It was a shame that he couldn't finish what he started at this World Championship. It was his best short program he ever delivered. He definitely should've been there at Nagano to defend his gold medal, too. Still, a remarkable career which I still relive all these years later.
Sadly, this injury would mark the downfall of his career, though he came back in 1998/99, it wasn't the same as he used to be. Same was true of Elvis Stojko in the 1998 Olympics. Though Stojko didn't need to take the year off.
I always thought the judges over-marked Urmanov throughout his career and this was no different. His technical scores were way too even with Eldredge, even though the latter clearly had better spins. While I liked the performance, I didn't think it rated 5.9s almost across the board. Oh well. Too bad he was hurt and couldn't compete in the long. Terrible shame. Would have been interesting to see how he stacked up.
