Dee - You made my day. What great news!!!, and how courageous this guy is. I hope whatever he does is within his limits untile he gets completely back in shape.
I caught Rudy on the Today Show this morning and he looked amazing! Don't ask which jumps he did cause I wasn't paying attention but he did jump. He skated to that John Denver song (can't remember the title) but it was about sunshine on my shoulders. Heck, maybe that's the name.
He told Matt that he was back on the ice 4 weeks after the second replacement. They showed a clip of him practicing and doing a lot of jumps. He looks in very good shape.
I have always loved Rudi's skating, all the way back to when he was in juniors, and skating both pairs and singles. And I suffered through the long years when he was fighting so many problems, and also the tripleaxel. One of my favorite all time skating programs is his Swan Lake at San Jose.
He looked great!!! It was wonderful to see him on the ice again, and to be doing double axels as well...that impressed me, after hearing that Yagudin had more trouble with axels and loops because of the movement in the joint. I think he also hit a triple toe...not sure, but pretty sure he did one triple jump.
Rudy has worked so hard to get back to where he is now. He actually has his triple loop and salchow back as well as the triple toe and double axel, and is working on the triple flip.
In the Reno segment prior to the Rockefeller Center program, he did some triple toe/double toe combinations. He has a ways to go yet, but the progress since his September 30 second surgery is remarkable. He has worked with an excellent physical therapist who knows skating and Rudy's skating. He watched Rudy's surgeries and knew exactly what he was dealing with.
One thing that has been very helpful on the jumps is a harness! That was instrumental with the double axel. Physically, he could do it, but, as Dick Button says, there is that treacherous forward edge that causes trepidation! Especially with two new hips...
Having things go well on the Today segment was significant for Rudy. He has two programs ready to go for Champions On Ice. I guess Tom Collins chooses.
After watching Rudy skate, I was almost in tears. I thought his skate was almost a prayer. He was dressed in his usual Rudy style, a blue body suit , with one shoulder covered while the other was not and even had a few feathers and sequins to boot. The audience was suburb. As Rudy did a couple double axels and a double salchow, the audience cheered but when he did his Galindo spin the audience went crazy. I don't think there is another man who skates that does that spin as good as Rudy does.
Rudy had this smile on his face and the look of Thank you for this second chance to skate. It was wonderful.