Short Program

Sasha Cohen's "Dark Eyes" brightened her chances for a world title yesterday. The U.S. champion and Olympic silver medalist won the short program in the World Figure Skating Championships in Calgary, Alberta. Although she two-footed her triple lutz in a combination jump, the two-time world silver medalist surged past Canada's Joannie Rochette, Japan's Fumie Suguri and fellow American Kimmie Meissner, who trains at the University of Delaware. Emily Hughes fell on her triple lutz, didn't do the required combination, and slipped to eighth.

Olympic champion Kim Yu-na of South Korea is in the lead after the short program at the figure skating world championships in Moscow. Kim scored 65.91 points despite stepping out of her opening triple lutz in her routine. Japan's Miki Ando , the 2007 world champion, is close behind with a 65.58. Russia's Ksenia Makarova is third while U.S. champion Alissa Czisny is fourth. Defending champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada have won the short dance.

The music was "Walking on the Wild Side," something Todd Eldredge has never been inclined to do. Eldredge is the holdout, the one top male figure skater who hasn't tried a quadruple jump in competition. He will stand on his technical and elegant skating skills, but he also prefers to stand on his feet instead of chancing a big-butt landing off some showy, missed quad. And last night, as the 1998 U.S. Figure Skating Championships really began, with a Philly-flavored opening ceremony - that Kate Smith tape was trotted out, and the Rocky theme, too - Eldredge won the short program and took dead aim on winning a fifth national championship.

At 23 in a sport increasingly populated by teenagers, Michelle Kwan knows the music will stop someday soon. She only wishes it hadn't happened during her short program yesterday. The world's top skater was penalized .01 points across the board yesterday after a mixup with her music caused her to skate at least two seconds over the event's limit of 2 minutes, 40 seconds. U.S. Figure Skating quickly filed a protest on Kwan's behalf with the event's referee, seeking a review that might be able to determine whether it was the fault of the timing official or the skater.

Defending national champion Jill Trenary stumbled ever so slightly on the ice of McNichols Arena yesterday, and it now appears that Debi Thomas and Caryn Kadavy will settle the issue of the 1988 championship on the same ice surface here tonight. Thomas won yesterday's short program, which accounts for 20 percent of the final mark, by a very slim margin over Kadavy. Thomas was rated first by five of the nine judges - two of which were actually ties, settled by the higher technical marks for Thomas.

Mirai Nagasu's mouth dropped open when she saw her scores. And that was before she realized she'd knocked off former world champion Kimmie Meissner. "Wait, it's 12 points?" Nagasu asked, her eyes widening when she heard how big a lead she had on Meissner. "Wow. That's exciting. " Get used to it, kid. If the 14-year-old keeps skating like this, there's going to be lots more excitement to come. Nagasu pulled off one of the biggest upsets ever at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships last night in St. Paul, Minn.

Michelle Kwan is sitting pretty in her ice palace. The United States Figure Skating Championships have belonged to her for the last five years. And after her performance in the women's short program last night, they might be hers this year, too. Kwan, 22, looked elegant, confident and content as she skated her way into the lead with a performance that was crisp and clean. She finished ahead of top contenders Sarah Hughes, the reigning Olympic gold medalist, and Sasha Cohen, the woman many considered the favorite heading into the competition.

If you're waiting for Tara Lipinski to fall, forget about it. You want her to stumble, to wobble, to teeter - it's not going to happen. You'd like her to trip or tumble or, geez, to at least stop smiling for a moment. Nope, not this year. Lipinski, the 14-year-old whose head barely bobs above the boards while she skates, a little girl who performed to the music from the film Little Women when she's only read half of the book, didn't make a misstep yesterday afternoon in her short program.

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin can thank another Russian skater for getting them to find success together. The two finished in first after the pairs short program at the World Figure Skating Championships at the MCI Center last night and sit in a solid position heading into tomorrow's champion-deciding free skate. Until 1996, Totmianina and Marinin were singles. But, when Evengi Plushenko came along, Marinin realized that advancing in men's singles was going to be tough.

Michelle Kwan says she wasn't making a statement with her performance last night in the short program at the United States figure skating championships. The three-time world champion says she was just skating. But a statement is what the 20-year-old Kwan made as she unfurled one of her most complete, satisfying routines in recent memory to shrug off a handful of challengers who might have thought she was ripe for the taking. "It's hard when people criticize your jumps and everything," said Kwan.

Olympic champion Kim Yu-na of South Korea is in the lead after the short program at the figure skating world championships in Moscow. Kim scored 65.91 points despite stepping out of her opening triple lutz in her routine. Japan's Miki Ando , the 2007 world champion, is close behind with a 65.58. Russia's Ksenia Makarova is third while U.S. champion Alissa Czisny is fourth. Defending champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada have won the short dance.

VANCOUVER - It was a double-fisted emotional punch that left the Pacific Coliseum crowd gasping with some hybrid of awe, joy and sorrow. Korea's Kim Yu-Na won the gold medal in women's figure skating last night, shattering world records with a historic and near-perfect free skate that brought her to tears and the fans to their feet. Then, after silver medalist Mao Asada's daring but flawed performance, came Canada's tragic heartthrob, Joannie Rochette, the Quebec native whose mother passed away here two days before the short program.

VANCOUVER - "It's going to be a catfight in the long program," Johnny Weir said after completing his short program last night, and incredibly, he's still one of the scratchers. A program long on fun and tainted by only a few small glitches put him within clawing distance of defending gold medalist Evgeni Plushenko heading into tomorrow night's men's final at Pacific Coliseum. Dressed in black with pink trim - "showing man cleavage," he quipped - Weir was near-perfect on a series of triple jumps, but won his marks through his characteristic stylish routine.

VANCOUVER - Johnny Weir stood still and silent at center ice of the Pacific Coliseum last night, both unnatural states for the U.S. Olympian. But soon his music animated the Coatesville native and he was off on the longest short program of his career, trying to atone at these 2010 Winter Olympics for the disappointment he suffered four years ago in Turin, Italy. Weir, 25, a three-time U.S. champion, probably won't manage that. After a solid performance that left him happy but well behind the top three skaters, he will need a lifetime performance in tomorrow's long program to medal.

VANCOUVER - It's a selective process, this Olympic hero thing. We tout Tanith Belbin as an American hope, even though we know full well she came here from Canada for herself. Then we tear into speedskater Shani Davis for his selfish decisions to train alone, not race as part of our relay, denying us what would likely be a medal, maybe even a gold one. "I am a solo entity," Davis asserted last week. "I don't skate for US Speedskating and I have no obligation to them. " Horrible words?

Middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik says he nearly died from an allergic reaction to medication used to treat a staph infection. Pavlik tells the Associated Press that he doesn't remember being admitted to the hospital last month, but that doctors told him "it was pretty serious. " "It was the worst form of reaction you could have," he said. Pavlik had been dealing with a staph infection on his left hand since February. He was supposed to defend his titles against Paul Williams on Dec. 5 at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, but the fight was canceled Wednesday when trainer Jack Loew realized Pavlik still could not make a fist with his injured hand.

Lance Armstrong said he would be back on his bike in days even though his broken collarbone may take eight to 12 weeks to fully mend. The seven-time Tour de France winner must resume training almost immediately if he is to meet his goal of racing in the Giro d'Italia, which begins May 9. Surgeon Doug Elenz of Austin, Texas, inserted a stainless-steel plate and 12 screws to stabilize the broken collarbone yesterday, two days after the 37-year-old...

Evan Lysacek skated better than he has all season, turning in a performance worthy of his stature as winner of the last two U.S. titles. It wasn't good enough, though, because Jeremy Abbott immediately followed with 2 minutes, 40 seconds of skating that underscored his stature as the new star of U.S. men's figure skating. They were the first two skaters on the ice last night in the short program of the U.S. championships, and they made it seem that nearly all 18 skaters who followed would be irrelevant.

While there isn't much about Johnny Weir or Evan Lysacek to suggest boxers, it seems certain that the decision in this afternoon's intriguing men's final at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships will go to the skater who stays on his feet. The narrow, 1.35-point margin by which Weir leads the defending U.S. champion was the result of Lysacek's staggering on a few early jumps in Friday night's short program. In 2007, Weir lost the title when he hit the deck and Lysacek didn't. The two leaders will skate last in the nationally televised final at the Xcel Energy Center.

Regulation 108-2 is just a couple of gray lines in the International Skating Union's rule book, a seemingly insignificant entry that has cast an enormous shadow over the women's competition at these U.S. Figure Skating Championships. It states that skaters must turn 15 by the previous July 1 to compete in the World Championships, a guideline that couldn't possibly have envisioned the current children's crusade in U.S. skating. If after tonight's finale, the surprising women's standings look as they did following Thursday's surprising short programs, two of the top three American finishers won't be traveling to Gothenborg, Sweden, this March.