In the long range view of figure skating, defending his crown at the Grand Prix Final won’t make or break Jeremy Abbott’s year.
But how he performs Friday and Saturday in Tokyo may lead to the biggest year of his life. The Aspen native is the defending national figure skating champion and has a good shot at making the U.S. Olympic team.
The Grand Prix Final is his final step in preparation before the Nationals in January that will determine the Olympic team.
“It’s important because I’ll be competing against Evan (Lysacek) and Johnny (Weir),” Abbott said of the defending world champion and three-time U.S. champion, respectively. “That’s my biggest competition. This is kind of a good setup for that. Obviously, what happens here has nothing to do with what happens at Nationals.”
At the Nationals, Jan. 15-17 in Spokane, Wash., Abbott will have to perform in the clutch to grab one of the three spots. He’s come through under pressure before. He won the Nationals last January in Cleveland and had to win Skate Canada last month to make the Grand Prix Final. He landed a quad that has become a regular part of his program.
“Looking at it, it was a positive either way,” Abbott said. “If I make the Final, it’s a great chance to compete again and practice competing. And if not, I have a great opportunity to come home and put all my effort into training for Nationals.”
After a disappointing performance at the World Championships, where he finished 11th, Abbott dropped his coach, Tom Zakrajsek, and his Colorado Springs training base for Yuka Sato and Farmington Hills, Mich.
Under Sato, he has incorporated the quad, a risky proposition considering the large penalty skaters get for not landing it. However, the reward is high, too.
“I feel good about it,” Abbott said. “In training it’s going real well. It wasn’t very consistent last season. I wasn’t very confident. My choice was to skate a clean program and show that I can be consistent.”
Besides the three Americans, the other three competitors in Tokyo are the Czech Republic’s Tomas Verner, fourth at Worlds; Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, a three-time national champion; and Nobunari Oda, Japan’s defending national champion.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
