agnes zawadzki reminds me of Tonya Harding | Page 4 | Golden Skate

agnes zawadzki reminds me of Tonya Harding

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Are you actually serious right now? I hope and pray that you did not see RISE because what you are suggesting right now is blasphemous to the memory of the 1961 team. The whole reason the memorial fund was established was so that young skaters could receive the financial support they need to achieve their dreams in a very expensive sport. If, as you say, talented kids who don't have the money should not be able to skate, we would have no Tanith Belbin, Evan Lysacek, Michelle Kwan, Peggy Fleming, Scott Hamilton, or Johnny Weir, as they were all supported by the memorial fund.
I have not looked into the financial aspects of the memorial fund, but I know from my experiences with Development, that funds collected first go to salaries of development organizers, rental of space, food, etc., before money is divided up to those in need. The question is what percentage of money goes to the recipients?

Very often ShowBiz personalities will sign up to make an appearance at a Fund Raiser but on the condition that they get first class transportation, hotel bookings and meals.

I think Weiss' Foundation, the percentages is close to 100 per cent.
 

Nadine

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
Another interesting post, Joesitz, and right on the money when it comes to most fund raisers, which is why one needs to read the small print.

Regards the Memorial Fund, I found the following: http://www.usfigureskating.org/content.asp?menu=donate&id=125#howtogive

I still can't find an exact breakdown of percentages when it comes to the Memorial Fund. Btw, the above link also provides other ways to donate.

Regards the Michael Weiss Foundation, this is what I found: http://www.michaelweiss.org/mission.htm
http://www.michaelweiss.org/donation.htm
http://www.michaelweiss.org/2010winners.htm

And in regards to the young lady named in this thread, Agnes Zawadzki, here is a wonderful link that states clearly & concisely how one's donation will be used, 100% goes to the skater named in your donation: http://figureskatersonline.com/agneszawadzki/sponsor.htm

Alas, I finally found the post from Agnes's Fan Club President over on IN wherein she too talks about how to donate in Agnes's name (need to copy & paste in a new browser): http://web.IN.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110121&content_id=16475174&vkey=ice_news

***Note: the IN part of the link needs to be replaced with the real name in order to go through***

Personally, I have to be honest, I prefer donating by going to the website of the skater I wish to donate to, then using PayPal. Yebin Mok's old website used to have this option.

Here's to the American Constitution, the less the government is involved the better, power of the people, liberty! :thumbsup:

p.s. and lol I can't help but mention one of my all-time favorite figure skater ever, Evgeni Plushenko, whom will be opening his own Children's Figure Skating School in St. Petersburg, Russia, this coming March!!!!! http://evgeni-plushenko.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6&p=47144#p47144 :party:

I feel Zhenya will become one of the most influential, if not thee most influential, figure skater in the history of the sport (man or woman). He doesn't just talk, he does, as evidenced both on & off the ice. He said he would come back, and he did, splendidly at that! Then he said he would like to open a figure skating school one day, and now he is. Actions speak louder than words. :bow:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Here's to the American Constitution, the less the government is involved the better, power of the people, liberty! :thumbsup:

Well said!

Although... I have to admit that the threat to liberty posed by the possibility that the government might decide to divert a few odd billions of the federal budget to figure skating is not at the tip top of the list of things I fear the government might do.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
This is way off topic, but I think the role of the Governments should protect The People and not Big Buisness. The Haves and the Have Mores, have plenty while the people are used to protect their wealth and fight their wars.
 

aemeraldrainc

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 31, 2004
This is way off topic, but I think the role of the Governments should protect The People and not Big Buisness. The Haves and the Have Mores, have plenty while the people are used to protect their wealth and fight their wars.

Way, way off topic, but ITA!
 

Nadine

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
I'm totally for hard work & sacrifice, like Agnes and so many other skaters' and their families have had to do over the decades in order to pay for their skating. If you want to to be a Have, then work for it like everybody else has done. Wealth isn't a right, it's a priviledge that comes with hard work. This doesn't include the Have Mores, whom control the world with their billions/trillions of dollars, that's another kettle of fish all together.

I'm talking about the kind of wealth that surround skaters like Sarah Hughes and Tara Lipinski, whom are the subject of envy from certain quarters because they come from wealthy families. Well how do you think they got that wealth in the first place, they worked for it, it doesn't grow on trees, it comes from hard work.

That's my last word on this subject.

Back to the phenomenal, talented, wonderful multi-faceted:

:love:AGNES ZAWADZKI!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOO AGNES!!!!!:love:
 

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
IMO monetary wealth just does not come from hard work. There are quite a few other factors involved besides hard work. Many, many people work their fingers to the bone and don't become wealthy in their lifetime. If it only took hard work we would see a lot less poverty and people living from paycheck to paycheck in this country. Sorry to go off topic.
 
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hikki

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Country
Japan
Nadine, this is way off topic but let me be a nerdy grammar police as you appear to prefer the use of 'whom' in your sentences.

"Who" is used when what you're describing (an antecedent) is the subject of the verb following, while "whom" the object.

Example 1)
I love Evgeni Plushenko who won a Silver medal at the Olympics.

*Evgeni won a meal. In this case 'Evgeni' is the subject and 'won' is the verb.
'Whom' cannot be used in this case.


Example 2)
It's Evgeni Plushenko whom I adore.

*I adore Evgeni. Unlike example 1, 'Evgeni' is the object of the verb 'adore'. 'Who' can be also used, or no relative pronoun needs to be used.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ You know what's really annoying? Microsoft grammarcheck always recommends "that" in the the place of who, whom, which, etc., in constructions like that.

It's Evgeny that I adore.

To me, this is worse than "whom." But I think grammarcheck anticipates that nobody knows anything about grammar, so they make it as easy as possible. :laugh:

I think that in spoken and informal English, "whom" has pretty much disappeared altogether. (Who should I give it to? versus To whom should I give it.)
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Very weird thread here and how strange to compare Agnes or any current skater to a slug like Tonya. :disagree:
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Very weird thread here and how strange to compare Agnes or any current skater to a slug like Tonya. :disagree:
Bienvenido to Golden Skate, Hernando. Some threads take in about several different topics. You'll get used to it, so hang in there.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Very weird thread here and how strange to compare Agnes or any current skater to a slug like Tonya. :disagree:

Are you really posting from Stara Boleslav? ;)

I think the comparison with Tonya Harding concerns Harding's big-jump skating style, plus the fact that her family was not affluent as is the case with most figure skaters.

The rest of it -- well, we always hope that our favorite athletes manage to stay out of jail.
 

cmk

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 16, 2003
Very weird thread here and how strange to compare Agnes or any current skater to a slug like Tonya. :disagree:

Tonya was not a slug. She was actually an excellent skater with great jumps and spins that didn't come from money. I always felt her punishment for simply not reporting what her hubby did behind her back was way too severe because she truly was a much better skater than Nancy Kerrigan ( I never did get the beauty queen treatment the media gave Nancy- to me she looked like a cross between a horse (the shape of her face, the gigantic teeth that made it look like she could eat oats though a fence), and a man in drag).
Tonya had speed and power , could do the spiral without having to hold her leg (which is harder to do than the kerrigan spiral by the way), had better jumps and spins, etc.
 

blue dog

Trixie Schuba's biggest fan!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 16, 2006
well I guess you were too young to remember perhaps. I don't know anyone who skated to music like " people are still having sex" other than Tonya.

1992 sp "people are still having sex"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5GFw42p5vM

Though the title of that song infers that, this song, which she used the same year (in her LP), is far worse, even if it was composed by Carlos Santana:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRIbuIeTew4

And CMK, I agree. Tonya had it all. Had she worked on her skating more, she might have been great. She might have shown the world that she could win by simply skating.
 
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janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
Tonya was not a slug. She was actually an excellent skater with great jumps and spins that didn't come from money. I always felt her punishment for simply not reporting what her hubby did behind her back was way too severe because she truly was a much better skater than Nancy Kerrigan ( I never did get the beauty queen treatment the media gave Nancy- to me she looked like a cross between a horse (the shape of her face, the gigantic teeth that made it look like she could eat oats though a fence), and a man in drag).
Tonya had speed and power , could do the spiral without having to hold her leg (which is harder to do than the kerrigan spiral by the way), had better jumps and spins, etc.

We are all entitled to our opinions about Tonya and Nancy. Yours is obviously much different than mine.

From everything I ever heard or read Tonya got off easy.
I thought a couple of years in jail in addition to the lifetime ban would have been more appropriate.

Tonya took the deal that was offered, and if she was innocent I don't know why she would have accepted what she later claimed was harsh treatment.

I don't know that much about Agnes but she does not appear to come from a wealthy family. But what she has achieved so far has been from her own hard work and sacrifices from her family.

Tonya and her cohorts apparently wanted more than what they were sure Tonya was capable of achieving fair and square out on the ice. Nancy on the other hand was thrust into a scandal not of her own making and a storm of publicity she never asked for.

Certainly rehabbing an injury caused by an assault and dealing with so much press attention is not the ideal way to prepare for the Olympics

I have no time for people like Tonya whether they are a talented skater or anything else.
The time in jail might have been good for Tonya although I can't be sure about that.
 

cmk

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 16, 2003
Tonya was only convicted of knowing after the fact which she has admitted. I don't think she had any prior knowledge of what her hubby and his friends had planned. I have a hard time believe she could have skated as well as she did at Nationals if she had any knowledge- you saw what the pressure did to her in Norway. Check out her short and long programs at 94 Nationals- they were much better than her olympic performances (and better than Nancy's performances at the olympics as well). Tonya and Midori Ito were the only 2 female skaters at that time that could do a 3axel, and look how long we had to wait until other girls started trying them.
To me, Nancy was a less than mediocre skater who got lucky in Lillehammer. It was one of the few long programs Nancy skated that wasn't a total mess (see Nancy's 92 olympic lp or 93 world's lp ). Nancy was gifted many medals when doing simpler programs with more mistakes than others (usually Tonya and Surya, but a few others as well).
Tonya really should of had the bronze in 1992.

Tonya was an excellent jumper and spinner, had great speed and power, a gorgeous ina bauer, she did the spiral correctly without having to hold her leg , etc. Nancy was as slow as a snail, was percevied as elegant because of the vera wang dresses, but was really awkward and clumsy on the ice. Nancy was also one of the weakest female spinners as well.

Tonya was more than capable of beating the far less talented Nancy if the skating were the only thing being judged. Nancy got a lot of breaks because some judges just liked the way she looked with the long legs (personally I thought Nancy was very homely.).
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
(personally I thought Nancy was very homely.).

Neither one of them were drop dead gorgeous. I honestly think they were well matched physically and athletically. One came from $$, but had a great back story with her mother being legally blind, and her brother having a mental disability. Tonya came from nothing, had a crappy childhood, and still managed to succeed. The problem was she seemed to lose focus on the skating, and worried about what everyone else was doing and where they would place in relation to her. I was a huge fan of hers and was devastated that she had any part in it. Personally I feel she did have knowledge of it, it makes no sense to me why someone would just go and beat the snot out of some ice princess if they weren't set to gain something. Tonya's actions after the fact, even years later, don't help her case. She was banned for unsportsmanlike conduct. She may not have been the one to whack Nancy, but she knew something - by her own (lawyer written) admission. Even if she hadn't been banned - none of the key skaters of the day wanted to be part of something she was in. So *shrugs* she'd have dropped out eventually anyway.
 

lcd

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
While Tonya's financial situation seems well documented, I don't think it is quite accurate to say that Nancy came from $$. (Unless there are other codes, like $$$ or $$$$ LOL like the restaurant price ratings.

I was a fan of Tonya's incredible athleticism. The triple axel she delivered at Skate America during the Olympic seasons had the most conviction from a female skater that I can recall. Everything outside of jumping ... not a fan.

Nancy did well in packaging herself. Clean and elegant Vera Wang costuming was refreshing coming from the over-decorated 80s look. Even using original music, composed by Mark Militano (former pairs champion) IIRC was a solid approach to making oneself standout.

The only semblance I see of Agnes with Tonya is the strong jumping, but even the characteristics of their jumping don't really make me draw the link all that quickly.
 
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