For once, figure skating short on drama

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Kimmie Meissner is the reigning world champion, but she’s far from a household name. Only 17, she hasn’t had much time to get noticed, especially with Kwan and Cohen in front of her. She went to the ESPYs last year and made other appearances, but her face isn’t plastered in magazine ads like Kwan, Cohen and even Yamaguchi.

“I don’t try to think about being the face of figure skating,” Meissner said. “Last year really was my first year as a full-fledged senior. Everything came on really suddenly.”

Beyond Meissner, the Q ratings drop even further. Emily Hughes’ notoriety comes from other people; she replaced the injured Kwan in Turin, and is the younger sister of 2002 champion Sarah Hughes. Alissa Czisny and Katy Taylor are incredibly talented, but incredibly inconsistent.

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The problem isn’t unique to American skating, either. Russia, which won three of the four golds in Turin, didn’t have anyone in the men’s or women’s competition at last month’s Grand Prix final, and had only one team in pairs.

Canada’s Jeff Buttle won a bronze in Turin, but doesn’t have anything close to the name recognition Elvis Stojko and Kurt Browning had. No one in Europe is making much noise.

“It’s always changing after an Olympic year,” Kwan said in Beijing, where she traveled this week as part of her new career as a diplomat. “It’s a whole new crop. But there’s Kimmie Meissner, who’s the world champion. So you can’t say there is nobody.”

The good news is help appears to be on the horizon. A lot of it, too.

Meissner plans to stick around through the Vancouver Games in 2010, plenty of time to grow into a star. She’s got a triple axel in her repertoire of tricks, and her presence on the ice will only improve with time and experience. Cohen has said her break is only temporary, and she’ll be back for the 2009 world championships in Los Angeles and the Vancouver Olympics.

Look out for Caroline Zhang, a junior who’s been routing the competition this year. She won both of her Grand Prix events, and led a 1-2-3-4 American finish at the junior Grand Prix final.

The Americans swept all four titles at that event, a first by any country, and took nine of the 12 medals. There’s even depth in junior pairs, a virtual wasteland for the United States the last five years.

“I’m not concerned about the sport,” said longtime coach John Nicks, who worked with Cohen. “We might have a slight down time right now, but with the depth in our country and the strength of the juniors ... possibly you might have more of a problem immediately than you have in the future.

“Having a down cycle the year after the Olympics isn’t a bad time to have it,” he added. “The three years coming will give a chance to these younger seniors and juniors coming up to prepare for 2010. In that way, I think we’re in very good shape.”

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