Goebel Figures to Battle

PORTLAND, Ore. —  Tim Goebel has overcome back, leg and neck injuries to stay among figure skating’s elite. He wasn’t about to let wounded feelings prevent him from regaining the form that won him an Olympic bronze medal in 2002, the 2001 U.S. championship and two world silver medals.

Goebel, a superb jumper but often wooden performer, said he was “a little surprised” when his coach, Frank Carroll, ended their 4-year-old partnership. But Goebel has rebounded since he stopped training with Carroll at an El Segundo rink to work with Audrey Weisiger at Fairfax, Va., regaining his quadruple jumps and his confidence.

“I have a lot of respect for Frank as a coach, and obviously I know what he’s doing or I wouldn’t have gone there. I had to sort of just accept that,” Goebel said Tuesday after practicing in the Rose Garden in preparation for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

“And also, I really believe that everything happens for a reason. You don’t always like things at the time and you don’t always know it, but I really feel like I’m in a really good, positive training atmosphere and I’m really happy where I’m at training-wise. And I really feel like in a very short period of time I’ve been able to overcome an injury and make some improvements. So it’s been a really, really good start.”

Carroll, who’s coaching seven skaters this week, had a different version of the split but said it was without rancor. Carroll said they had discussed parting “over a period of time” before Goebel’s injury-marred 2003-04 season, but he didn’t want to desert Goebel while the 24-year-old skater struggled with injuries caused by ill-fitting boots and blades.

“There’s a situation where people can like each other, but it’s difficult maybe to work together, or you feel that maybe it’s a situation where you should move on,” Carroll said.

“We’re fine with each other as people, but it got to a point where it was difficult to work together and it probably was not the best environment for him. And so we just decided to call it a day.... I think it was based on intelligence, rather than emotion. It wasn’t like ‘I hate you, get out of my face.’ It was like, ‘I think you would maybe do better with somebody other at this time than me.’ ”

Goebel began the season by winning an invitational event at St. Paul, Minn., and finishing second in the NHK Trophy at Nagoya, Japan.

However, he fell in Nagoya when he stepped on the ice with his skate guards on and suffered injuries he felt after he returned to Los Angeles. He dislocated seven vertebrae, three ribs and his shoulder, keeping him off the ice for more than three weeks and giving him a low profile as the men’s competition begins Thursday.

“In a way, that almost makes my job easier because there’s no expectations,” he said. “I have no expectations externally. Internally, I have my own goals.”

Weisiger, who formerly coached Michael Weiss, is impressed with Goebel’s willingness to learn.

“Every day that I give him a lesson [and] I tell him this has to be better by the next time I work with you, it’s already been worked on,” she said. “He’s a very, very good pupil. That’s the kind of progress I’m happy with.

“I feel his artistry and charisma on the ice is truly developing. He’s beautiful to watch, and I don’t think that really would have been a description of Tim Goebel a few years ago.”

Carroll also had complimentary words for Goebel. “One really great thing about Tim is he is a competitor from hell,” Carroll said. “When the time comes, he’ll go out there and fight tooth and nail. There’s so many kids that get out there and turn to Jell-O.... Timothy is very scrappy. He loves a fight. He’ll go out there and fight to the end to do well.”

In the first senior-level event, defending ice dance champions Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto recorded a perfect 6.0 and earned first-place votes from all nine judges for their compulsory dance. Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov were second, and Tiffany Stiegler and Sergey Magerovskiy were third in only their second competition together. Stiegler, of Manhattan Beach, competed in pairs until last season.

The U.S. can send two dance teams to the World Championships in Moscow in March. The compulsory dance is worth 20% of each couple’s score, and today’s original dance will count for 30%.

“It certainly wasn’t our best skate of the blues,” Belbin said. “We were so excited to see a 6. We never had that and in a compulsory dance.... I don’t know what we can achieve if we do our best.”

Stiegler, 21, won national novice and junior pair titles with her brother, Johnnie. After he injured his back and retired in 2003, she teamed with Bert Cording to finish ninth in the pairs competition at last year’s U.S. championships. Coaches Igor Shpilband and Marina Zoueva invited her to Canton, Mich., to try ice dancing, and she proved a quick study.

“It was amazing,” she said of Tuesday’s performance. “I’ve never had so much fun in my entire life.”

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Christopher Toland of Garden Grove, the 2004 junior men’s champion, and Dennis Phan of Indio, who won medals in two junior Grand Prix events this season, withdrew because of injuries.

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The Schedule

Times for senior-level competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in the Rose Garden at Portland, Ore.:

* Today: 2:15 p.m. -- Original dance; 7:30 p.m. -- Pairs short program.

* Thursday: 3:30 p.m. -- Men’s short program; 7:30 p.m. -- Ladies’ short program.

* Friday: 3:40 p.m. -- Free dance; 7 p.m. -- Pairs free skate.

* Saturday: 11 a.m. -- Men’s free skate; 4 p.m. -- Ladies’ free skate.

* Sunday: 2 p.m. -- Skating exhibition.

TV SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES PACIFIC)

* Thursday: ESPN2 -- 8 to 10 p.m. (pairs short, original dance, men’s/ladies preview).

* Friday: ESPN2 -- 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. (men’s and ladies short programs).

* Saturday: Channel 7 -- 1 to 3 p.m. (free dance, men’s free skate live); 8 to 11 p.m. (pairs free skate, portions of the ladies’ short program, ladies’ free skate live).