If you happen to see Colorado Springs’ Ryan Bradley at the Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs this week, don’t be surprised if he sees you and smiles. He may even say something to you.
While he’s skating.
It’s Bradley’s way. It’s the only way he knows. It’s why his surprising second-place finish at the U.S. nationals two weeks ago not only marked his long-awaited breakthrough but practically stole the show on a night when Evan Lysacek had possibly the greatest long program in American history.
Or did you turn off the TV before Bradley had the crowd in Spokane, Wash., roaring again, then rewarded the fans’ standing ovation with a back flip after the judges’ scores?
“He brings people into his performance,” said skating judge Hal Marron, a family friend for 10 years. “He’s like a guy on a dance floor who says, ‘Come dance with me.”‘
Four years ago, the only place Bradley was going to ask anyone to dance was at a club on dry land in Colorado Springs. He had quit skating. Fed up with his lack of progress – he couldn’t master the quad jump and never finished higher than seventh at nationals – he found it harder to smile on the ice whenever a bad short or bad long program made him cry inside.
At 19, he hung up the skates. He enrolled at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, and the only ice he planned to see was in his soft drink.
The reaction to his decision formed the foundation of his turnaround two weeks ago.
“My parents were really supportive,” said Bradley, who skates his short program tonight and his long Friday afternoon. “They said, ‘Ryan, do what makes you happy. You’ll be a success wherever you go.”‘
Some skating parents would react to this news as if their child had skipped town and joined a biker gang. But the Bradleys are different. They introduced Ryan to skating in St. Joseph, Mo., where Barbara and Douglas skated for recreation.
He showed the kind of promise on which some parents latch their lives. He won the 1999 junior nationals, and the Bradleys moved to Colorado Springs to be closer to coach Tom Zakrajsek. When Bradley up and quit after finishing ninth at the 2003 senior nationals, his parents embraced him like crowds do today.
“If Ryan chose to be successful, that’s great. If not, he’s certainly getting a lot from the sport,” Barbara Bradley said.
His sabbatical lasted all of six months. Zakrajsek diabolically had him help out around the rink and made sure he came in contact with lots of judges critiquing Zakrajsek’s students. Of course, judges love to ask questions.
“They’d go, ‘Oh, Ryan, when are you putting the skates back on?”‘ Bradley said. “By the end of the week I was sick of arguing with them and I was back on the ice the next week.”
As a normal college kid, Bradley no longer saw skating as a job. The smile returned.
The first time he purposely grabbed audiences by the hearts and squeezed came in 2000. At the nationals in Cleveland, Timothy Goebel thrilled his hometown crowd with three quads, unheard of seven years ago. Bradley skated next. He felt like an amateur comic following Robin Williams.
“I was so out of my league,” he said. “What can I do? I took what I had and made light of it. Everything I did was to get a reaction from the crowd. I didn’t want to be the skater who skated after Timmy and everyone gets up and goes to the bathroom.”
So Bradley skated his program, winking at people in the first row, joking with others that he was tiring. He didn’t skate that well, but the crowd exploded.
It won’t be different this week at Four Continents, which begins today at the World Arena. He has skated in front of a home crowd before, but never as a national seniors team member, one going to Tokyo for the world championships in March.
“I’m jacked,” he said. “To be honest, I’m riding a wave from (nationals). I’m having such a blast, I don’t want to let go.”
John Henderson can be reached at 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
