Skating

Lysacek to headline Skate America

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Coming off a rapid rise in figure skating last season, Evan Lysacek could be the top American threat for a medal at the Turin Games. Following a stunning third at the 2005 world championships after winning Four Continents and finishing third at nationals, Lysacek leads a strong men's field at Skate America beginning tonight.

"Something I do really like about it is there's a certain amount of strategy involved," Lysacek said of adapting routines to the new points scoring system. "You can go out and plan to get an exact score. Depending on your execution, you can get it.

Lysacek's main competition at Skate America figures to be France's Brian Joubert and American Tim Goebel, who has struggled since winning a bronze medal at the 2002 Olympics.

Goebel's jumping style doesn't fit as well in the points system, but Lysacek likes that the number of jumps isn't as crucial as before.

"For me that's nice because I suffered a really debilitating injury and the doctors said it was because of overuse," Lysacek said. "Now we can spend a lot more time working on footwork and spins and know it's going to good use," Lysacek said.

The women's event lost its two most glamorous names when Michelle Kwan (hip) and Sasha Cohen (left oblique) dropped out because of injuries. Leading the women's field are Elena Sokolova of Russia, Yoshie Onda of Japan and American Emily Hughes, younger sister of Salt Lake City gold medalist Sarah Hughes.

Rising U.S. star ice dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are favored, while Russians Yulia Obertas and Sergey Slavnov, and China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao form the top pairs duos.

[Last modified October 20, 2005, 01:20:19]