Figure Skating - Part E - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

(Based on the book, “Winter Olympics:  An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, the Lore, and the Games”, Vancouver Edition, copyright 2008 by Ron C. Judd)

HISTORY’S HITS AND MISSES:

Figure skating rates as the oldest Winter Olympics competition because, as a medal sport, it actually predates the Winter Olympics themselves.  The sport was included in the Summer Games of 1908 and 1920 before settling into its wintry confines at Chamonix, France, in 1924.

In the early years, skating, like all other ice sports, was done outside.  That made weather conditions – soft spots caused by sun exposure, a sheen of snow on the ice, and ever-present wind conditions – a major player in competitions.  Early U.S. medalists Dick Button and Tenley Albright tell of the constant fear of having a meticulously trained-for program dashed by Mother Nature at the last second.  It added an extra element to competition that modern skaters don’t have to worry about.  On the other hand, Olympic figure skating will never again have that charming feel you can get skating outside in the fresh air in the shadow of snow-capped mountains in some quaint Bavarian village.  Now, it’s all mega-arena, all the time.

Skating’s First Superstar:

Sonya Henie’s Olympic debut – as a precocious 11-year-old at Chamonix in 1924 – was only the first stride in an Olympic skating career that has yet to be equaled.  Norway’s Henie (1912-1969) went on to become the only woman to win the ladies’ title three consecutive times:  St. Moritz in 1928, Lake Placid in 1932, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936.

Along the way, figure skating’s first international starlet also won an unequaled ten straight world titles and later became a Hollywood star in the United States, memorably appearing in Thin Ice (1937) and Sun Valley Serenade (1941) while starring in popular ice shows.

To date, no other woman has claimed three medals in ladies’ singles, let along three golds.  You can see one of her skating costumes – and marvel at the sheer "dinkiness" of it – at the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Notable First Leaps:

The Axel jump separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls.  It’s tough to master and difficult to land in competition.  The first Axel jump was performed by – surprise – a man named Axel Paulsen, who first completed it, oddly enough, wearing long-bladed speed skates, not figure skates.

Dick Button was credited with the first double Axel in competition, at the 1948 Winter Games in St. Moritz.  Five years later, U.S. teammate Carol Heiss became the first woman to land a double Axel in competition.  The triple Axel came 30 years down the road:  Canada’s Vern Taylor landed the first one in competition at the 1978 World Championships.

The women’s triple Axel has remained highly elusive.  Japan’s Midori Ito landed the first, in 1988, and repeated the feat at the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville.   America’s Tonya Harding landed one at the U.S. championships in 1991 and remained the only U.S. woman to do so until young Kimmie Meissner completed the feat at the 2005 U.S. championships in Portland, Oregon.  The same year, one of Meissner’s expected chief competitors in Vancouver, Japan’s Mao Asada, landed two in a single program at the Japanese championships.

In pairs skating, America’s Rena Inoue and John Baldwin landed a throw triple Axel at the 2006 U.S. championships.  They repeated the feat at the Turin Winter Games, becoming the first pair to land one in Olympic competition.

Tonya, Triple Axels, and Tire Irons:

Nobody did less for the image, but more for the notoriety of figure skating than Tonya Harding, the unlikely Olympian from suburban Portland, Oregon, who became the first U.S. woman to land a triple Axel in competition.

In her heyday, Harding was locked in a heated rivalry with fellow skater Nancy Kerrigan – who had to withdraw from the 1994 U.S. championships after she was whacked across the knee with a metal rod wielded by an assailant.  Harding went on to win the Nationals – just as planned as it turned out, when the plot unraveled and Harding was accused of conspiring with her husband, Jeff Gillooly, to arrange the hit on Kerrigan.

Harding was allowed to compete at the Winter Games in Lillehammer, but self-destructed on the ice.  Kerrigan, who was granted the second U.S. spot, memorably rose to the occasion for a silver medal.  Both were outskated by Oksana Baiul of the Ukraine.

Harding had waiting for her at home a ban for life from U.S. figure skating and went on to a career as a professional boxer.  Ironically, the long-running scandal did for U.S. figure skating what no amount of athletic prowess had ever been able to do:  make it dinner-table conversation, causing TV ratings to soar for years.  Only recently has the soap-opera quality injected into the sport’s image by Tonya Harding begun to fade.  Doesn’t she have a younger sister?

copyright 2014, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.