U S Figure Skating Championships

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are all dressed up with no place to go, at least as far as the 2006 Winter Olympics are concerned. Belbin and Agosto have soared toward the top of the international ice dance standings after winning two Grand Prix events and a silver medal at the Grand Prix Final this season. They're prohibitive favorites to win their second successive U.S. championship, but they can't represent the U.S. at the Turin Games because Canadian-born Belbin isn't scheduled to get her U.S.

The Christopher Bowman Story. Take 217. Once more our hero creates a storm, finds the eye and calmly skates through it. Turbulence? What turbulence? One day after drug rumors linked to the former child actor from Van Nuys reached a crescendo, causing the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. to release a statement in his support, Bowman moved into position for his second national championship and a berth in next month's Winter Olympics at Albertville, France, by winning the men's original program.

For Christopher Bowman, it was the most difficult question he has ever tried to answer. "How would you characterize your relationship with Frank Carroll?" he was asked during a news conference Thursday, the day before the men's competition began in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Target Center. His eyes welled with tears. He tried to speak, but the words would not come. Finally, he buried his face in his hands and cried. Even for the U.S. Figure Skating Assn.

For years, Americans lagged behind in the space race, unable to match the anti-gravitational feats of their Canadian and European counterparts. Again and again, they failed to join the four-revolution revolution that had swept the sport of men's figure skating, the physics-defying quadruple jump--or, in the shorthand parlance of the awed, "the quad."

It's time to get serious, real serious, for Jill Trenary. Trenary, the 1987 national champion, barely missed a medal at the Calgary Olympics, finishing fourth. With all three medalists gone professional, Trenary not only is the top-rated American woman figure skater, but in line for the world championship, as well. This week, Trenary goes after her second crown in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships--she also finished second to Debi Thomas in the 1988 nationals and was fifth in the worlds.

It's an exaggeration to say 17-year-old Sasha Cohen has tried more quadruple jumps than 30-year-old Todd Eldredge, newly crowned men's U.S. champion. But not by much. At these U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Staples Center, it has been the women who have skated with more guts and more authority and who proved again why women's figure skating rules the Winter Olympics. Until Thursday afternoon, the enormousness of the occasion (the U.S.

Bebe Liang of Granada Hills added a dash of drama to the women's competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships with a short program that showcased her power and dizzying spins. Johnny Weir added a dash of controversy to the men's event by being himself. Liang ranked a strong third behind favorite Sasha Cohen of Corona del Mar and Emily Hughes of Great Neck, N.Y., shaking up the scramble for the three women's spots at the Turin Olympics. Cohen, a four-time U.S. runner-up, earned 65.

It is now a rite of January: Athletes of both genders are brought together for a major athletic competition in which the women overshadow the men in everything from charisma to Q ratings to number of Web site hits, although the men have taken the lead when it comes to outlandish costuming. But we'll have more about the Australian Open in next week's editions. You may have read how Pete Sampras dumped his agent, then rehired him, all within a matter of hours.

Figure skating without figures. Women's singles, pairs and dance competitions without defending champions. Christopher Bowman without Frank Carroll. Rarely has the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. experienced as much change as it has in the last year. Not even the officers were immune. The USFSA president, Dr. Franklin Nelson, left his practice in Tulsa, Okla., last spring to accept a position aboard a Navy hospital ship berthed in Oakland. Now, he and the Mercy are in the Persian Gulf.