Word: stojko
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...very originality was a problem. The cabal of skating judges, clacking endlessly about athletes' clothes, musical tastes, hairstyles and breast sizes, looked at this karate kid with the shag and the metal-studded costumes--famously designed and stitched by his mom--and they saw fresh meat. "I was ridiculed," Stojko says. "The judges said they didn't like martial arts. I was told to get in touch with my feminine side. I said, 'Buddy, I don't have a feminine side. I'm not a female...
...Albertville Olympics in 1992 Elvis skated well and finished seventh. At Lillehammer two years later, he skated brilliantly if insolently to music from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. He got silver behind Russia's classically schooled Alexei Urmanov. Says Stojko's coach, Doug Leigh: "We were the only ones who skated a clean long and short program, and we came home with a dog bone...
...judges, Elvis sang Dylan: "Most likely you go your way (and I'll go mine)." "In my skating, the moves are from me," he says. "If I skated like someone else because I was told to, that would be plagiarism." Stojko and Leigh determined to work on speed and footwork while retaining the karate colorations. Redemption came as Elvis vaulted to three world titles with performances of such athleticism that they could not be denied...
While Leigh has tried to pump up the art in Stojko's martial artistry, it's still the extraordinary jumping that sets Elvis apart. When he attempts his quadruple-toe-loop, triple-toe-loop combination, he revs his speed dramatically, launches, spins four times in the 0.77 of a second that he's airborne, lands on one foot with a force four times his weight, then sucks it up and launches again for the toe loop. In practice he routinely bends his blades, and he recently started skating in a boot sporting an outer layer of ballistic nylon, the stuff...
...also gets to indulge his samurai soul thoroughly. The first 45 sec. involve footwork that might have tripped Astaire--it took Elvis a month to master the steps--and represents the champ's latest challenge to the skating world, and to himself. A minute into the Olympic competition, Stojko could be headed for the podium or out the door. But one thing's guaranteed: you'll know that Elvis has been in the building...