Word: rinks
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Once upon a time - only a few years ago, really - a skating rink at dawn bore a certain resemblance to a monastery. The assembled acolytes performed their early devotions, except in this case, they were tracing meticulous patterns on the ice with profound concentration...
Surya Bonaly, 20, is the purist's bane and the crowd's darling. This tiny French girl leaps with abandon, spins her own way, often at a scary tilt, and in between pumps her way around the rink. But within the past 15 months she has decided to add some discipline to her act. Her stroking is smoother, her program better paced. She is talented enough to execute difficult moves correctly and zany enough not to lose her wit and vitality if she chooses...
Harding, by contrast, would make an unlikely role model -- though her grit and spirit have served her well in surviving a turbulent childhood and triumphing in a grueling sport. Tough, self-sufficient and bruised well beyond her years, Harding has never known stability either on the rink or at home. She moved between eight different houses in six communities in her first 18 years, during which her father Al, who has variously driven a truck, managed apartments and worked at a bait-and-tackle store, was her best friend. He gave her her first gun, a .22, when...
...strange fog has shrouded the rink at the Odessa Sports Palace, making the skaters look as if they are gliding on air. The decrepit building's ancient cooling system is losing the battle with September sunshine. When the air finally clears, only one skater still looks as if she is floating. She is Oksana Baiul, 16, the world figure-skating champion and the favorite to win the gold in the Olympics next month. It is astonishing that she can train at all on the soft, uneven ice, but a bad surface has been just one of the problems...
Friends help make her costumes, and Petrenko chips in on skates. Even Zmievskaya gets to the rink early, shovel in hand, to clean the ice. So why do they stay here rather than seek out prestigious shelter in the West? Zmievskaya explains, "We want to be in Odessa. We would never have the money to pay for everything in America. Here our choreographers are free, the best and poorest in the world...