- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
I don't know when this article was written, but I thought some may find it interesting. I came across it by pure accident.
"IS IT ALL THAT IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE?"
by Randy Gardner
As I was coming up through the ranks in pairs skating from the years of 1974-1980, my partner, Tai Babilonia, and I were very often in direct competition with the top pair teams from Russia. My association with the Russian teams was strictly cordial. I was never allowed to get too close but always admired their high standards and work ethics in the discipline. I always wondered what these fine skaters would do after retiring from amateur skating. We Americans had the freedom to turn professional, join an ice show, coach, or go back to school, get a degree and pursue any career we desired. I saw several of the eastern skaters turn to coaching; some went back to college, but they had little opportunity to continue skating at a professional level.
Obviously, things have changed since then. As skaters, coaches, and ice rink owners, Europeans have landed on American turf in search of the American dream. One question I would like to ask them: Is it all that it's cracked up to be?
As a director and choreographer of many ice shows during the past 11 years, I have been able to work with many foreign skaters and observe their first year as professionals in the United States. They arrive here with the ambition of a child on the first day of school. They all work very hard, and each one of them is a champion in their own right. But does the American public have the same admiration for these skaters that they do for their American brethren? This is an interesting question.
Vladimir Kovalev, the 1979 Men's World Champion, says, "We Soviets are getting used to the American system." Some may think of that as an excuse. Ekaterina Gordeeva, Victor Petrenko and Katarina Witt, to name a few, have seemingly embraced the free enterprise system very well.
Some management teams encourage skaters to move over here, get their green cards or working visas, and be ready, willing and able to take work in competitions, tours and all of the other enticing ice shows which are out there to conquer. Some managers and agents know that their clients are in for an uphill battle. With Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski taking the major endorsement deals and headlining positions in most of the events right now, a fresh, talented and ambitious skater can end his or her first season as a professional frustrated and wary.
Furthermore, many people out there can't pronounce names like "Viacheslav Zagorodniuk" or "Anton Sikharulidze." They have a hard time following that one's career - which, in turn, proves to be a marketing challenge.
It is true, though, that foreign skaters come here for the money and (apparent) opportunities that may not be available to them in Europe. But, there are only so many jobs for so many skaters.
Maria Butyrskaya will no doubt try to take her 1999 Women's World Championship gold and turn it into American green. She has the appropriate marketing tools for any press release: attractive appearance, beautiful skating and impressive media quotes like "First Russian Woman To Ever Win The World Championships" and "Age Is Not A Factor For Current World Champion." However, are these media bites enough to keep the American public tuned in? She will no doubt skate in the top tours with her colleagues and do quite well.
On the horizon, however, are American promoters rallying for a very different show - a show in which Tonya Harding can star? There is talk that Ms. Harding will headline a show, possibly in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, with a full cast and all the glitz and glamour of any American ice revue.
So, will the ticket buyer go to see the lovely Russian "woman" who is the current World Champion? Or will they spend their money to see the controversial American who has been out of the scene for nearly six years? If the current television ratings are any indication for the types of shows leading the pack, I am afraid that there could be a slant towards (gasp!) Tonya Harding. We shall see.
We are facing another risk at local ice rinks across the country, where there has been an influx of foreign coaches. We have seen many new ice rinks built with funding from American enterprise and staffed with coaches from foreign countries. Ice rink managers believe hiring such coaches is a good public relations move because with good coaches comes good students. What a coup it is for a rink to be able to say, "Home of World Champion, Alexei Yagudin."
But problems arise when foreign coaches with strong reputations overly impress us to the point where we let them take a foothold at the rink and position themselves for superiority. It is very common for rinks to offer such coaches free ice time for their students while the coaches work out some sort of "financial agreement" with their students to pay for those lessons. Very often, though, coaches will not work with other skaters at the rink, just the ones who have followed them over here. The rink owners have allowed this malfeasance.
One coach I spoke with resents the fact that American dollars have built these rinks and that our homegrown kids (whose parents often take one or more jobs to support their child's skating) end up leaving the sport due to lack of funds. There has to be some middle ground established where prominent foreign coaches conform to the American system and leave others around them feeling that there has been little manipulation or preferential treatment by the ice rink management.
Obviously, the American skating community does benefit from the presence of foreign skaters and coaches. I smile when Eric Millot, the four-time French men's champion, refers to the United States skating as "one big soup." This "soup" has allowed Americans to learn from our foreign counterparts. My skating coach, John Nicks, came from Great Britain, and the late Carlo Fassi came from Italy. Mr. Nicks has been known to say, "I came to American to coach Americans." He did so by training champions such as U.S. National Pair Champions Jo Jo Starbuck & Ken Shelley, Jenni Meno & Todd Sands as well as Tai and myself. Carlo Fassi trained U.S. Champions such as Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill to Olympic gold. Both Nicks and Fassi ran very successful training centers in the United States where there was a large array of international skaters, but primarily Americans.
The bottom line is that sharing can be so important. Look at how this great country has gelled together. We have been enriched by one another during this whole century with regards to politics, the arts, sports and culture. We can see that a soup can nourish everyone—if the expectations are realistic.
"IS IT ALL THAT IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE?"
by Randy Gardner
As I was coming up through the ranks in pairs skating from the years of 1974-1980, my partner, Tai Babilonia, and I were very often in direct competition with the top pair teams from Russia. My association with the Russian teams was strictly cordial. I was never allowed to get too close but always admired their high standards and work ethics in the discipline. I always wondered what these fine skaters would do after retiring from amateur skating. We Americans had the freedom to turn professional, join an ice show, coach, or go back to school, get a degree and pursue any career we desired. I saw several of the eastern skaters turn to coaching; some went back to college, but they had little opportunity to continue skating at a professional level.
Obviously, things have changed since then. As skaters, coaches, and ice rink owners, Europeans have landed on American turf in search of the American dream. One question I would like to ask them: Is it all that it's cracked up to be?
As a director and choreographer of many ice shows during the past 11 years, I have been able to work with many foreign skaters and observe their first year as professionals in the United States. They arrive here with the ambition of a child on the first day of school. They all work very hard, and each one of them is a champion in their own right. But does the American public have the same admiration for these skaters that they do for their American brethren? This is an interesting question.
Vladimir Kovalev, the 1979 Men's World Champion, says, "We Soviets are getting used to the American system." Some may think of that as an excuse. Ekaterina Gordeeva, Victor Petrenko and Katarina Witt, to name a few, have seemingly embraced the free enterprise system very well.
Some management teams encourage skaters to move over here, get their green cards or working visas, and be ready, willing and able to take work in competitions, tours and all of the other enticing ice shows which are out there to conquer. Some managers and agents know that their clients are in for an uphill battle. With Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski taking the major endorsement deals and headlining positions in most of the events right now, a fresh, talented and ambitious skater can end his or her first season as a professional frustrated and wary.
Furthermore, many people out there can't pronounce names like "Viacheslav Zagorodniuk" or "Anton Sikharulidze." They have a hard time following that one's career - which, in turn, proves to be a marketing challenge.
It is true, though, that foreign skaters come here for the money and (apparent) opportunities that may not be available to them in Europe. But, there are only so many jobs for so many skaters.
Maria Butyrskaya will no doubt try to take her 1999 Women's World Championship gold and turn it into American green. She has the appropriate marketing tools for any press release: attractive appearance, beautiful skating and impressive media quotes like "First Russian Woman To Ever Win The World Championships" and "Age Is Not A Factor For Current World Champion." However, are these media bites enough to keep the American public tuned in? She will no doubt skate in the top tours with her colleagues and do quite well.
On the horizon, however, are American promoters rallying for a very different show - a show in which Tonya Harding can star? There is talk that Ms. Harding will headline a show, possibly in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, with a full cast and all the glitz and glamour of any American ice revue.
So, will the ticket buyer go to see the lovely Russian "woman" who is the current World Champion? Or will they spend their money to see the controversial American who has been out of the scene for nearly six years? If the current television ratings are any indication for the types of shows leading the pack, I am afraid that there could be a slant towards (gasp!) Tonya Harding. We shall see.
We are facing another risk at local ice rinks across the country, where there has been an influx of foreign coaches. We have seen many new ice rinks built with funding from American enterprise and staffed with coaches from foreign countries. Ice rink managers believe hiring such coaches is a good public relations move because with good coaches comes good students. What a coup it is for a rink to be able to say, "Home of World Champion, Alexei Yagudin."
But problems arise when foreign coaches with strong reputations overly impress us to the point where we let them take a foothold at the rink and position themselves for superiority. It is very common for rinks to offer such coaches free ice time for their students while the coaches work out some sort of "financial agreement" with their students to pay for those lessons. Very often, though, coaches will not work with other skaters at the rink, just the ones who have followed them over here. The rink owners have allowed this malfeasance.
One coach I spoke with resents the fact that American dollars have built these rinks and that our homegrown kids (whose parents often take one or more jobs to support their child's skating) end up leaving the sport due to lack of funds. There has to be some middle ground established where prominent foreign coaches conform to the American system and leave others around them feeling that there has been little manipulation or preferential treatment by the ice rink management.
Obviously, the American skating community does benefit from the presence of foreign skaters and coaches. I smile when Eric Millot, the four-time French men's champion, refers to the United States skating as "one big soup." This "soup" has allowed Americans to learn from our foreign counterparts. My skating coach, John Nicks, came from Great Britain, and the late Carlo Fassi came from Italy. Mr. Nicks has been known to say, "I came to American to coach Americans." He did so by training champions such as U.S. National Pair Champions Jo Jo Starbuck & Ken Shelley, Jenni Meno & Todd Sands as well as Tai and myself. Carlo Fassi trained U.S. Champions such as Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill to Olympic gold. Both Nicks and Fassi ran very successful training centers in the United States where there was a large array of international skaters, but primarily Americans.
The bottom line is that sharing can be so important. Look at how this great country has gelled together. We have been enriched by one another during this whole century with regards to politics, the arts, sports and culture. We can see that a soup can nourish everyone—if the expectations are realistic.
