Tai Babilonia and Peter Carruthers?
- Thread starter KristaMK
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What did she say about it? They might have hung out together at competitions and camps, but my recollection from that time was that it was just a romance manufactured by the media, like Torvill and Dean endured. I know she was married and/or engaged a couple of times, but anything with him was either so brief or so not-serious it didn't make it onto the skaters' gossip circuit.
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Yes, they were briefly engaged, but the relationship didn't last that long.
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And of course we didn't have instant social media in those days
. Certainly I never heard about it among the pairs crowd in Canada at the time. Interesting.
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So of course I thought, why not waste a few minutes on Google?
Jet Magazine reported that Tai and Peter were engaged in 1984 (what I never knew as without social media and just watching on TV was that Tai was a woman of color. I was clueless.
Interesting that Jet reported on this )
page 54
Jet Magazine reported that Tai and Peter were engaged in 1984 (what I never knew as without social media and just watching on TV was that Tai was a woman of color. I was clueless.
Interesting that Jet reported on this )page 54
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Multi-colour, if that's a term. I believe it was her father who was half-Black and half-Polynesian, and her mother had some Native ancestry -- a mix of all three plus white somehow, anyway. The gossip at the time was that when John Nicks wanted to take over their training from Mabel Fairbanks, he more or less blackmailed the club where he coached. If they didn't let Tai and Randy in (because Tai was mixed race and Randy was Jewish), he would leave and take all his pupils elsewhere. That may be just legend, but it was the story making the rounds in the late 1970s.So of course I thought, why not waste a few minutes on Google?
Jet Magazine reported that Tai and Peter were engaged in 1984 (what I never knew as without social media and just watching on TV was that Tai was a woman of color. I was clueless.
page 54
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I thought this was a good interview with Tai, with photos of her mother, who was Black, an her father, who was Filipino and Native American. I loved seeing the photo of her parents at their wedding, such a beautiful couple.
www.kqed.org
When I got into figure skating, questions would come up — [TV] networks not knowing what to call me. They didn't know where to put me. And the word “exotic” always came up. Why couldn't they just call me what I was? What stopped them from saying what my mother was and what my father was?
They put me in the box that they felt comfortable in identifying me with.
'Jump Higher, Spin Faster': Olympic Figure Skater Tai Babilonia on Her Rise to Fame | KQED
World Champion figure skater Tai Babilonia speaks on her rise to the Olympics during the 1970s-'80s, growing up mixed race in Southern California and how she’s creating new paths to diversify the sport.
When I got into figure skating, questions would come up — [TV] networks not knowing what to call me. They didn't know where to put me. And the word “exotic” always came up. Why couldn't they just call me what I was? What stopped them from saying what my mother was and what my father was?
They put me in the box that they felt comfortable in identifying me with.
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Thanks for straightening me out as to her parents' backgrounds. I was trying to recreate in my mind scenes from the TV movie I saw about her long ago and remember the appearance of the actors playing her parents.I thought this was a good interview with Tai, with photos of her mother, who was Black, an her father, who was Filipino and Native American. I loved seeing the photo of her parents at their wedding, such a beautiful couple.
'Jump Higher, Spin Faster': Olympic Figure Skater Tai Babilonia on Her Rise to Fame | KQED
World Champion figure skater Tai Babilonia speaks on her rise to the Olympics during the 1970s-'80s, growing up mixed race in Southern California and how she’s creating new paths to diversify the sport.
When I got into figure skating, questions would come up — [TV] networks not knowing what to call me. They didn't know where to put me. And the word “exotic” always came up. Why couldn't they just call me what I was? What stopped them from saying what my mother was and what my father was?
They put me in the box that they felt comfortable in identifying me with.
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If anybody wants to know a bit more about Tai and Randy as a team and as individuals, get a copy of "Forever Two as One", a coffee table book. There are lots of great pictures and insights into their lives.
Thanks for the recommendation! I adore Tai and Randy.
