If the hole on Jeremy Abbott’s résumé were a hole in the ice, he’d fall right through.
Aspen’s three-time U.S. figure skating champion has had massive success domestically and fine results abroad. But when it comes to the world championships, he’s still trying to keep his footing.
He placed 11th in 2008 and 2009, then fifth in a watered-down 2010 when Olympic gold and silver medalists Evan Lysacek and Evgeni Plushenko didn’t compete.
It’s 2012, and Abbott said this will be different. He feels different. When he takes to the ice for his entertaining short program Friday in Nice, France, he will concentrate on the ice, not the sand outside.
For a change.
“I have to say this is the first time I’ve ever been to a world championships when I haven’t been planning on my vacation,” Abbott said recently from his training base in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “Usually at this point, I’m so exhausted I just want to lay on a beach.
“But I feel good. I feel strong. I have a lot left in me.”
Ironically, he can thank a disastrous end to his 2011 season. He crashed and burned at nationals, finishing fourth, and missed the U.S. world team. Instead of stressing over another world championships, he took his spare time to retool his programs, train and, yes, go to a beach. The added training and rest has produced one of his best seasons. He won the Cup of China in November, went all Kentucky Wildcats in trashing the field at nationals, and this month took second to former world champion Brian Joubert at the International Challenge Cup in The Hague, Netherlands.
After finishing ninth at the 2010 Olympics, Abbott didn’t know if he’d last until the Sochi Games in 2014. The recent success has all but confirmed he will chase another Olympics.
“I think so,” he said. “I’ve been saying since Vancouver, ‘One step at a time.’ But it’s going pretty quickly. I’d love to be in another Olympics. I’d like to say I’m in. I’m still saying, ‘One year at a time.’ But I am setting my sights on Sochi.”
A good result this weekend will provide a nice push. His first podium won’t be easy, and he may add a quad to his short program. Plushenko, a three-time world champion and 2006 Olympic gold medalist, won his seventh European title but won’t compete after knee surgery.
However, the man to beat will be defending champion Patrick Chan, who trains at the World Arena in Colorado Springs.
“Recently he’s set himself in his own level as far as judging goes,” Abbott said. “If I put down two of my best programs against two of Patrick’s best, I think we’re at the same level.”
Other podium contenders include Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, the Olympic bronze medalist; countryman Takahiko Kozuka, second last year; Russia’s Artur Gachinski, second at Europeans; and Joubert, who has won four international competitions in an up-and-down season.
