Elvis is still in the building. One year after hitting rock bottom, Canadian figure skater Elvis Stojko may even be able to rock the house a couple more times.
The man with two Olympic silver medals and three world titles seemed washed up last season as he slogged into 10th place at the world meet in his own country. He has won only one of his last 16 international competitions. Few gave him a chance, at 29, to add another Olympic medal to a resume noteworthy both for its longevity and its achievement.
But Stojko has arrived at the 2002 Olympics after a stunning show at last month’s Canadian championships, where he landed a quad-triple combination for the first time since 1997 while winning a sixth straight national title.
That comeback impressed six-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge, at 30 the oldest of 29 entrants in a men’s competition that begins with Tuesday’s short program.
“It is great to see him stick it through and persevere through a difficult time in his skating,” Eldredge said. “I have the utmost respect for him.”
Longtime rivals Eldredge and Stojko likely are battling for a bronze medal here, with the top two spots all but conceded to Russians Evgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin.
Like the Elvis he was named for, Stojko also is called the King. In his case, it meant king of the quadruple jump. He was the first person to land a quad-double combination, in 1991, and a quad-triple, in 1997.
Stojko, who turns 30 in a month, has battled injuries in recent years. He hopes to make one more dramatic impact on the sport in his final Olympics by becoming the first man to land a quadruple lutz in competition.
Stojko has returned to the past for programs emphasizing the athleticism that has distinguished his skating. He will use his 1998 Olympic short program, to Japanese drum music, and an updated version of the 1994 long program, to music from a movie by the late martial-arts star, Bruce Lee.
“I look different, my style is different, everything is different,” he said. “I like being that.”