The Bandwagon: Ice Skating

Ice Skating

When I was young I was fascinated with ice skating. I don’t even know where I would have seen it, other than the ABC Wide World of Sports. Or maybe it was the Robby Benson movie, Ice Castles. I had a mad crush on Robby Benson when I was nine.

There was another movie around the same time, made for TV, called Champions: A Love Story, starring Jimmy McNichol. I think it had the same basic plot as Cutting Edge (which I didn’t like—she was MEAN) with the hockey player turned figure skater to partner a girl and they fell in love. No happy ending, though. I can’t even find a picture of it. My biggest memory is that I set up a cassette recorder in front of the TV (for some reason it was on in the middle of the night) and pressed record. Yes, kids, before VCRs. I woke myself up to turn the tape over and go back to sleep. I remember listening to it several times, but never did see it again.

About ten years ago, maybe longer, Cindi and I were both great followers of figure skating. I’d watch every weekend, and my husband got us tickets to see the tour of champions.

So of course the event I love most is the figure skating. I love the costumes and the grace and the music (although, the music for the men seemed pedantic this year). I prefer the couples, but love the women’s, too. And currently I’m fascinated with the skaters who change citizenship to skate in the Olympics.

What about you? Do you love the skating, too? Or something else?

3 comments:

Marianne Arkins said...: I went to Stars on Ice every year for about a decade. I love figure skating! I was totally into it during the Scott Hamilton, Kurt Browning, Brian Boitano era. **sigh**; 8:35 AM
Mary Curry said...: I used to love watching figure skating. For some reason this year, not so much. I watched ice dancing compulsories and thought it was boring. I guess there's reason to have everyone skate the same moves to the exact same music but I wanted to scream. Even the TV commentators mentioned that.

For some reason this year, I've been watching a lot of curling. I guess part of the intrigue is figuring it all out. Someone called it shuffleboard on ice but the science of it intrigues me.; 3:42 PM
MJFredrick said...: Marianne, I think I started on the tail end of that era. I remember seeing Philippe Candeloro and Elvis Stojko.

Mary, I thought the same thing about the complusories. I fast forwarded through most of that.

I haven't seen ANY curling, but I'm loving the alpine skiing, too.; 5:00 PM