International Capsules: Skaters Lysacek, Kim discover obligations, spoils

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Evan Lysacek and Kim Yu-na have discovered that the spoils of being a world champion are matched by the obligations. They’re learning that their own high expectations might not measure up to those placed upon them by outsiders.

And if they’re not careful, that can lead to impatience, stress, even mediocrity.

"I feel a little bit of pressure," says Kim, the 19-year-old South Korean who has revitalized women’s skating with several surpassing performances this year. "My first competition (this season) was even better than the world championships and everyone expects me to do a clean competition. But I try to concentrate on me and my skating."

And when the skating isn’t quite up to her unprecedented levels, as happened when she won Skate America earlier this month?

"Not every skater can achieve what they want every time," Kim says. "I was feeling the expectations from many people and was under pressure from that."

Her coach, Brian Orser, noticed it. Orser knows all about the duress top-level athletes operate under. He won the world crown in 1987, making him the favorite for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. As a Canadian, he was energized by the home-ice advantage, if you will.

He also was stressed out by all the predictions he would become the first man from his nation to win Olympic gold in the sport.

He lost, barely, to American Brian Boitano.

"She recognizes the demands," says Orser, who trains Kim in Toronto. "You can’t be sheltered from them or from all the expectations and that, because it’s only going to be stronger and more of it in Vancouver.

"She takes comfort in knowing I have been through it before. I told her, ‘There’s nothing you are going through that I didn’t go through.’ She takes comfort in that. When I told her that and she understood, I could see her relax."

When Kim is relaxed on the ice, she blows away the competition and rewrites the records. Lysacek isn’t quite so far in front of the men’s field, but he — and Kim — also are recognizing that the world titles each won for the first time in March in Los Angeles can carry them to new heights of achievement. They get a belief that nothing is beyond their reach — particularly when they reach Vancouver.

"I was worried if I would feel all that pressure to be a world champion," Kim admits, "but it was a good chance to get more confidence for me and to make me think (more highly) of myself and my skating."

Ditto, Lysacek says with a wide grin.

"I’m very confident in my own skin and confident in my skating," the two-time U.S. champion says as he comes off a strong Grand Prix series and heads to the Grand Prix final in Tokyo next month as a gold medal favorite. "To win that world title gave me justification for the last 15 years, for everything I have put in, all the hard work and hours of training and dedication.

"As athletes, a lot of us feel maybe we will not get there, get to our goals, and we might have to be satisfied with something less. But to get there, to get what I worked for, it makes you very content."

Content? Which can lead to lethargy or overconfidence?

"Content in what you achieved," Lysacek says, "but then I went back to work and worked even harder than ever. I feel I’m a better athlete mentally and physically than last year. The world championship sort of rejuvenated me."

Unlike Kim, whose first senior worlds was only two years ago and, seemingly, shouldn’t need any rejuvenation at her age, Lysacek has been around though much of this decade. His first nationals as a senior were in 2001, when he finished 12th.

Lysacek chased Evgeni Plushenko, Stephane Lambiel, Jeffrey Buttle and Brian Joubert, all of whom won worlds before he broke through in Los Angeles, his adopted hometown. In a sense, all but Buttle, who’s retired, will be chasing him at Vancouver.

"It gives you a sense that everything you think you are capable of doing is possible," he says. "You also realize you now really are an ambassador for the Olympics, the U.S., and for your sport. You need to make sure you have your priorities straight and don’t get lost in all the stuff going on around (you).

"Yes, you want to represent your sport and your country well and you appreciate being able to talk about it. But you can’t forget how you got there, the training that goes into it, setting a schedule that works best for your skating. That you’re representing your sport and your country is magnified a little when you win the world title. The scrutiny of the world is on you."

Kim likely will feel that scrutiny more than any athlete in Vancouver, certainly more than any skater. She already has tremendous commercial appeal in South Korea, doing advertisements for everything from cars to mobile phones. The biggest crowds at Herb Brooks Arena for Skate America were for the women’s programs, when hundreds of South Koreans filled the stands. Kim was surrounded by cameramen and reporters during all media interview opportunities, her every move chronicled as if, well, this were the Olympics.

It comes with the territory, of course.

"I’m sitting back and seeing how she’s managed it and she understands the importance of it," Orser says. "The attention will always be there and you can’t pretend it will not. So you try to embrace it like a champion."

Five-time U.S. dance champs out of Grand Prix final

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, the reigning Olympic and world silver medalists in ice dance, have withdrawn from next week’s Grand Prix final.

Belbin had surgery Tuesday to treat an infected wisdom tooth and has been advised to avoid strenuous activity for a week. Agosto says the pair is confident it will be ready for the U.S. championships in January.

This is the second straight year Belbin and Agosto have withdrawn from the Grand Prix final. They were forced out last year by Agosto’s back injury, which also kept them out of nationals.

Belbin and Agosto qualified for the Grand Prix final with wins at Skate America and Cup of China.

Sailing

America’s Cup venue spat heading back to court

SAN DIEGO — With just more than two months to go before the America’s Cup is scheduled to start, American challenger BMW Oracle Racing will wrap up sea trials at the end of this week and prepare to ship its monster trimaran overseas.

One rather large detail remains unsettled. The Americans don’t know whether Valencia, Spain, or Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, will be the final port of call for the 90-by-90-foot craft, which features an enormous wing sail and is believed to have sailed at three times the speed of the wind.

That’s because a long, twisting court fight between bickering billionaires isn’t quite finished.

BMW Oracle Racing and its bitter rival, two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland, are scheduled to present oral arguments Wednesday before the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division. The Swiss are appealing a lower court’s ruling on Oct. 27 that Ras al-Khaimah is ineligible to host the best-of-three showdown beginning Feb. 8.

Although the Swiss announced two weeks ago that they’re preparing to race in Valencia, they haven’t given up hope of racing in RAK. They say in court documents that they’ll defend the Cup on the Persian Gulf if they win the appeal.

A ruling from the bench seems unlikely. The teams are hoping for a decision within the next week or two so they can firm up plans for what could be the most extreme racing in the 158-year history of the America’s Cup.

Alinghi’s 90-foot catamaran, Alinghi 5, has been in RAK since late September.

Depending on how the court rules, there could be further appeals. The Americans believe that a 4-1 or 5-0 decision in their favor would almost certainly end the venue spat.

The landlocked Swiss argue that they’re entitled to sail in RAK based on a previous ruling by a now-retired justice. They also say the emirate’s government has committed $120 million toward infrastructure.

The Americans believe Valencia is the proper venue, and were successful in getting New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich to declare that RAK does not comply with the 19th-century Deed of Gift that governs the America’s Cup.

This will be the second time the convoluted fight between American software mogul Larry Ellison and Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli has been before the Appellate Division.

In July 2008, the court sided 3-2 with the Swiss that a Spanish yacht club, not BMW Oracle Racing’s sponsoring club, Golden Gate, was the Challenger of Record. That decision was overturned in April in a unanimous decision by New York’s top court, sending the powerhouse sailing teams on course for a rare head-to-head showdown for the oldest trophy in international sports.

The panel will also hear Alinghi’s appeal of Kornreich’s decision that rudders will be excluded when the boats’ load waterlines are measured. That, too, was a victory for the Americans.

BMW Oracle Racing’s trimaran, known as BOR 90 and soon to be renamed USA, has become quite the attraction on San Diego’s waterfront.

The wing sail, added two weeks ago, towers 190 feet above deck and is about 47 feet longer than the wing on an Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airliner.

The crew sometimes trains on San Diego Bay rather than going out on the Pacific Ocean. The craft accelerates quicker and handles more efficiently with the wing sail than it did when it had a traditional soft sail rig. When the boat hooks into a breeze, the windward and middle hulls silently and effortlessly lift out of the water.

"I mean, you just see the excitement this generates, not just in the sport, but the average person on the water," Australian-born helmsman Jimmy Spithill said. "It’s going to be exciting to see what happens from here on. There are heaps of people checking it out, just interested in it. I reckon that can only help the sport."

The addition of the wing sail has led to an unusual mooring arrangement.

With the old rig, the crew would drop the mainsail and tie up at the wharf. Because the wing sail remains up almost all the time — it’s lowered only for occasional maintenance — the boat is now moored offshore. Members of the sailing and shore teams have set up a watch system, taking turns spending the night on the trimaran.

"It never stops," Spithill said. "It’s almost like a little baby. You can never take your eye off the thing. You can’t leave it on its own."

-- Bernie Wilson

Cycling

Astana cycling team on the brink after new demands

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — The future of Tour de France champion Alberto Contador's Astana team is again in doubt after cycling's ruling body made new demands for financial guarantees.