Word: lipinsky
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...body's and the mind's as well, dangerous forces that cannot just bring a skater down but keep her down too. At the Winter Games in Nagano, Kwan will be joined on Team U.S.A. by two others who can smile in the face of gravity and adversity: Tara Lipinski and Nicole Bobek. All have been national champions. And, yes, they are all veterans, even Lipinski at 15, of juggling skating careers with public adoration, of living life on the edge of a blade and calculating victory or defeat in the split second it takes to leap from...
...same area backstage, as the public-address system booms their rivals' scores throughout the arena. As many as 40 min. can elapse between an on-ice warmup and a contestant's solo turn to compete. Some skaters plug in earphones, listening to whatever relaxes them, drowning out their bothers. (Lipinski tunes in to peppy dance mixes.) Kwan closes her eyes and visualizes herself skating a perfect program...
...blade hits ice. Underneath the show smiles whir constant questions: "Is there enough speed for this jump? Can I make three revolutions or just two? Since I missed the first jump, should I throw another one in?" Yet skaters must not fall for the easy temptation of deep analysis. Lipinski, a wizardly technician on the ice, says that during her long program, lasting 4 minutes, she doesn't think too hard about mechanics. "I try to keep the technical things in mind, but I don't think about it too much, because then you start to mess up." Kwan calls...
...jump. After the first fall came another; then she had to put a hand down on the ice to steady herself after a shaky landing. She had panicked. Coming off the ice, Kwan could only shake her head and ask over and over, "What did I do?" Lipinski took the title, and a fierce rivalry was born...
Yeah. And good luck to Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski, Nicole Bobek and the rest...