Meissner ready to take on teenage rivals at worlds

Posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 4:54 pm

The last time Kimmie Meissner competed in the World Figure Skating Championships, hardly anybody expected her to win. Herself included.

Now, she’s the skater to beat. She’s got the title and is working through a solid season that includes her first national championship. And if anybody is wondering about pressure, forget it. She has a message for all those other teenagers on the ice looking to steal her thunder: Bring it on.

“We are definitely bringing the competition to everybody else,” Meissner said Tuesday after her first practice. She will start defending her title on Friday. “It’s going to be very exciting and intense.”

After finishing sixth in the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Meissner took the world championship last year with a flawless free skate that featured seven triple jumps, including two triple-triples.

She won the Four Continents competition in Colorado Springs last month, edging out teammate Emily Hughes. The gold showed some mental toughness that may come in handy here - she went into the free skate at Four Continents in sixth place.

Despite what is expected to be a heavy challenge from South Korea’s Kim Yu-na, who beat both Meissner and Japan’s young star Mao Asada this year and won the Grand Prix final, Meissner still she sees herself as the one to beat. Kim is just 16.

“I’ve been training very well and I feel very ready for the competition,” Meissner said. “My goal is to set my personal best, which I set last year at the worlds.”

Expect some strong jumping.

Meissner, a 17-year-old who trains at the University of Delaware, said her short program will open with a triple lutz-triple toe loop, and in her long program she has two triple-triple combinations: a triple lutz-triple toe loop and a triple flip-triple toe.

But, as all strong jumpers say, Meissner wants to get notice with more than her leaping skills.

“I’ve been working on my spirals, and I think they are better,” she said.

With stars Sasha Cohen and Michelle Kwan out of the picture, Meissner and the 18-year-old Hughes - who was to arrive in Tokyo later Tuesday - have taken on the task of keeping the United States at the forefront of women’s figure skating.

They will be getting a big test here, where they will face a strong Japanese team led by the 16-year-old Asada, 20-year-old Olympian Miki Ando, and Yukari Nakano, another strong jumper.

“There are a lot of good skaters here,” said U.S. team leader Lorrie Parker. “It will depend on who skates when the music comes on.”

Parker noted Meissner’s strength is her technical prowess.

“Kimmie is an excellent technician and her programs are extremely well choreographed,” Parker said. “She turns both directions on one foot very well. What she does looks easy, but it is very difficult.”

Meissner was a surprise winner at worlds in Calgary last year. She went into the free skate in third place, but then shattered her personal best with 129.70 points, including 69.47 points for her technical elements.

It was her first appearance at worlds - she qualified the year before, but, at 15, was too young to compete. Meissner was the first woman to win the title in her initial worlds since Russia’s Oksana Baiul in 1993.

The win prompted a parade in her home town of Bel Air, Md., which also named a street after her. What will they name after Meissner if she takes another world crown?

Associated Press