Spokane, Wash. – As rivalries go, figure skating’s Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek don’t rank up there with the Red Sox-Yankees, Michigan-Ohio State or even cobra-mongoose. But Weir admits their mutual cordiality off the ice doesn’t translate on the ice.
“At competitions, we’re not friends,” Weir said Thursday afternoon after he and Lysacek, as expected, distanced themselves from the pack after the short program of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
“I have my objective; he has his objective. That’s healthy. I wouldn’t want to have friends sitting next to me in the locker room talking about ‘American Idol’ and curling each other’s hair.”
The nation’s two best male skaters proved it with superb short programs with major doubts hanging over both.
Lysacek, battling a Comeback Kid rap for great long programs making up for shoddy short performances, scored a 78.99 to take the lead.
Weir, the three-time defending champion who is fighting through a tender “hip-butt” and a subpar season, skated almost as clean a program, scoring 78.14 heading into Saturday’s finals.
Colorado Springs resident Ryan Bradley, 23, who has never finished higher than sixth at senior nationals, is third at 73.58, 5.02 ahead of Parker Pennington.
In the women’s short program, world champion and heavy favorite Kimmie Meissner led with a 65.69, and fellow Olympian Emily Hughes is in third at 62.32. Beatrisa Liang is in second at 62.66. Rachael Flatt of Cheyenne Mountain High School is sixth at 56.51.
Weir and Lysacek punctuated their performances with rare outbursts of exuberance. Lysacek, 21, balled his fists and held his head as he did a victory lap around the ice. Weir, 22, formed a fist and muttered through a clenched jaw “a bad word in Russian.”
For Lysacek, Weir hasn’t been his only demon at nationals. Lysacek’s short program often falls, well, short. He was third after last year’s short program before rallying for second and stood 10th after his short at the Olympics, then overcame the flu for fourth.
Thursday, in this eastern Washington city going gaga over skating, Lysacek never faltered. He flawlessly hit a triple axel, then a triple lutz-triple toe combination and a triple flip. His score topped his previous personal best of 73 from the 2005 World Championships.
“It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders,” Lysacek said. “That was kind of what my goal was, to show any critics that have criticized my short-program skating, that watch out. When I’m really well-trained and well-prepared and want to win something, nothing can stop me.”
If Bradley holds third, he will make his first trip to the World Championships, March 19-25 in Tokyo.
In the women’s competition, Meissner, 17, marks a new era, with defending champ Sasha Cohen, 22, taking the year off and nine-time champion Michelle Kwan, 26, attending the University of Denver and nearing retirement.
“It’s really different because there is no national champion here,” Meissner said. “It’s up in the air. That’s why this year is really going to be exciting to see what happens Saturday.”
Meissner will have to fall on her face to lose, which is why she’s not going to do the triple axel. Along with Tonya Harding, Meissner is the only American woman who has landed the 3 1/2-revolution jump, but she hasn’t perfected it yet. She said she lands it about three out of five in practice.
That’s not good enough for nationals.
“I’m really trying to gear them up for worlds,” Meissner said. “When it goes in, sometimes it really affects the rest of the program, whether I land it or miss it. It’s weird. It alters the whole thing.”
In junior pairs, Jessica Rose Paetsch and Jon Nuss of Broadmoor Skate Club placed third to qualify for the junior worlds in Oberstdorf, Germany, next month.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
