Until now, it has been a one-way street. Athletes would compete as amateurs for as long as possible-hoping always for a shot at an Olympic medal-and then would make the jump to the chorus line of the touring icetravaganzas. (A few others would find their way into graduate school or waiting tables.) It’s a humbling prospect for world-class performers: having reached the pinnacle of sport, they are consigned to exhibitions, sort of like taking Michael Jordan and allowing him only to put on dunking demonstrations.
All that is about to change. Beginning this week with the U.S. championships in Phoenix, Ariz., figure skating enters a new era. For the first time in the nationals, professional skaters will be allowed to compete against amateurs, setting up a yearlong series of duels that will climax next February at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. In a process out of Lewis Carroll, the pros will be declared “amateurs”; some skaters liken the process to “revirginization.” Virtually every U.S. champion of the past decade, from ‘84 Olympic gold-medalist Scott Hamilton to last year’s Olympic heroine Kristi Yamaguchi, is at least talking publicly about comebacks aimed at the ‘94 Games. “It’s a big decision,” says Kevin Albrecht, the agent who represents Yamaguchi. “It could add new life to a career, but it could also end up tarnishing a legend.”
If nothing else, the new rules will allow some once familiar names to get themselves back in the papers. In the ’80s, Katarina Witt won two gold medals for the East Germans and set men’s hearts racing with her sultry style and habit of occasionally popping out of her costume. At 27, she’s drained her diet Coke and died for the last time as Carmen on skates, so she’s ready to think again about the Salchow.
It may prove difficult for the stars of the ’80s to compete with the younger figure skaters. The technical demands of the sport have risen by leaps and bounds; Yamaguchi’s gold-medal performance in Albertville included more than twice as many triple jumps as Witt’s winning routine four years before in Calgary. Ice shows pay stars for showmanship and artistry and don’t encourage them to risk spills or injuries with difficult triple-jump combinations. “The pros may still be capable of some hard tricks, but not necessarily seven or eight of the hardest in the same program,” says Evy Scotvold, a top U.S. skating coach. “Their bodies haven’t had to pay the price for a long time.”
Witt should have little difficulty making a weak German team. And new nations like Ukraine and the Czech Republic would almost certainly guarantee spots on their respective teams to ‘92 gold-medalist Viktor Petrenko and bronze-medalist Petr Barna. The two Americans given the best chance of executing a successful comeback are Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano, the ‘88 Olympic champion who has led the crusade for pros to be allowed in the Olympics. Boitano, 29, has already tried out his Olympic routine at the recent Durasoft pro championships. He says he’s motivated by love of his sport and “the realization that I’m not going to be able to do this forever.”
Yamaguchi apparently loves what she’s doing now, too, namely, winning pro titles and performing in ice shows to the un-Olympic rhythms of En Vogue. Though she won her Olympic gold with relative ease and would be a prohibitive favorite again, Kristi admits, “I’m not sure I want to put myself through that again.” One major deterrent: her coach lives in remote Edmonton. “I don’t think Kristi wants to go up there and freeze her tush off to get something she’s already got,” says Scotvold.
The championships this week in Phoenix will still be mostly an amateur hour. Nancy Kerrigan, 23, who already boasts an Olympic bronze as well as U.S. and world silver medals, hopes to succeed Yamaguchi on the highest pedestal. A few pros will be in Phoenix, too, principally little-name skaters who have spent recent seasons on the ice-show circuit. The pros have until spring to seek reinstatement.
The big winner from these changes could be CBS, which spent $300 million to again broadcast the Winter Games. Never has the Olympics featured figure-skating gold-medalists going head to head, a prospect even more delightful than another evening of luge highlights. On the Olympic ice, there are no figures as mighty as Nielsen’s, which is as it should be in the business of sport.
