Endearing skater hopes humor, big jumps can carry him all the way to Vancouver Olympics

Nothing funny about Bradley’s goals for nationals

SPOKANE, Wash. — Some figure skaters are jumpers. Some are artists.

Ryan Bradley is a showman.

Bradley can entertain crowds like few others, doing playful programs that often have fans laughing out loud. There is a very serious skater beneath all that humor, though, and he’d like nothing more than to show off both at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

“I’m really going for broke this year,” he said. “Without great risk, there’s no great reward.”

Three spots on the Vancouver Olympic team are on the line when the men’s competition begins Friday night with the short program. The final is Sunday.

Bradley’s name isn’t the first mentioned when talk turns to the top U.S. men. His only top-three finish at nationals was in 2007 — the last time they were in Spokane. More on that later — and he was 15th in his only trip to the world championships.

He doesn’t have Evan Lysacek’s speed and passion, or Johnny Weir’s lyrical style, or Jeremy Abbott’s gorgeous interpretation. But he can do the tough tricks, and he can put them in a package that will leave fans — and judges — feeling they more than got their money’s worth.

“It’s just about trying to figure out that line (between artistry and athleticism) and see where you line up with it, and then just making yourself the best version of you that you can,” Bradley said.

For him, it means doing the quad. Three of them, actually. He has one in his short program and two in his free skate, one of the few American men to commit so heavily to the four-revolution jump.

“I wanted something this season to kind of set me apart from some of the other boys that have a jump up on me in the components,” he added, referring to what used to be the artistic mark.

Though the quad has become something of an endangered species the last two seasons because of the way it’s valued, it remains a game-changer. Do it and do it well, and there’s a big payoff. Try it and fail, and it’s going to cost you — big.

Mastering the jump itself isn’t even the biggest challenge to doing it. It’s doing it — and still doing everything else in a program.

“Because it is so difficult, it takes more mental energy. When you put a quad in, that becomes the main focus of the program, at least from the technical standpoint,” said 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Timothy Goebel, aka “The Quad King.” ”But it doesn’t do any good if you do a nice quad and triple axel, and then splat on the easy stuff.”

To help Bradley and training mate Brandon Mroz adjust, Goebel, who used to do three quads in his free skate, spent three days in Colorado Springs, Colo., earlier this month working with them.

His insights were invaluable, Bradley said.

“We just worked on some basics, a little bit of the mental side about trying to wrap your brain around trying to do more than one quad,” he said. “It’s something I feel very comfortable and confident with. But you get really excited and it takes a lot of energy out of you, and you’ve got six other jump boxes to fill right after that.”

Plus footwork and spins and everything else. With so much to do, there would seem to be little time to play to the crowd. For Bradley, though, that part comes naturally.

His free skate is to Baroque chamber music, big, powerful music that doesn’t exactly scream “fun.” Yet Bradley pulls it off, using whimsical gestures, eye contact and body language to transform the program into something that would bring the house down in any ice show.

When he ran through his program at Thursday’s practice, loud laughter filled the arena. One man in particular could be heard chuckling repeatedly, and Bradley grinned when he heard him.

“It’s something in the way I operate,” he said. “When I feel really stressed or feel really nervous or tense, I try to make the crowd laugh just to calm the whole situation down so I feel more comfortable with everything. … I’m not really adding anything to be nervous about with the humor because that’s something that will help me stay calm so I can do these things properly.

“Let’s be real,” he added. “If I don’t hit the jumps, whether it’s funny or not, it’s going to fall flat.”

That sure didn’t happen when nationals were here in 2007. Bradley’s enchanting free skate put him ahead of three-time champion Johnny Weir and gave him the silver medal, and he endeared himself to fans by celebrating with a backflip.

The performance is the highlight of his career — so far.

“Coming off a great competition the last time I was there definitely gives me more confidence. I can’t help but be a little superstitious,” he said. “(But) I don’t want to go back and duplicate what I did. I want to create a new memory for myself. I feel I’m a much better skater than I was the last time we were in Spokane, and I’m ready to show the world and the country that.”