"Ice Castles" featured a "Sports Illustrated" cover story on Lexie, with a full-color cover picture with the caption, "Cinderella Champion?"
It was a fairy tale story of shooting up from absolutely nowhere to national prominence within the space of a few weeks.
Tara Lipinski came up quickly, but she was well known and quite famous before she won her US, World, and Olympic titles.
The closest parallel I could think of would be Caryn Kadavy. Didn't Carlo Fassi see her skating at regionals and suggest that he train with him in Colorado, after which she went on to qualify for Nationals for her first time at the senior level?
Of course, she never went on to become "the one" top US skater, but a world medal is pretty impressive for someone who hadn't been on the national radar at novice and junior levels.
Caryn did indeed redeem herself as a Pro Skater. This makes me think of how figue skating could be elevated from the amateur rankings. (No other sport fixes itself on their amateur counterpart like fs.)
Joe
I remember the "Ice Castles" scene in which the coach followed Lexie to her Iowa town to ask her if she could become her coach.
She asked Lexie's age, and her then-coach, portrayed by Coleen Dewhurst, said, "16". The first coach collected her gloves and started to leave, saying, "Sorry, she's too old." Dewhurst reminded the other coach that figures are only 30 percent of the overall score. And the rest was history, according to the movie.
I watch this movie once a year or so. I would have loved to have seen Lexie overcome her blindness to skate in the Olympics, but I guess that's another movie!
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