Word: leaver
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Boitano hands most of the credit to Coach Linda Leaver. When she spotted him at age eight in Sunnyvale, Calif., Leaver was initially struck by how "tiny and adorable" he was. She was most taken, however, by his rapid improvement. "I came home and told my husband that Brian would be a world champion," says Leaver. "It just took a little longer than I thought." After 16 years of working together, Leaver and Boitano hardly need to speak. They simply sense. "It's kind of like one person split in half," he says...
Last month Leaver announced that Boitano would not try the jump for which he is best known, the quadruple toe loop, at the Olympics. Never performed successfully in competition, the quad has become the slippery grail of skating. Boitano practices it daily and hits almost 100% of the time. But in competition, he has thrown it -- and blown it -- four times, most noticeably at the 1987 world championship. Leaver sees little point in risking another disaster when Boitano already has what is considered the most technically difficult program ever and can score 6.0s without the quad. Boitano finds...