Sunday, July 12, 2009

After the Applause: What happened to our top Figure Skaters

What happens to our believed figure skaters when the applause stops, and the endorsement money does not flow like it used to?  Trouble! It seems to find many top skaters now that they have unlaced their skates.  We have all heard of the Tonya Harding scandal of the early 1990's, that shocked the skating world; barring Harding from ever being part of a USFSA skating event as a skater or a coach.  This was for her role in the Nancy Kerrigan attack.  Now, with Nicole Bobek a former top skater arrested for allegedly being part of a drug distribution ring making headlines, what drives these former Olympians to do such horrible things.  
The main reason for these former top skaters to loose control of their lives is that they were dedicated competitors and skaters from an early age.  Spending most of their time at rinks, these children really did not get the chance to be kids.  figure Skating training takes hours of lessons, and hours away from home.  many children find it hard to continue with school because of the demanding schedule.  a tutor is often hired to get  the child athlete through high school.  Skaters like Nicole Bobek have skated from the time they were young.  She rose to fame as US champion in 1995.  Since then she had almost never been in the news until July 2009 when she was arrested. 
because of this these kids never grew up.  Skating is all they know, and without a proper education they find themselves getting into trouble.    
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3 comments:

  1. the unsilent majorityJuly 12, 2009 at 2:49 PM

    i agree with the point made that because of the intense training, these kids miss out on alot of their childhood, so the trouble they shouldve been getting into at a younger age, seems to come later on, when they are older, unfortunately the trouble grows from mischief to misdemeanor/ crimes.

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  2. rloJuly 13, 2009 at 9:06 AM

    We see this behavior a lot when children grow up in the spot light, especially in hollywood.

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  3. TimJuly 13, 2009 at 2:28 PM

    I agree so much with that. These skaters give up a lot including their childhood. A lot of these athletes that give up a "normal life" for intense training for something that is not even a guarantee, some of them may get into serious trouble. This does not only go for figure skating but other sports also.

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