Tim Goebel, the “Quad King,” is still keen on figure skating, knowledgeable and opinionated.
It’s been 12 years since he thrilled the home crowd in Salt Lake City, throwing three quadruple jumps in his free skate en route to a bronze medal.
Goebel graduated from Columbia University after he retired in 2006, worked for Nielsen, the ratings company, and is now back in New York City keeping busy on and off the ice.
OlympicTalk recently caught up with Goebel to reflect on his career and the current state of figure skating.
OlympicTalk: What are you doing now?
Goebel: I’m working for an ad agency called MEC, doing consumer analysis. I moved back to New York City in August.
I’m still coaching a little bit, still trying to stay involved in skating. I definitely want to give back to the sport however I can. It did so much to enrich my life. I’m trying to pass that along to the next generation.
OlympicTalk: What did you think of the men’s competition in Sochi?
Goebel: I think with the new format, the team event coming first, I think everyone was at a disadvantage with not having a day off between the short and the long programs. As the performances showed, especially with the men, that’s really critical. No matter how well prepared the athletes are, you need the mental recovery of the day off in between, especially when so many of the top people did the team event first.
I like the idea of the team event, but I think the way it was executed [coming before the individual events] was not necessarily the best for the athletes.
OlympicTalk: Who was your favorite skater to compete against?
Goebel: [Aleksey] Yagudin and [Yevgeny] Plushenko. Really, for the year before Salt Lake City and then into the Olympic year, we were always pretty much grouped right at the top. It was exciting because we pushed each other to be better.
It’s been 12 years since Salt Lake City and people are just now starting to do at the Olympics what we did in 2002. It took a long time for the next generation to implement the quads into the new judging system.
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OlympicTalk: What impresses you the most about Plushenko?
Goebel: The most amazing thing about him is he has been near the top of the sport for so long. It’s really remarkable that he was able to come back and train and compete at 31. There’s no way I could see myself physically be able to train like that. No one from our group would even consider it. Me and Yagudin, there was no way we were coming back.
To be doing the really hard technical stuff for that long is kind of a miracle. I can’t believe he can still do that.
OlympicTalk: Did you ever have thoughts about coming back after you retired in 2006?
Goebel: None at all. When I retired, I knew going into 2006 it was going to be my last competitive season, whatever happened. As much as I really loved competing and loved skating, I knew it was time to go on and do something else. I had always wanted to go back to school. I didn’t want to delay that any longer. I wanted to go and have a normal life, so to speak, after skating.
OlympicTalk: What changes would you like to see in the sport between now and the next Olympics?
Goebel: The biggest thing is the transparency in the judging. I think the anonymous judging -- good, bad or indifferent -- there’s a perception that there’s something happening behind the scenes. I think transparency is paramount if people are not going to constantly question the results.
Even in Sochi, with the Russian girl [Adelina Sotnikova] winning. Immediately, it was a scandal because it was in Russia, and she hadn’t had the best international season.