LOS ANGELES — There once was a time — oh, say, for 60 years or so, give or take a decade — that the U.S. ladies champion was the face of American figure skating.
From Tenley Albright to Peggy Fleming to Dorothy Hamill to Michelle Kwan, the red, white and blue torch was passed from manicured fingernails to Lycra-gloved hand.
Today, if Alissa Czisny walked down the streets of Colorado Springs, she may not get recognized unless she walked into USOC headquarters.
Who’s Czisny? She’s your American ladies figure skating champion.
If the name barely rings a dull gong, let alone a bell, you understand the state of ladies figure skating in this country. Eleven months from the Vancouver Olympics, and the torch of American skating will be held by a hairy-knuckled gent who drives a truck.
Evan Lysacek, 23, has emerged as America’s best hope for Vancouver. With Rachael Flatt of Colorado Springs and Czisny finishing Saturday’s long program at the world championships fifth and 11th, respectively, the U.S. will field only two women in the Olympics for only the second time since 1924.
The international ladies field is loaded and barring an upset akin to Chaminade over Virginia, a U.S. woman will not win an Olympic medal for the first time in 46 years.
On the other hand, Lysacek’s world title is the first by an American man since Todd Eldredge in 1996. In Vancouver, Lysacek will have the eyes of a nation expecting him to become the first American man since Brian Boitano in 1988 to win Olympic gold.
How do we know this? All Lysacek did Thursday night was win gold in the glaring spotlight of friends and family in his adopted hometown. And on one leg.
For the last 5 1/2 months, Lysacek has trained with a foot injury. Two weeks before worlds, he learned he had a stress fracture in his left toe, his takeoff foot. He didn’t do a quad jump because he played it safe. He didn’t do a quad jump because he couldn’t.
“My coach, Frank (Carroll), knows I overtrain, so he used it to limit what I was doing,” Lysacek said.
By the time you read this, Lysacek may already have an operation scheduled. He’ll be in a cast for four weeks. Then, he said, “I’ll be good as new.”
It will be good enough to do a quad. Assuming he makes the team, he’ll probably do the quad in Vancouver. He has done one in every competition but here, and this was his first major international title.
It was the second straight year a man won a world title without a quad. His long program was nearly flawless, landing eight triple jumps. So why risk a quad in Vancouver? Well, no skater has won gold without a quad since Russia’s Alexei Urmanov in 1994.
“I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary,” Carroll said. “But he can do a quad beautifully, so why would he not do it?”
Also, there will be no tougher-minded skater in Vancouver. Patrick Chan, the silver medalist here, will be in his first Olympics and will have the home-ice pressure. France’s Brian Joubert flopped to a world bronze and has yet to show consistency.
No skater can top Lysacek’s exploits at the Turin Olympics, when he overcame the stomach flu (“I thought I was going to die”) to climb to fourth place.
“I learned as much as I could,” Lysacek said of Turin. “I was a sponge. I soaked up so much about body language and warm-up techniques. Now I feel like I’ve gained so much knowledge in my career. Now I go into Vancouver with the knowledge in my corner.”
Who will join him in Vancouver is wide open. Of the Colorado Springs skaters, U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott finished only 11th here, and Brandon Mroz, who took ninth, is still only 18 and must hope Johnny Weir, the three-time American champion, doesn’t have another lousy nationals.
“My season’s going to start a lot later,” Abbott said. “I started in June last year so I’ve been competing for almost a full season. I’m just exhausted.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
