LOS ANGELES (KRT) — Earning a reputation as The Quad King was not enough, and Timothy Goebel knew it.
No one questioned his technical ability. How could they when few other figure skaters could land a quadruple jump the way he could?
His technical ability made him good, but not great, and not necessarily an Olympic caliber skater. He needed better artistic ability for that.
So with the Olympics 18 months away, Goebel changed coaches in 2000, won last year’s U.S. championship and enters today’s State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships not only with a shot at making the Olympics but also an excellent chance of defending his title.
“At first maybe I did rely almost entirely on my technical strength,” Goebel said. “I still do more than anybody else when it comes to jumping, but I’ve also focused more on my artistry. That’s the only way to narrow the gap.”
Goebel’s not just talking about the gap between him and his fellow U.S. competitors.
He decided to move to El Segundo in 2000 and work with Michelle Kwan’s former coach, Frank Carroll, because he wanted to gain ground on Russians Evgeni Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin, who have won the past four world championships.
Achieving that goal meant injecting more emotion into his program. The results were wins at nationals and Skate America, a second-place finish at the Nations Cup and a bronze at the Grand Prix finals in 2001.
At the age of 21, Goebel is starting to understand that it no longer matters if he was the first American to land a quadruple jump in competition.
He doesn’t have what five-time defending U.S. champion Todd Eldredge and two-time champion Michael Weiss have.
“I may have a technical edge, but Tim and Mike have the edge of being former Olympians and being at this level for a long time,” Goebel said. “No doubt, if the three of us go, we’d be a really strong team.”