Richard Clement / Reuters

Gold medal winner Evan Lysacek, center, silver medal winner Ryan Bradley, left, and bronze medal winner Johnny Weir pose during the medal ceremony for the men's competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Sunday.

Now that he knows he can skate his program like he did Saturday, though, he’s free to give it more color.

“I can definitely do better performance-wise,” he said.

Weir is possibly the most artistic skater in the world these days. He’s also a very good jumper, and had been working on the quad all season. He was landing them with regularity back home but, plagued by what he described as a “hip-butt” injury, they weren’t quite as consistent during his practices at nationals.

He did enough of them to show he can land it, though, and never thought of not doing it Saturday night.

Skating right after Lysacek, Weir was clearly rattled by the thunderous ovation his rival got and fell short on his attempt at a quad toe, coming down on two feet. The idea is to land it on one foot, but two-footing it is at least better than ending up on his backside.

“I was excited I was able to stand up on the quad,” Weir said. “I fought for every element and I didn’t give up. Even though this wasn’t a great performance, it was better than anything else I’ve done this season.

“Hopefully by Tokyo, I’ll be on the medals stand for worlds.”

The men won’t be the only ones doing some showing off in Tokyo. Kimmie Meissner hopes to get her triple axel consistent enough again to put it in her free skate. Meissner is only the second American woman to land the 3½-revolution jump, doing it at nationals two years ago.

She didn’t need to do it this time around. But she did need an assist from Emily Hughes to win her first national title. Meissner finished third in the free skate, but it was enough to win after Hughes fell on a triple flip.

“Considering it’s in Japan, I don’t think I’m going to be the favorite there,” said Meissner, who’s the reigning world champ. “I’m going to train really hard and get my program to the best it can be so, when I go there, I can really surprise people.”

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