Word: skater
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Chen Lu, 16, is the first skater of consequence to come out of China. Born into a family of athletes - her father was a member of the national hockey team - she nonetheless learned much about her art from videotapes. She has a liquid style and a command of the ice beyond her years. So far, she has proved to be no more than competent at the crucial jumps, and at times her programs have been more dutiful than sparkling. But this is a newcomer to international competition, emerging from a country with no skating tradition. She has gained experience...
...athletes in this charmed circle, it's a great life if you don't weaken. Dick Button marvels at the number of competitions (Skate America, Skate Canada, Piruetten), plus the tours that clog a skater's year. "The pressure is never off," he says, "especially in an Olympic year." Button is skeptical of the demands made by the three-month-long, 59-city Tom Collins tour (April 11 to July 12), but in fact this is the ambition of every first-class competitive skater. Collins, the impresario, picks mostly Olympic and national medalists, along with some other favorites...
...skater who turns professional - an evaporating distinction now - there are ice shows too. For every top performer, endorsements can pay for all the years of sacrifice. An enduring favorite like Hamill still has plenty of corporate friends, among them, NutraSweet, Kitchenaid and Miracle...
...really believes such a practiced sound bite, least of all the skaters themselves. But Tonya Harding is not -- nor has she ever been -- like most skaters. She is neither politic nor polished, sociable nor sophisticated. Instead, she is the bead of raw sweat in a field of dainty perspirers; the asthmatic who heaves uncontrollably while others pant prettily; the pool- playing, drag-racing, trash-talking bad girl of a sport that thrives on illusion and politesse. While rivals fairly float through their programs, she's the skater who best bullies gravity. She fights it off like a mugger, stroking...
...attack on skater Nancy Kerrigan was shocking and chilling enough. But when the rumblings began that Harding or her entourage might somehow be involved, a grimly familiar tale of random violence turned into something far more gothic. Even people without the faintest interest in the crystalline world of figure skating could not help marveling at the spectacle. Did the scrappy girl from the trailer parks, who has climbed so high and suffered so much, possibly plot to destroy her rival? Or did her violently jealous husband assemble a gang of goons to act without her knowledge but on her behalf...