As the roar of her Cheyenne Mountain High School classmates still echoes in Rachael Flatt’s head, Colorado’s other figure skating national champion returns to the quiet of his modest apartment in suburban Detroit.
Jeremy Abbott, an Aspen native, may not have Flatt’s tantalizing story lines. Abbott received a couple of B’s in his day. He’s not still attending a public high school. He’s not a cute little girl.
But does he have a better shot at an Olympic medal?
Abbott won’t face nearly the loaded field Flatt does. Instead, he must overcome the stigma of his 11th-place finishes in his last two world championships.
The men’s field has no one dominant skater. Evgeni Plushenko, the defending Olympic and three- time world champion, just won his third European title. However, he didn’t skate competitively from the 2006 Turin Olympics to 2009.
Stephane Lambiel, second to Plushenko at the Olympics and Europeans, is coming off a one-year retirement.
Brian Joubert, France’s three- time European champion, is returning from December foot surgery.
Daisuke Takahashi, a four-time Japanese champion, is coming off knee surgery; and Canada’s Patrick Chan, last year’s worlds runner-up, just switched coaches and will have his country on his shoulders in Vancouver.
The three American men — Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir and Abbott — have legitimate medal shots. Give Lysacek the edge here, however. He has medaled in 27 consecutive international competitions.
While Flatt is going against a murderer’s row of figure skating, she’s as consistent as any skater — male or female — in the world. South Korea’s Kim Yu-na, the defending world and three-time Grand Prix finals champion, is the biggest Olympic favorite since Peggy Fleming in 1968.
Behind Kim are the likes of Mao Asada, the four-time Japanese champion and 2008 world champion, and Miki Ando, who won worlds the year before. That doesn’t include Italy’s Carolina Kostner, the three-time European champion, and Canada’s Joanne Rochette, last year’s worlds runner-up.
One major caveat: In the last two Olympics, Shizuka Arakawa and Sarah Hughes came out of nowhere to win. As Flatt often says, “Ice is slippery.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@
