes of overcoming what seemed like a curse. After falling out of a simple double Axel and finishing 10th at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, he failed even to qualify for a spot at Lillehammer, owing to a bout with the flu. Nagano looked promising. Eldredge ranked third after the short program, but bad luck returned to escort him through the long one. He turned two triple-triple jump combinations into triple-doubles, singled one triple Axel and fell while trying to insert another at the end. Watching the performance, his training partner and friend, gold-medal contender Tara Lipinski, nervously gripped the arm of U.S. pairs skater Jenni Meno. When Eldredge fell, Lipinski covered her eyes in sadness. "Nothing went all that great," he said later. "I'm disappointed. It took me six years to get here. Maybe I wanted the medal too badly."
Eldredge's ill fortune made all the difference for Candeloro, who skated after him in Saturday's lineup to the theme from The Three Musketeers. Skating's flashiest showman, Candeloro, who was laid up with an ankle injury last year, played the swashbuckler with abandon, complete with pretend sword fights. The crowd at the White Ring roared in appreciation. His jumps were high and upright, as they generally are, but his execution was messy.
Prior to Nagano, Eldredge had indicated that he would turn pro after the 1998 world championships. But his disappointing showing last week may compel him to give the Olympics another go in four years. None of the other top finishers have revealed their plans for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. But there will be new faces to watch, particularly America's Michael Weiss, who attempted a quadruple Lutz at Nagano. He failed, but he is still the only person ever to try that jump in competition, and by week's end he had climbed from 11th to 7th place. Yagudin, whose coach said he was running a high fever, placed fifth at Nagano; only 17, he is already a force to contend with. China's Guo Zhengxin, eighth, also seems a potential star. Guo shot for two quadruples in the finals last week and landed one of them impressively.