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Bradley flirts with fame

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 29, 2007 by SORAYA NADIA McDONALD THE GAZETTE

SPOKANE, Wash. - It had been a long time since Ryan Bradley stood anywhere near a medal stand at the end of a national championship.

In fact, it was 1999, when he won the junior title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. On Saturday in the senior competition of the national championships, The Broadmoor Skating Club member was not about to be left out.

By edging three-time champion Johnny Weir to finish a surprising runner-up to Evan Lysacek, Bradley secured a spot on the U.S. world team.

Bradley, Lysacek and Weir will travel in March to Tokyo to compete in the World Figure Skating Championships. Jeremy Abbott, another Broadmoor skater, finished fourth and is on the alternate team.

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During an emotional embrace with his coach, Tom Zakrajsek, after the competition, Bradley said, "I knew you were going to worlds (with Abbott), and I wanted to go with you."

For part of 2004 and much of 2005, Bradley was hampered by injuries: a meniscus tear in his knee, a broken arm and a broken foot. He started to question if he belonged on the ice.

Unlike Weir and Lysacek, who have reputations as serious, classical skaters, Bradley's style is more engaging. He loves to flirt with the crowds, shaking his hips and grinning as he performs. But he needed to perfect his technical elements if he was going to move into the top three.

"We wanted to tone down the program this year," Bradley said. "Go for skating skills, go for high components, kind of control things and not be out there and not skate for the crowd and instead just for the judges and the points.... But I threw that to the wind and started having fun and got caught up in the moment. I didn't want to leave. They had to yank me off the ice."

After receiving his free skate scores Saturday night, Bradley skated back onto the ice and did a backflip. The astonished crowd at Spokane Arena roared, reveling with Bradley in his celebration.

Rachael Flatt, of The Broadmoor Skating Club, finished fifth in the senior women's competition, which might have cost her a spot on the U.S. junior world team. Flatt, 14, is too young to compete internationally on the senior level. Athletes must turn 16 by July 1 of the preceding year of the world championships. However, athletes between the ages of 13 and 19 on the same date can compete on the junior circuit.

Flatt was named an alternate for the junior world team. The selection committee weighs results from the current and previous year, but recent results count more, said Zakrajsek, also Flatt's coach. Flatt finished runner-up last year in the junior competition at the national championships.

"Does it bother me? Sure," Zakrajsek said. "I'm disappointed, Rachael's disappointed, but when you're comparing seniors to juniors it's not always clear and that's what happens."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-4807 or soraya.mcdonald@gazette.com

Bradley flirts with fame

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 29, 2007 by SORAYA NADIA McDONALD THE GAZETTE

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