Four years ago, when Ryan Bradley competed at the world figure skating championships for the first time, hardly anybody in Tokyo cared that he was the national runner-up, that his crowd-pleasing routines had catapulted him to his most productive season.
In the buildup to worlds, Bradley, who just missed a berth in the 2010 Vancouver Games, resumed training with back-to-back world silver medalist Patrick Chan of Canada, and he had "a real balance, where I feel like I'm strong, and I'm way more confident. ... I have one of the hardest programs, and to know that I can do those programs cleanly on a daily basis is a great feeling. It makes me feel like I'm competitive with the best in the world."Putting off worlds - the competition should have been held March 21-26 - gave Bradley, 27, time to perfect a quadruple toe-triple toe combination in a short program that's set to "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," as well as two quads and two triple axels in a long program that's set to a Mozart medley. It also enabled him to tweak the circle step in his long - the beneficiary of practices with his sister, Becky, and Broadmoor coach Tom Zakrajsek.Worlds begin Monday in Moscow, as Broadmoor member Rachael Flatt and Broadmoor pair Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin join Bradley in the event that relocated from Tokyo after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami ravaged Japan. In all, 15 Americans will compete, most notably Grand Prix Final champion Alissa Czisny; Olympic pair Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig; and Olympic ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White.It's a "completely different" outlook for Bradley compared to the 2007 worlds, where he marked a 15th-place finish in the shadow of Lysacek, who took fifth, and Weir, who was eighth. "I went to worlds," Bradley said, "feeling like I was the third man. ... Even if you were ahead of one of them, it didn't matter." The result? "That got in my head," he said."I got really lucky with the way this all panned out," Bradley said about the relocation of worlds, adding it "gave me the opportunity to catch my body up to where my mind was. I can't tell you the gains I've made since nationals. I feel like a much more solid skater."Then the newly crowned national champion, Evan Lysacek was the talk of the town. And never lacking in the flair department, Johnny Weir brought plenty of style to the table.Nationals was the only stop of the season for Bradley, who was contemplating retirement while he traveled the country performing in shows before he beat Richard Dornbush and Ross Miner, the other U.S. men headed to Moscow. A broken right foot that plagued him in an 18th-place finish at the 2010 worlds - he underwent surgery last spring - prevented him from appearing on the Grand Prix circuit, and he wondered if his career was over."They were the two American guys," Bradley recalled. "I was just along for the ride."For more Olympic coverage, visit www.gazette.com/olympics. Check out our Olympics blog at http:// gazetteolympics.freedomblogging.com.Bradley isn't guaranteeing a medal at worlds - accomplished by Lysacek with bronzes in 2005 and 2006 and a gold in 2009 and by Weir with a bronze in 2008. Then again, if you know anything about Bradley, you know he has "kind of always been under the radar," he conceded. "I've never been a favorite going into anything. ... I'm definitely capable of putting up big numbers if I hit my stuff, and I feel more than ever that I can do that."
For more Olympic coverage, visit www.gazette.com/olympics. Check out our Olympics blog at http:// gazetteolympics.freedomblogging.com.
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