Inouye & Baldwin Call It Quits

Out in Style: A pioneering pair signal the end of their competitive careers.

Rena Inoue and John Baldwin sure know how to make an exit.

The two-time U.S. champions and 2006 Olympians landed their signature throw triple axel and had one of their best performances in what sounded like their last competition. Inoue and Baldwin finished third overall, just missing the Olympic team. They are the first alternates for the Vancouver Games.

“I don’t think I could ask any better than we did tonight,” Inoue said. “I started crying after we finished the program because of all the things we’ve been through in our career and me myself, everything just came to my head. I just cannot find one thing that I can do any better than we did tonight.

“I’m very lucky we can leave the sport this way.”

Inoue and Baldwin didn’t make anything official, but they opted not to go to Four Continents and are not listed as alternates for the world team.

“No complaints and absolutely no regrets,” Baldwin said.

Inoue and Baldwin helped push the technical envelope in pairs skating in their decade together, becoming the first team in the world to land the throw triple axel. What makes the jump so hard is it is actually 3½ revolutions because the takeoff is from a forward, outside edge.

No one else has landed it in official International Skating Union competition.

Inoue and Baldwin, who are engaged, won the U.S. title in 2004 and again in ’06. They were seventh at the Turin Olympics and had their best result at worlds that year, too, finishing fourth. Inoue also represented her native Japan at the 1992 and 1994 Olympics.

“The way we skated tonight, this is exactly the way I envisioned leaving the sport,” she said. “This is the kind of performance we wanted to do at the very end of our career. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

1/16/2010 10:05 PM NANCY ARMOUR, AP National Writer SPOKANE, Wash.