The Waitress & the Truck Driver

Calla Urbanski and Rocky Marvel won US titles and represented the United States in the 1992 Winter Olympics. The media played up this pair to the hilt - the working-class "waitress and the truck driver". They trained in Newark, Delaware, about an hour's drive from my home. Rocky grew up in Brick Township, NJ, about ten miles south of here. The local media gave this pair saturation coverage at the 1992 Olympics - coverage that was well deserved, as they were the US national champions, and they were successful against the odds - she being employed full-time as a waitress, and he operating his own trucking business.

There were no silver spoons in this pair's place settings. They were hard working, middle-class young people who bucked the system and won. They were classic examples that hard work, indeed, pays off.

Of course, truth to be told, they were way, way out of their league at the Olympics. They missed their side-by-side double axels in their short program, and their long program was marred by several mistakes. Still, they skated at the Olympics, a feat that is a real accomplishment for any pairs team.

It seemed to me that the USFSA never really embraced Urbanski and Marval as the country's national pairs champions. IMHO, there's just enough of an element of snobbery in the figure skating world to stand back a bit from a pair who support themselves as -- good Heavens -- a waitress and a truck driver! How blue collar can you get, right?

Calla also had a rather blunt persona in her interviews, and she spoke her mind. Sometimes she wasn't exactly as, well, "classy" as she probably should have been. When describing their 1992 Olympic long program, which had been marred with a few errors, she said, on television, "It was a piece of ----".

SkateFan4Life said:

It seemed to me that the USFSA never really embraced Urbanski and Marval as the country's national pairs champions. IMHO, there's just enough of an element of snobbery in the figure skating world to stand back a bit from a pair who support themselves as -- good Heavens -- a waitress and a truck driver!

Click to expand...

I think this was reflected in the roommate assignments in Albertville -- Rocky got stuck with Party Boy Christopher Bowman and Calla got stuck with Tonya Harding. As a USFSA official said, "We figured either Tonya would kill Calla, or Calla would kill Tonya, and we really didn't care either way."

I thought they were terrific at the 92 Nats and I really saw Olympic medal potential there. Shame they couldn't get along well enough long enough at a stretch to really jell as a team.....

JonnyCoop said:

I think this was reflected in the roommate assignments in Albertville -- Rocky got stuck with Party Boy Christopher Bowman and Calla got stuck with Tonya Harding. As a USFSA official said, "We figured either Tonya would kill Calla, or Calla would kill Tonya, and we really didn't care either way."

I thought they were terrific at the 92 Nats and I really saw Olympic medal potential there. Shame they couldn't get along well enough long enough at a stretch to really jell as a team.....

Click to expand...

Would you care to identify the USFSA official who made the statement concerning the room assignment of Urbanski and Harding? Good heavens!!

I certainly agree with you that Calla and Rocky had potential, but they simply never did jell as a pairs team. They came across - to me at least - as two very strong-willed people who really did not particularly like each other. There just wasn't much in the way of harmony in that pair, and it was probably for the best that they parted ways.

The name of the official was not given, but the quote was in "Inside Edge" by Christine Brennan, who just listed whoever said it as "a US skating official". But really, if you made a comment like that, would you want YOUR name attached to it if it showed up in a book someplace? Especially given the type of people that Ms. Harding was associating with at the time.....

JonnyCoop said:

The name of the official was not given, but the quote was in "Inside Edge" by Christine Brennan, who just listed whoever said it as "a US skating official". But really, if you made a comment like that, would you want YOUR name attached to it if it showed up in a book someplace? Especially given the type of people that Ms. Harding was associating with at the time.....

Click to expand...

Well, I certainly would not want my name associated with that type of comment; however, if I was an executive with the USFSA and I heard that a comment of that type had been made - especially in light of what happened in 1994 - I would absolutely insist on knowing the source. That official would probably no longer be a figure skating official, if I had anything to do about it. :scowl:

My point is - USFSA officials are supposed to support all members of the US team, not just their favorites. !

JonnyCoop said:

The name of the official was not given, but the quote was in "Inside Edge" by Christine Brennan, who just listed whoever said it as "a US skating official". But really, if you made a comment like that, would you want YOUR name attached to it if it showed up in a book someplace? Especially given the type of people that Ms. Harding was associating with at the time.....

Click to expand...

I think that is pretty low of Brennan to include this ridiculous and alleged comment in her book. She probably just made it up. :sheesh:

RealtorGal said:

I think that is pretty low of Brennan to include this ridiculous and alleged comment in her book. She probably just made it up. :sheesh:

Click to expand...

Good point. Then, if I was an USFSA official, I would also contact Brennan and demand to know the source of this comment. If, in fact, Brennan made up the quote, she might find herself dealing with some legal issues. Tabloid journalism is the lowest kind of communcation, in my view. :scowl: