I find it interesting that many of the skaters with children that I been able to chat with have said they had no interest in their children getting into competitive skating. They probably remember the years and years of grueling work, the costs, and the many heartbreaks?
Not too mention, it is probably challenging at times to compete in the same sport where mom and/or dad excelled in. I have respect for all figure skaters, but especially for the kids and family members of famous skaters.Originally Posted by wishonastar
We had neighbours who were both principal dancers with the National Ballet of Canada. I asked her once if she would want her daughter to be a dancer and she said "Oh Lord, no! It's much too difficult a life". My neighbour's daughter at one point wanted to be a dancer but her mother said she didn't see in her daughter the level of burning desire and dedication necessary to be successful but she would let her daughter make her own decision in that regard.
For children of superstars like Yagudin and Marinen, in addition to excelling in a sport with a small number of truly elite player, their parents are both Olympic and multiple World Champions. What if your child is only a pretty good skater. It's hard to follow a legendary parent in any profession - think Julian Lennon or Jacob Dylan. Bukin's son is a very successful junior ice dancer, but it's hard to follow directly in the footsteps of a parent.
This is more true than anything, I suspect. You look at "legacies" in any sport and it seems to be true. Michael Jordan's kids play basketball but not at the same level as dad and while they got scholarships to college (Illinois and a D2 school), they sat the bench or had spot roles and never became stars. Carl Eller's (Purple People Eaters Defense for the Vikings) son started at Northwestern on a football scholarship, but never played a snap of football and ended up graduating with honors with a Mandarin Chinese and Economics double major. You don't see the same level of drive from the second/third generation most of the time. A couple rare exceptions: Peyton and Eli Manning and Drake Dunsmore who all have that drive and determination their dads instilled in them.
Agree that if a parent was a star athlete, living up to his/her success is easier said than done for the child.
So I agree too that exceptions might be rare -- but I would not necessarily say extremely rare. I would be the first to admit that my knowledge of sports is quite limited, but off the top of my head, I can think of more exceptions (and am sure that others here can rattle off even more):
- Ken Griffey Sr. + Jr.
- Cal Ripken Sr. + Jr. + Billy Ripken
- Dale Earnhardt Sr. + Jr.
- The Howe family of hockey greats -- Gordie + two sons??
- Nastia Liukin's father was an Olympic gymnast, wasn't he?
- Tyler Phinney + his mother + his father all have been cycling Olympians for the USA. [Edited to correct the name. Thanks to ucrgirl for setting me straight.]
- An American family (the Halls?) had three generations of Olympic swimmers, I believe.
Maybe not quite analogous, but from sports journalism:
- Jim McKay + his son Sean McManus (most recently head of CBS Sports)
- Curt Gowdy Sr. + Jr. (I forget which network is Junior's home at the moment, but he is a sports producer at the highest level).
Last edited by golden411; 11-21-2012 at 06:55 PM.
Even in acting there aren't that many outstanding actors whos parents were great actors.
Interview with Daria Grinkova
http://articles.dailypilot.com/2009-...acrosse-figure
Football QB legend Joe Montana's son had some success at Notre Dame, but not enough to go anywhere.
You see a lot of family dynasties in the Iditarod but not many champion generations.
Dick Mackey and sons Rick and Lance have all won.
Mitch Seavey and Dallas Seavey both won (and Gpa Seavey helped start the iditarod and finished 2nd in the first race).
The osmars have a couple iirc.
It's interesting. Someone should do a study as to why that is.
Cycling fan nerd to the rescue! Davis Phinney is the Father and Tyler Phinney is the son.
Impressive list, though.
Thanks for the link, I remember reading the article when it first came out.I can't imagine the kind of presure she faced, even if it was well intentioned and coming from a good place, from people to become a star figure skater like her parents. Figure skating is a hard enough sport as it is, to have the shadow of mom and/or dad's achievements in the same sport follow you is even harder. But, when your mom was a child prodigy in the sport, and when your late father, whom you strongly resemble, were perhaps the best known pairs skating team in history of the sport-that pressure must have been enormous.
Hopefully, Daria is happy with whatever she chooses to do in her life.
Not only was Nastia Liukin's father an Olympic medalist, her mother was a world champion in rhythmic gymnastics. Her teammate by the way, was fellow world champion Tatiana Druchinina, the mother of Artur Dmitriev, Jr.
To add one more, although she's not particularly well known (I only know of her because she attended the same high school that I did), Nancy Swider-Peltz, Jr. an Olympian at the Vancouver Games in speed skating, is the daughter of 4 time Olympian, World Record holder and Speed Skating Hall of Fame honoree, Nancy Swider-Peltz.
Of course, I'm sure you can find plenty of other examples in other sports.
Last edited by lulu; 11-21-2012 at 06:16 PM.
Whoops! Thanks for the correction, and my apology to the Phinneys.
Will go back and edit my post, with hat tip to you, ucrgirl.
Last edited by golden411; 11-22-2012 at 09:06 AM.
At one point I think that Gordie Howe, who had one of the longest careers in hockey, actually skated with his two sons. Even I, a non-hockey fan, was impressed by that.
If we're widening the discussion to other sports, ballroom dancing seems to have a few dynasties, like the Ballases (Mark's parents, Corky and Shirley, are champions and are great coaches) and the Schwimmers. Lacey and Benji are both champions, and their father is a mainstay in the business.
One of the greatest American skating families was the Owens, though their achievements ended tragically. Maribel Vinson Owen was probably America's highest-ranking champion before World War II. Her two daughters, Laurence and Maribel, were respectively the national singles and pairs champions of 1961. Their mother was their coach. All three were on the plane that crashed in 1961, or it's likely that the two Owen girls would have contended at the 1964 Olympics. Maribel probably wouldn't have won or even medaled, because the Soviet pairs began to dominate around that time, but Laurence could certainly have ended up on the podium and perhaps with the gold medal around her neck.
Last edited by Olympia; 11-22-2012 at 08:08 AM.
This takes a separate comment, so I'll double post. I agree, though every now and then there's someone who reverses the pattern. For example, Robert Alda was a competent and moderately successful actor, but his son Alan was one of the great names in TV and has had a sizable film career, especially as a character actor.
Henry Fonda's kids are an interesting case. Jane probably equals her father, though he had the advantage of acting in the Golden Age of films, so he's got an iconic status that few modern actors can achieve. But she has two Oscars and a laudable film career. (He only has one Oscar, which he earned only in his final film, but that's not a true measure of his impact in Hollywood--he can be considered a true legend.) Peter is, probably by his own choice, not nearly as successful as either his sister or his father.
In the old days of theater there were true dynasties, such as the Barrymores, and the star system in existence at the time almost guaranteed that the offspring would equal the impact of the parents. The Barrymores peaked with the generation of Lionel, Ethel, and John, though Drew seems to be having at least a successful career if not a legendary one. She's interesting in that she is actually the heir to not one but three magnificent acting traditions. Her grandfather was of course John Barrymore. But through him she is also related to the Drews, a theatrical dynasty of the nineteenth century. And through her grandmother, silent film beauty Dolores Costello, she is related to the Costellos, another theater family who switched to movies. (Dolores's father, Maurice Costello, had a career in movies and before that in vaudeville.)
Maurice Costello
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Costello
Dolores Costello
http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Co...9_NRFPT_01.jpg
And, to combine football and acting, there's Mark Harmon. His father Tom Harmon won the Heisman Trophy. Mark played college football competently but wasn't the star his father was, but it was as an actor that Mark eventually made his--well, mark. His mother was an actress, Elyse Knox, though she certainly wasn't well known. But Mark has lived up to the family tradition of hard work, I think. One could argue that he was merely a respectable journeyman actor until he was in his fifties, when he became the anchor of NCIS. (Though I will point out that he was one of the first men that People Magazine featured as the Sexiest Man Alive. And rightfully so!)
Yes, acting also has quite a few exceptions. Several more:
- Charlie Chaplin + Geraldine Chaplin
- The Redgraves (three generations, I think, incl. the late Natasha Richardson??)
- Ingrid Bergman + Isabella Rossellini
- Judy Garland + Liza Minnelli
- Lloyd Bridges + Jeff Bridges + Beau Bridges
- Kirk Douglas + Michael Douglas
- Martin Sheen + Emilio Estevez + Charlie Sheen
- Alan Arkin Sr. + Jr.
- Richard Burton + Kate Burton
- Debbie Reynolds/Eddie Fisher + Carrie Fisher
- Ron Howard + daughter
- Meryl Streep + daughter
- James Broderick + Matthew Broderick
- Will Smith and Jada Pinkett's son is an actor, isn't he? And does Willow act as well as sing?
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