Tanith Belbin = America's Sweetheart | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Tanith Belbin = America's Sweetheart

Tonichelle said:
apparently since we don't have a strong leading lady in ladies skating, NBC is using Tanith Belbin as their token skater in their new ads "The Best of Us" for the Olympics.

Just saw one of the ads that feature her. Love teh shorter hair...


just a bit of randomness... I blame my pain meds :rofl:
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Why do you need a "sweetheart" in order to do an Olympic promo? This is a sport after all, not a fairy tale.
You need to promote athletes, not princesses.
 
it's a "tradition" of sorts... there's always one athlete you want to get behind... Peggy Flemming, Dorothy Hamill were America's sweethearts... they're the girl next door that you want to cheer for even if you couldn't care less about the sport they're in.
 
herios said:
Why do you need a "sweetheart" in order to do an Olympic promo? This is a sport after all, not a fairy tale.
You need to promote athletes, not princesses.
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If NBC wants to rake in big bucks from sports they show NFL football.

To make money on the Olympics they need fairy tales. It has always been the way the Olympics have been promoted in the USA.

It is why we don't care about that sport where you ski and then stop and shoot something ;)
What kind of a fairy tale can they make up about that :laugh:

Eddie "The Eagle" did get alot of coverage back in the day and maybe seeing a ski jumper worse than our own guys helped. :p

We had the "miracle on ice" which was irresistable in the cold war years but on the whole Americans have always seemed to favor figure skaters, especially the Ladies - but sometimes the guys too.
 
janetfan said:
If NBC wants to rake in big bucks from sports they show NFL football.

To make money on the Olympics they need fairy tales. It has always been the way the Olympics have been promoted in the USA.

It is why we don't care about that sport where you ski and then stop and shoot something ;)
What kind of a fairy tale can they make up about that :laugh:

Eddie "The Eagle" did get alot of coverage back in the day and maybe seeing a ski jumper worse than our own guys helped. :p

We had the "miracle on ice" which was irresistable in the cold war years but on the whole Americans have always seemed to favor figure skaters, especially the Ladies - but sometimes the guys too.
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Traditions should be adjusted and changed, according to the facts. Lately, the most medals are won by icedancers in figure skating for the US and men, ladies are not as competitive as they used to be, simple as that.
You cannot hang on to the traditions forever, this is like living in the past.I bet in the next Olympic cycle, Davis / White will win a lot of more medals than the US ladies.
 
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janetfan said:
It is why we don't care about that sport where you ski and then stop and shoot something ;)

What kind of a fairy tale can they make up about that? :laugh:
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The Little Soldier That Could: In 1612 a gang of Scottish mercenaries who had been recruited to help Denmark invade Sweden landed at Isfjorden at the end of the Gudbrandsdal Valley. (The principal city of the Gudbrandsdal Valley is Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Winter Olympics.) The Scotish plan was to pillage and burn their way through Norway and attack Sweden form the West.

Lillebjorn (Little Bear) was a young boy just recruited for the local Norwegian militia. When he saw the Scots army landing, he raced on skis down the mountainside to give warning, pausing every hundred feet to shoot one of the invading “Red Hats” who tried to intercept him. (The rifle had been invented a century earlier, but it had just recently made its way to Norway.) Thanks to the boy’s heroism, the villagers were able to ambush the Scotsmen in the mountain pass and drive them back into the sea.

This was the origin of the biathlon, called “military patrol” when first introduced into the Olympic Winter Games of 1924. You can look it up. :)
 
Mathman said:
The Little Soldier That Could: In 1612 a gang of Scottish mercenaries who had been recruited to help Denmark invade Sweden landed at Isfjorden at the end of the Gudbrandsdal Valley. (The principal city of the Gudbrandsdal Valley is Lillehammer, site of the 1994 Winter Olympics.) The Scotish plan was to pillage and burn their way through Norway and attack Sweden form the West.

Lillebjorn (Little Bear) was a young boy just recruited for the local Norwegian militia. When he saw the Scots army landing, he raced on skis down the mountainside to give warning, pausing every hundred feet to shoot one of the invading “Red Hats” who tried to intercept him. (The rifle had been invented a century earlier, but it had just recently made its way to Norway.) Thanks to the boy’s heroism, the villagers were able to ambush the Scotsmen in the mountain pass and drive them back into the sea.
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That is a good bit of history and I believe you. But it is not an American story and although heroic, hardly a fairytale.

I have spent a fair amount of time in Scandanavia and know a little about the Russo-Finnish wars and the how the Finns, outnumbered 20 to 1 not only held out but won the first phase. Much of their success was due to their ability to fight on skis and survive in the bitterly cold forest.

Still, not an American story - or much of a fairytale, especially if you hear it from the daughter of a Finnish soldier who died fighting for his countries freedom.

I enjoy various stories that we hear during the Olympics - I still remember the fluff piece NBC made for Plushy and how he had such a tough life and was skating in Torino for his parents.

I remember the story about the American Pairs team and the bad injury and how Victor Pretrenko showed such kindness and friendship to them in a bad situation.

But I doubt if shooting soldiers or Bambi even if you are on skis will ever be an American fairytale.

I originally answered about this because a post was made about how Americans promote or think about the Olympics. So the ski stories are wonderful but they are part of European history and myth.
 
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janetfan said:
I have spent a fair amount of time in Scandanavia and know a little about the Russo-Finnish wars and the how the Finns, outnumbered 20 to 1 not only held out but won the first phase. Much of their success was due to their ability to fight on skis and survive in the bitterly cold forest.

Still, not an American story - or much of a fairytale, especially if you hear it from the daughter of a Finnish soldier who died fighting for his countries freedom.
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And maybe that's the secret of the fairy tale - you can't predict it ahead of time. In war as in sports, heros are not picked ahead of time. They emerge by themselves. That Norwegian boy did not wake up and decide he was going to be a hero, he was faced with a situation, and he rose to it.

The people at NBC seem to be promoting the ice dancers like they will be the stars of the Olympics, but NBC does not make that decision. We think our ladies will do poorly, but we don't decide that either. We cannot pick the heros and heroines ahead of time; they will arise all by themselves.
 
herios - it IS changing... Tanith Belbin is an ice dancer last I checked... she was the media darling four years go, too.
 
Tonichelle said:
herios - it IS changing... Tanith Belbin is an ice dancer last I checked... she was the media darling four years go, too.
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Always happy to see ice dancing getting some press. Belbin was the media darling last Olympics because of her quest for American citizenship. Most of these promos were done in spring. It would be great if NBC would highlight the rivarly in ice dance now in the US because it would cause more people to watch. But then NBC doesn't even show dance or pairs programs, except to send it to sister station Universal Sports, which not every one gets thru their cable station.
If you look at the NBC schedule, it is giving 2 hours to ladies final, but only three hours for the OD, FD and Ladies Short. Doubt we will see more than the top two ODs and probably only the final flight (if we are lucky) of the FD, but we will see 2 flights of ladies falling all over the ice.
 
KKonas said:
Always happy to see ice dancing getting some press. Belbin was the media darling last Olympics because of her quest for American citizenship. Most of these promos were done in spring. It would be great if NBC would highlight the rivarly in ice dance now in the US because it would cause more people to watch. But then NBC doesn't even show dance or pairs programs, except to send it to sister station Universal Sports, which not every one gets thru their cable station.
If you look at the NBC schedule, it is giving 2 hours to ladies final, but only three hours for the OD, FD and Ladies Short. Doubt we will see more than the top two ODs and probably only the final flight (if we are lucky) of the FD, but we will see 2 flights of ladies falling all over the ice.
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How odd. So why do they use Belbin in their adds then, and why not , as you say, use the rivalry as a teaser? Two top ice dance pairs and little interest to broadcast the competition?

I don't know who are being used for adds in other sports, but I guess Lindsey Vonn is one of them. She is just my picture of a great US athlete; Succesful, has lots of self confidence and does well when it counts. She is also outspoken, good looking and seems like a nice person.

janetfan said:
But I doubt if shooting soldiers or Bambi even if you are on skis will ever be an American fairytale.
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Well, going for dead targets Tim Burke is now in the lead of the "ski-and-shoot world cup". So don't be too sure…maybe an american fairy tale is hiding somewhere in his rifle…:p
 
snowflake said:
How odd. So why do they use Belbin in their adds then, and why not , as you say, use the rivalry as a teaser? Two top ice dance pairs and little interest to broadcast the competition?

Belbin is an Olympic medalist and even though NBC honchos don't know that much about skating, they do know that. I had hoped that coming from his TV background David Raith the Exec Dir. of USFS would have more influence with the television networks.
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Tonichelle said:
that Shaun kid, aka "The Flying Tomato" from Torino is the big one, his is the only one I've seen all night. which stinks... whatev.
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I've also been seeing Apolo Anton Ohno, the short track speed skater and something about him possibly becoming the most decorated winter games athlete of all time. Doesn't hurt that he won Dancing with the Stars either.
 
snowflake said:
How odd. So why do they use Belbin in their adds then, and why not , as you say, use the rivalry as a teaser? Two top ice dance pairs and little interest to broadcast the competition?
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I totally agree about the missed opportunity by NBC to attract new fans to dance. However, at least some other member of the media are acting more responsibly.

Check out this great article on D/W from the AP about the reaction in India to their OD this season.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5BFOyajZLML4wq9D2Dpe-ZTIDbAD9COHTB00
 
janetfan said:
I remember the story about the American Pairs team and the bad injury and how Victor Pretrenko showed such kindness and friendship to them in a bad situation.
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I remember that story, too. I had never been a huge fan of Petrenko--I was such a Paul Wylie fan--but that incident changed my view of him completely. For those who don't remember, a female American skater was injured in a competition held in Russia or the Ukraine. I think her partner tripped and dropped her or something similar--in any case, her skull was fractured, and she could not be moved to a Western European hospital. Russian medical facilities by that time--I think it was just around the end of the Soviet era--were not only ineffective but dangerous; needles were re-used, as were sheets. Any Russian who traveled abroad bought such items and brought them back for his own use in an emergency. Petrenko came to the hospital and not only translated for her but brought his own sheets and syringes, so she shouldn't have to use what the hospital supplied. What a profound act of compassion.
 
Olympia said:
I remember that story, too. I had never been a huge fan of Petrenko--I was such a Paul Wylie fan--but that incident changed my view of him completely. For those who don't remember, a female American skater was injured in a competition held in Russia or the Ukraine. I think her partner tripped and dropped her or something similar--in any case, her skull was fractured, and she could not be moved to a Western European hospital. Russian medical facilities by that time--I think it was just around the end of the Soviet era--were not only ineffective but dangerous; needles were re-used, as were sheets. Any Russian who traveled abroad bought such items and brought them back for his own use in an emergency. Petrenko came to the hospital and not only translated for her but brought his own sheets and syringes, so she shouldn't have to use what the hospital supplied. What a profound act of compassion.
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Petrenko has also spearheaded and put much of his own money into building a children's hospital in his hometown in Ukraine. No matter what one thinks of his skating, he is quite the humanitarian.
 
KKonas said:
Petrenko has also spearheaded and put much of his own money into building a children's hospital in his hometown in Ukraine. No matter what one thinks of his skating, he is quite the humanitarian.
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I tried to find a clip of the profile NBC did on Victor - the story Olympia is familair with too - about the injured American Pairs skater.

I haven't been able to find it or any articles about it but it is really one of the nicest stories I remember about a skater.

I do remember an interview with the injured skater - and how she said she doesn't think she would have gotten through her ordeal without Victor's kindness. Besides supplying her doctor's with some medical supplies, it was Victor's presense the skater said meant so much to her. He spent alot of time at the hospital with her and she said a familiar face, and the fact that Victor could speak English made all the difference as she had to go through such a serious surgery.

I believe Victor did alot for Oksana and I remember hearing how he helped her with a lot of finanacial support.

It would be nice to hear more about this story from any who remember it and if anybody has the clip from the Olympic broadcast I wish they would post it.

The profile ended with something like," you're a good man Victor Petrenko,"
and the injured skater said Victor was her "hero for life."
 
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