21. Kulik Performs 'best' For Olympic Figure Skating Gold France s philippe candeloro, ever popular with the female crowd in Japan despite a The figure skating competition continues Sunday with the ice dancing http://www.shinmai.co.jp/oly-eng/19980214/0004.htm

February 14, 1998 Programs Competitions Venues Access ... Shinano Mainichi Kulik performs 'best' for Olympic figure skating gold Ilia Kulik of Russia (White-Ring, Nagano City) 19:00- Start Ilia Kulik of Russia pulled off the best free program of the season Saturday night to claim an overwhelming victory in the Nagano Olympic men's figure skating competition. ''It was truly the best skating. I'm proud I'm the Olympic champion,'' said Kulik, who nailed a quadruple jump in one of the few error-free performances of the night at the White Ring ice arena in southern Nagano. The 20-year-old Moscow native, up first in the last group of skaters, opened his free program with a quad toe loop and reeled off eight triples, including one pair in combination and another in sequence, to earn first place votes from all nine judges. Kulik, who also led after Thursday's short program, received seven 5.9s and two 5.8s out of a possible 6.0 points for presentation while scoring between 5.9s and 5.7s for technical merit. The world silver medalist in 1996 was one of two skaters who performed a four-revolution jump Saturday night.

22. Kulik Sets Standard In Men's Short In Figure Skating skating Saturday while the compulsories of the ice dance competition beginFriday. philippe candeloro, France 2.5. 6. Steven Cousins, Britain 3.0 http://www.shinmai.co.jp/oly-eng/19980212/0004.htm

February 12, 1998 Programs Competitions Venues Access ... Shinano Mainichi Kulik sets standard in men's short in figure skating Ilia Kulik (White-Ring, Nagano City) 19:00- Start Ilia Kulik of Russia conjured up a magical performance Thursday, taking the lead after the short program of the Olympic men's figure skating competition in Nagano. The 20-year-old Moscow native, who sat out the European championships last month due to a back injury, opened his routine with a clean triple axel-triple toe loop combination and went on to complete a flawless performance at the White Ring ice arena. Kulik, winner of the ISU Champions Series Final held in Germany last December, set the standard early as he skated sixth out of 29 competitors and held onto the lead as reigning world champion Elvis Stojko of Canada and the other medal hopefuls followed. After nailing the triple lutz and double axel and spinning and stepping to the rhythm of ''Revolution,'' Kulik received five 5.9s and four 5.8s out of a possible 6.0 points for presentation while scoring 5.7s and 5.8s for required elements. Five of the nine judges gave the Russian first-place votes while the rest were split between Stojko and American Todd Eldredge.

23. Fran And Deb's Olympic Adventure As Todd took the ice for his free skate, several members of the audience philippe candeloro Steven Cousins. And the skating order of the top six for the http://www.debwalsh.com/toddehome/olympic.html

February 6-15, 1998 Nagano, Japan Reported by Deb Walsh and Fran Buhman Friday, 2/6/98 Friday, 2/13/98 Sunday, 2/15/98 Home ... Internet Triple Challenge 1999-2000 Sunday, February 15, 1998 Nagano, Japan Okay, we might as well start off with the bad news. Todd did not deliver the gold-medal winning performance we'd hoped for, and after all the dust had settled, he came in fourth. Like another of our favorite skaters, Kurt Browning, Olympic fortune does not appear to smile on Todd. When we were riding back to our hotel, we were able to see the beginning of Todd's skate again on the NHK TV, and it confirmed our belief that something had been missing - that look of steely determination and total focus that had characterized his fabulous 1996 Worlds Free Skate wasn't there. For ourselves, there was a sense of unreality about it all - we couldn't possibly be at the Olympics - the Olympics is something you watch on TV, not from incredibly good seats live in the arena! From Fran's perspective, the beginning of Todd's free skate did not look great. In fact, when what should have been the opening triple axel/triple toe turned into a triple axel/double toe, she knew he was already in deep, deep trouble. Fran at that point went into a state of shock, somewhat akin to watching an approaching train wreck. It was strictly downhill from there. Next came a triple flip/double toe that should have been a triple flip/triple toe (a combination he rarely misses), followed by a triple sal that was landed, but sure wasn't pretty in the air. By the time the popped triple axel occurred, followed by the fall on the second attempt, she wasn't even particularly surprised. It was simply the final impact of the crash, with nothing left to do but to ascertain the full extent of the damage.

24. WORLD FIGURE SKATING BACK ISSUES VOL. 6-10 WORLD FIGURE skating No.6. philippe candeloro Japan tour 2001. philippe candeloro /Surya Bonaly. Sparkassen Cup on ice. Evgeni Plushenko / Timothy Goebel http://www.shinshokan.co.jp/abr/worldfigure/wfsback_6-10.html

No.6 Published : 15/12/2001 No.6 Front Cover : Alexei Yagudin Back Cover : Fumie Suguri M.Sugawara WORLD FIGURE SKATING No.6 PHILIPPE CANDELORO Japan tour 2001 Philippe Candeloro / Surya Bonaly Sparkassen Cup on Ice Skate Canada 2001 News, Event schedule and Results No.7 Published : 5/4/2002 No.7 Front Cover : Takeshi Honda Back Cover : Fumie Suguri M.Sugawara Japan Sports WORLD FIGURE SKATING No.7 SALT LAKE OLYMPICS 2002 Grand Prix Final / American Open / Russian Championships U.S.Championships / Japan Championships News, Event schedule and Results No.8 Published : 5/10/2002 No.8 Front Cover : Alexei Yagudin Back Cover : Yoshie Onda M.Sugawara Japan Sports WORLD FIGURE SKATING No.8 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2002 in Nagano, Japan Victor Kraatz / Sasha Cohen / Viktoria Volchkova / Jeffery Buttle / Frank Carroll Alexei Yagudin : A Story Alexander Abt Philippe Candeloro Stars on Ice / Champions on Ice / Prince Ice World NEW GENERATION Daisuke Takahashi / Miki Ando No.9 Published : 15/12/2002 No.9

25. Photosport ® | Stock Photos - Figure Skating Photos37-54 Women s Figure skating Photos sdst0104.tif philippe candeloro. sdst0105.tif Starson ice, Jan 1999. sdst0106.tif Stars on ice, Jan 1999. http://www.photosport.com/figureskating/fswomen03.htm

Women's Figure Skating Photos Registered users: Click on thumbnail to view full size. Captions down below. No password? Click here . Registration is free to the industry. Photos 37-54 Captions: tara0117.tif Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinsky, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. tara0118.tif Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinsky, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. tara0119.tif Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinsky, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. tara0120.tif Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinsky, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. tara0121.tif Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinsky, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. tara0122.tif Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinsky, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. tony0102.tif Olympic competitor Tonya Kwiatkowski, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. tony0101.tif Olympic competitor Tonya Kwiatkowski, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. nico0107.tif Olympic competitor Nicole Bobek, Champions on Ice, San Diego, 7-5-98. kwan0102.tif

26. Reminiscences Again, I was so very much blown away by his effortless moving on the ice, I think Ilia was skating in the first group, right after philippe candeloro. http://www.kuliks-krew.com/Europeans95_files/Reminiscences.shtml

Memories of Ilia at Dortmund... From Jiang Lu-Chengdu, China I know many Krew members began to watch Ilia’s skating since 1995 when he won the Europeans and have followed him for many years. I’m a new fan, so when I understood that this year is Ilia’s 10 th Anniversary of winning Europeans, I felt incredible. Ten years is such a long time and even now Ilia is still very young. A month ago I just saw Ilia’s skating tapes for the first time. Thanks to the enthusiastic Krew members, without your help maybe I would never have seen Ilia’s presentation in 1995’s Europeans. It’s such an enjoyable experience to watch Ilia skating "Rigoletto" and "An American In Paris." They have mature themes and they are very tough for a 17-year-old boy to interpret. "Rigoletto" is especially difficult, and Ilia’s presentation amazed me. This 17-year-old guy seemed so young and tender, and the opera’s theme was tragic. It’s a risk to choose this piece of music ("Women Are Fickle"), but Ilia was so clever to find the most suitable way to interpret it. He turned this music into playing himself and got away from the effort of portraying a dissolute duke. In fact Ilia is not a born performer as are Candeloro or Plushenko. He has an introverted style; sometimes it’s more emotional to see that he hid the passion inside. I can still see the youthful vigor sprung from his body, lively and strong. It had more personality, he made the program an innocent feeling, not because he misunderstood the theme of the operait’s very suitable for his age. He was so pure, every movement just came from his heart without any affectation. He never overacted his character. He had that innocent “power” to give the music a new meaning. From Rigoletto, I saw a little prince in fairy tale jumped out from the book, just like a dream.

27. Gay Pioneers On Ice -- Outsports.com Once upon a time, ice skating seemed to have no problems with image or sexual So did philippe candeloro s MelGibson-hero programs, complete with http://www.outsports.com/history/skatingpioneers.htm

Sports and gay athletes and sports fans: information on jocks, sports news and more. We encompass the sporting passions of gay and lesbian sports fans everywhere. Get news and post your opinion. History Visit the Outsports Store Sport Sections Baseball Basketball NFL College F'ball ... More Interact Clubhouse Polls Local Sections View Member Profiles Local Events Local News Features Community Outreach Featured Articles From The Wire Making A Difference ... Week In Review For the Eyes Locker Rooms Picture This Other Sections About Outsports Entertainment Gay Sports News Olympics ... E-mail Outsports.com Gay Pioneers on Ice By Patricia Nell Warren Special to Outsports.com

28. Ice-Sk8.com - Discover Figure Skating Accessories And Figure Skating Dresses Her At iceSk8.com we offer figure skating accessories and figure skating dressesand boots. philippe candeloro Donald Jackson movies Kristi Yamaguchi http://www.ice-sk8.com/links.htm

Where Do You Want To Go? Home Page About Us Pro Shop NEW Additions Accessories Dresses Tights Boots Blades Jewelry Collectibles Pants-Warmups Fleece Outfits Men's Den Services Specials How To Info Skating News Skating Links Newsletter Contact - Map Site Map Home About Us Pro Shop How To ... Newsletter My.Ice-Sk8 Email Login Password New sign up's Click Here To Take The LE Skaters Poll Tons of Skating Links Here are some quality figure skating links to check out. We are very confident that you will find tons of info on skating, competitions, skaters, fan clubs and more. We will be adding to this list as we find them but if you have any suggestions please let us know in our comments/guest book and we will be happy to list them too! Look for these to find the latest additions! Information Sites Personal Fan Amateur Sites Personal Fan Professional Sites Skating Club/Section or Rink Websites ... Competition Announcement Websites Information Sites Skating Club, Regional or Rink Sites

29. Figure Skating - MavicaNET candeloro, philippe Gallery English Famous french ice skater. Biography,photo archives, competition results, programs and music, news. http://www.mavicanet.com/directory/eng/9826.html

selCatSelAlt="Deselect category"; selCatDesAlt="Select category"; selSitSelAlt="Deselect site"; selSitDesAlt="Select site"; MavicaNET - Multilingual Search Catalog MavicaNet Lite - Light version Catalog Belarusian Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finnish French German Greek Hungarian Icelandic Irish Italian Latvian Lithuanian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian (cyr.) Serbian (lat.) Slovak Spanish Swedish Turkish Ukrainian Culture Arts Performing (Public) Arts Dancing ... Kinds of Sports Figure Skating Sites Sister categories ... Adventure Racing Aerosport Alpine Skiing Alpinism and Mountain Climbing Animal Fighting Archery Automotive Sports Badminton Bandy Baseball and Softball Basketball Beach Volleyball Biathlon Billiards Boating Body Building Boomerang Bowling Camel Racing Canoe and Kayaking Checkers Chess Cockroach Racing Cricket Croquet Curling Cycling Darts Dog Racing Dogsledding Equestrian Sport Field Hockey Fitness Football (American) Football (Australian) Frisbee Futsal Gliders Golf Gymnastics Handball Hang and Paragliding Hurling and Gaelic Football Hustle Ice Hockey Inline Skating Karting Korfball Lacrosse Lizard Racing Motorcycle Racing Mountain Bike Mountainboarding Orienteering Paintball Pig Racing Pinball Polo Powerlifting Racing Pigeons Racquetball Rodeo Rowing Rugball Rugby Sailing Sandboarding Shooting Shopping: Skating Shuffleboard Skateboarding Skiing Skin-diving Skunk Racing Skydiving Sledding Snowboarding Snowmobiling Soccer Speed Skating Sport Combats Sport Dance Sport Fishing Sport Speleology Squash Surfing Swimming and Diving Table Tennis

30. 1999 Champions On Ice Tour After her was Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharudlidze, skating to The Impossible And philippe candeloro and Surya Bonaly did back flips together, http://www.icechampions.com/me/99coinreview.html

31. Spotlight On Skating The Canadian skating Scene. Championships on ice Review of the Summer Tour. Looking Back philippe candeloro · Bin Yao is Building the Great Wall of http://www.spotlightonskating.com/index.php?p=back_order

32. Olympic - Olympic Sports 1994: Skating On Ice - Figure, Individual - Men The olympic games final results of Lillehammer 1994, skating on ice Figure . 3, candeloro philippe FRA - France http://www.olympic.it/english/event/id_79772/year_1994

ITALIANO SPORT Alpine skiing Alpine skiing - Freestyle Alpine skiing - Snowboard Archery Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketball Beach Volleyball Biathlon Bobsled Boxing Canoa / Kayak - Slalom Canoe / Kayak - Sprint Croquet Curling Cycling - Mountain Bike Cycling - Road race Cycling - Track Diving Equestrian Fencing Football Gymnastics - Artistic Gymnastics - Rhythmic Gymnastics - Trampoline Handball Hockey Ice Hockey Judo Lacrosse Luge Modern Pentathlon Nordic skiing Polo Rackets Roque Rowing Rugby Sailing Shooting Shooting Skating on ice - Figure Skating on ice - Short track Skating on ice - Speed Skeleton Softball Swimming Synchronized Swimming Table Tennis Taekwondo Tennis Trapshooting Triathlon Volleyball Water Polo Weightlifting Wrestling Wrestling - Freestyle Wrestling - Greco-Roman SUMMER GAMES Berlin 1936 London 1948 Helsinki 1952 Melbourne 1956 Rome 1960 Tokyo 1964 Mexico City 1968 Munich 1972 Montreal 1976 Moscow 1980 Los Angeles 1984 Seoul 1988 Barcelona 1992 Atlanta 1996 Sydney 2000 Athen 2004 Beijing 2008 London 2012 WINTER GAMES Chamonix 1924 St. Moritz 1928 Lake Placid 1932 Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 St. Moritz 1948

33. Olympic - Olympic Sports 1998: Skating On Ice - Figure, Individual - Men The olympic games final results of Nagano 1998, skating on ice Figure. 3,candeloro philippe FRA - France 4,5. 23, VIADANA GILBERTO ITA - Italy http://www.olympic.it/english/event/id_79772/year_1998

ITALIANO SPORT Alpine skiing Alpine skiing - Freestyle Alpine skiing - Snowboard Archery Athletics Badminton Baseball Basketball Beach Volleyball Biathlon Bobsled Boxing Canoa / Kayak - Slalom Canoe / Kayak - Sprint Croquet Curling Cycling - Mountain Bike Cycling - Road race Cycling - Track Diving Equestrian Fencing Football Gymnastics - Artistic Gymnastics - Rhythmic Gymnastics - Trampoline Handball Hockey Ice Hockey Judo Lacrosse Luge Modern Pentathlon Nordic skiing Polo Rackets Roque Rowing Rugby Sailing Shooting Shooting Skating on ice - Figure Skating on ice - Short track Skating on ice - Speed Skeleton Softball Swimming Synchronized Swimming Table Tennis Taekwondo Tennis Trapshooting Triathlon Volleyball Water Polo Weightlifting Wrestling Wrestling - Freestyle Wrestling - Greco-Roman SUMMER GAMES Berlin 1936 London 1948 Helsinki 1952 Melbourne 1956 Rome 1960 Tokyo 1964 Mexico City 1968 Munich 1972 Montreal 1976 Moscow 1980 Los Angeles 1984 Seoul 1988 Barcelona 1992 Atlanta 1996 Sydney 2000 Athen 2004 Beijing 2008 London 2012 WINTER GAMES Chamonix 1924 St. Moritz 1928 Lake Placid 1932 Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 St. Moritz 1948

34. 726 Manually Selected Ice Skating Resources philippe candeloro Gallery Chait, Galit and Sakhnovski, Sergei Olympic Iceskating Centre skating Clubs and Rinks Canada Barrie skating Club http://www.cbel.be/ice_skating/

35. Figure Skating -- Facts, Info, And Encyclopedia Article Figure skating is an (skating on ice) ice skating sporting event where philippe candeloro Steven Cousins (Click link for more info and facts about Robin http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/f/fi/figure_skating.htm

Figure skating [Categories: Figure skating] Figure skating is an (Skating on ice) ice skating sporting event where individuals, mixed couples, or groups perform spins, jumps, and other "moves" on the ice, often to music. There are international competitions for figure skating, such as the (Click link for more info and facts about World Championships) World Championships , and figure skating is also an official event in the (An olympics for winter sports) Winter Olympics . In languages other than English, figure skating is usually referred to by a name that translates as "artistic skating". The sport is closely associated with show business, such as "spectaculars" where performers skate unjudged, and the crowd pleasing routines at the end of competition held at many tournaments. Many skaters both during and after their competitive careers also skate in ice-skating exhibitions. Equipment Figure skates differ from (A game played on an ice rink by two opposing teams of 6 skaters each who try to knock a flat round puck into the opponents' goal with hockey sticks) hockey skates most visibly in having a set of large, jagged teeth called

36. Arts Gallery On the eve of the Chornobyl 15th Anniversary, Ukrainian iceskating champion French sensation philippe candeloro and US Silver Medalist Sasha Cohen in http://www.artukraine.com/chornobyl/viktkids.htm

Arts Gallery back PETRENKO SKATES IN "VIKTORY FOR KIDS" Viktor Petrenko Ukrainian Ice-Skating Champion, Benefit Performance for the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund International Figure Skating Center of Connecticut The Viktor Petrenko Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is Created in Petrenko's Hometown of Odessa, Ukraine The Spiritual leaders of the Viktor for Kids: Viktor Petrenko and Brian Boitano greet guests at the VIP Reception following the skating program Photo by Joseph Sywenkyj Simsbury, CT, March 2001.......On the eve of the Chornobyl 15th Anniversary, Ukrainian ice-skating champion Viktor Petrenko invited his friends from the international skating community to help him raise public awareness and funds to help some of the thousands of children who are still being affected by the world's worst nuclear disaster. On March 2d and 3d, at the International Skating Center of Connecticut, Petrenko headlined an all-star cast that included American champion Brian Boitano, French sensation Philippe Candeloro and US Silver Medalist Sasha Cohen in "Viktory for Kids", a two-night benefit performance for the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF). Proceeds from the sold-out event will be earmarked for the creation of the Viktor Petrenko Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Petrenko's hometown of Odessa. In an extensive interview with the Hartford Courant and USA Today, Petrenko explained his motivation for organizing this unique benefit performance for CCRF. "I received a lot from my city to get where I am today.That's where I grew up.That's where I learned to skate.Now this is my chance to pay them back." Petrenko described the many people he had seen in Odessa who had survived Chornobyl, only to be stricken with cancer or to see their children stricken with birth defects.

37. 3/25/96 INT/SPORT THE ICE AGE COMETH THE ice AGE COMETH. With a commercial spin, figure skating soars in popularity France s philippe candeloro and Surya Bonaly, along with members of the http://www.time.com/time/international/1996/960325/sport.html

TIME International March 25, 1996 Volume 147, No. 13 Return to Contents page THE ICE AGE COMETH With a commercial spin, figure skating soars in popularity to become the athletic world's most entrancing divertissement EMILY MITCHELL After the rivalry between 1994 American Olympic hopefuls Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan took several nasty turns, a beguiling orphan from Ukraine set matters right by winning the women's solo gold medal in fairy-tale fashion. In the two years since that night in Lillehammer, Oksana Baiul has blossomed into a lovely young woman of striking grace and considerable wealthshe is a millionairewhile the sport she rescued has become the most desirable divertissement of the athletic world. Since October, not a week has passed in the U.S. without a televised exhibition or official competition on ice, and only the armored gladiators of American professional football attract a larger audience than skating's blithe spirits in spandex and sequins. The 1996 World Championships taking place in Edmonton, Canada, this week only underline that allure. The eight-day competition will reach 167 million viewers in 45 countries. Many of the Edmonton skaters were on hand in St. Petersburg last month to celebrate competitive figure skating's centenary in the city where, in February 1896, four European men competed in the first world championship. The televised Centennial on Ice was seen live and on rerun around the world. What is skating's big appeal? "The kids watch it, the grandparents watch it, the mum watches it, the dad watches it,'' says Doug Leigh, coach of two-time world champion Elvis Stojko of Canada. "It's about as well-rounded family entertainment as you're going to get.''

38. CNNSI.com - 2002 Winter Olympics - Almanac - 2002 Sports Almanac: Olympics - Mon Figure skating, Freestyle Skiing, - ice Hockey men, - ice Hockey women philippe candeloro, France. WOMEN. 1. Tara Lipinski, United States http://www.cnnsi.com/olympics/2002/almanac/figureskating.html

WINTER OLYMPICS - SI Almanac main page - History of locations and dates ALLTIME MEDAL WINNERS - Nations - Individuals: overall - Individuals: gold WINTER GAMES: NAGANO 1998 - Alping Skiing - Biathlon - Bobsled - Curling - Figure Skating - Freestyle Skiing - Ice Hockey - Luge - Nordic Skiing - Snowboarding - Speedskating ALLTIME GAMES CHAMPIONS - Alpine Skiing - Biathlon: men - Biathlon: women - Bobsled - Curling - Figure Skating - Freestyle Skiing - Ice Hockey: men - Ice Hockey: women - Luge: men - Luge: women - Nordic Skiing: men - Nordic Skiing: women - Snowboarding - Speed Skating FIGURE SKATING MEN 1. Ilia Kulik, Russia 2. Elvis Stojko, Canada 3. Philippe Candeloro, France WOMEN 1. Tara Lipinski, United States 2. Michelle Kwan, United States 3. Lu Chen, China PAIRS ICE DANCING FREESTYLE SKIING: MEN MOGULS Jonny Moseley, United States Janne Lahtela, Finland Sami Mustonen, Finland AERIALS Eric Bergoust, United States Sebastien Foucras, France Dmitri Dashchinsky, Belarus FREESTYLE SKIING: WOMEN MOGULS Tae Satoya, Japan Tatjana Mittermayer, Germany Kari Traa, Norway

39. Figure Skating - Definition Of Figure Skating In Encyclopedia Figure skating is an ice skating sporting event where individuals, mixed couples, Brian Boitano Kurt Browning Dick Button philippe candeloro http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Figure_skating

Add to Favorites General Encyclopedia Legal ... Law forum Search Word: Visit our Law forums Labor Law Accidents Law Bankruptcy Law Business Law ... Tax Law Figure skating is an ice skating sporting event where individuals, mixed couples, or groups perform spins, jumps, and other "moves" on the ice, often to music. There are international competitions for figure skating, such as the World Championships , and figure skating is also an official event in the Winter Olympics . In languages other than English, figure skating is usually referred to by a name that translates as "artistic skating". The sport is closely associated with show business, such as "spectaculars" where performers skate unjudged, and the crowd pleasing routines at the end of competition held at many tournaments. Many skaters both during and after their competitive careers also skate in ice-skating exhibitions. Contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Equipment 2 Disciplines 3 Jumps 4 Spins ... 9 External links: Equipment Figure skates differ from hockey skates most visibly in having a set of large, jagged teeth called toe picks (also known as "toe rakes") on the front of the blade. The toe picks are used primarily in jumping.

40. SALON Features: The Skater's Shmaltz, Page 2 In pairs skating and ice dancing, scantily clad couples win medals for pantomiming It s France s philippe candeloro skating barechested to Springsteen. http://archive.salon.com/10/features/ice2.html

The Skater's Schmaltz, page 2 Y ou know that media canard about Tonya and Nancy's tawdry saga being responsible for America's current obsession with figure skating? Forget it. Americans have had a major thing for skating since Peggy Fleming (Grace Kelly on blades) became an overnight TV sensation during the 1968 Winter Olympics. It just took TV a while to notice. The skating specials that have become big weekend ratings draws for the networks (skating is now the number-two-rated TV sport, behind football) often seem like one long ABC Sports "Up Close and Personal" feature, with the skating sandwiched between dewy video bios of the stars, who always seem to be staring pensively at snow-covered trees or gliding in slow-mo to something by John Tesh. TV's approach to skating is all melodrama and fan-magazine adoration. And, in many ways, it's just what the sport deserves. The arcane, subjective judging criteria, which seem to heavily favor attractiveness (the babes on blades factor) and good manners, are a throwback to the days of Hollywood's studio system, where stars had to be on their best behavior or they'd be back ushering at the Bijou. Serious skating also requires huge sacrifices (time, relationships, money) on the part of skaters and their families, which provides heart- tugging backstories that play well in prime-time. Skaters wear costumes, rather than uniforms; they use taped musical accompaniment that's more lyrical and swoony than your basic ballpark "We Will Rock You." In pairs skating and ice dancing, scantily clad couples win medals for pantomiming the forbidden dance. Figure skating is as close to entertainment as sport gets. And it was inevitable that TV and skating would one day realize that there was a vast audience for skating, anytime, any season, and it didn't seem to matter if there were no titles at stake or if the program tilted more toward entertainment than sport.

Page 2     21-40 of 99    Back | 1  | 2  | 3  | 4  | 5  | Next 20