Broadmoor skater Bradley hopes to rediscover pizzazz

Walking through the World Arena parking lot, Ryan Bradley had almost reached his car when a young boy stopped him and flashed some medals from the Broadmoor Open.

"Did you win gold?" Bradley inquired, pausing to chat with the boy for a minute.

As the boy later skipped toward his mother's minivan, his sister asked, "Who's that?" The boy sighed and shook his head, then exclaimed, "Ryan Bradley! He's famous!"

Not everyone has forgotten the once-prominent Broadmoor Skating Club member, and he now competes with a monstrous chip on his shoulder, convinced his celebratory back flips will return for the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Back-to-back less-than-spectacular seasons - Bradley didn't touch the podium at the past two U.S. Championships, costing him berths in the Four Continents Championships and the world championships - drained nearly all the notoriety the former Colorado-Colorado Springs student attained in a runner-up finish at the 2007 nationals.

His energizing, crowd-pleasing programs have lacked punch, save for a silver-medal performance at Skate Canada in November, and if the sport was a popularity contest, he would fall well behind Olympians Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir and a notch below fast-rising stars Jeremy Abbott and Brandon Mroz, also Broadmoor members.

Three months of intense training with his longtime coach, Tom Zakrajsek, makes Bradley believe he could pull the upset at the U.S. Olympic trials in January in Spokane, Wash. The American men have three Olympic spots - the national champion is guaranteed a trip to Vancouver and a U.S. Figure Skating committee will make the other two selections.

If Bradley, 25, stands a shot, he needs to perfect two quadruple jumps and seven triple jumps in a long program featuring European classical music. And he must rediscover the pizzazz that created an instantaneous connection with fans before Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris in October and Skate America in November in Lake Placid, N.Y.

"When you've been doing it as long as I've been doing it, you get a lot of confidence," said Bradley, who took seventh at the 2002 Olympic trials and eighth in 2006. "I feel really good about all the tricks I'm doing. Everything in my program, I did last season. It's just about making everything a little bit easier and a little bit better."

Bradley doesn't plan on changing his unique style. He still wants to involve the crowd, "make everybody watching feel what I'm feeling, invoke emotions from other people because they feel like they're a part of it."

Here's the problem: Bradley thinks some judges consider him a "show skater."

"They've seen my weaknesses, and they've seen my strengths," Bradley said. "They expect my strengths, instead of it being a surprise, which can escalate your marks. ... If they're not taking me seriously, there's something wrong."

For Bradley, there's nothing wrong with being an underdog - a very motivated underdog.

"I'm willing to do more than anyone else in our country," he said. "I've been here the longest. I've had the most pitfalls. I have the most to gain. ... I want to be that name people remember in 20 years."