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On March 27, we caught up with Elaine Zayak, the 1981 U.S. national champion, 1982 World Champion and 1984 Winter Olympian, at Lasker Rink in Central Park, NYC. Elaine was there to support One Step Closer, an ice show to benefit the the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children. Yes she's older, wiser, a mom and a coach -- but you know what? She's still got that bubbly, girly voice that still brings me back to her heyday in the 80s...
Click here to see more from the One Step Closer AIDS benefit!
Chen Lu (陈露 or 陳露), two-time Olympic bronze medalist and World champion (see below), and Denis Petrov,
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Olympic silver medalist in pairs with Elena Bechke, are paving the way for the next generation of Chinese figure skaters. At the World Ice Arena in Shenzhen, China, Lulu (as she is known) and Denis are involved with the skating academy in the unlikeliest of places -- on the fourth floor of the MIXc CityCrossing Shopping Center, one of China's largest malls. The World Ice Arena opened in late 2004 and is China's first Olympic-sized recreational indoor skating rink. Lulu runs the skating school and has over 1000 students and ten coaches, including head coach Denis, on her staff.
After retiring from amateur competition in 1998, Lulu skated professionally and in tours for many years. She and Denis married in July 2005 and welcomed son Nikita one year later. We caught up with them at the World Ice Arena and it was a thrill to see a trailblazer in Chinese figure skating give back to the next generation. China has been an emerging force in the international figure skating community for the past ten years, with pairs teams Qing Pang/Jian Tong and Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang consistently on the medals podium. But skating still doesn't have the widespread popularity in China as it does in Japan, Europe and the United States. Lulu and Denis are working hard to promote skating in China so that a new crop of skaters will emerge to lead China as a great figure skating nation in all disciplines.
As an aside, there are two pieces of music playing in the background in the above video. The second is called Butterfly Lovers, which was Lulu's free skate music at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where she captured her second Olympic bronze medal.
We like Surya Bonaly (see right). Yes I know -- there's plenty of debate about her edges, lack of edges, the backflip she did in front of the judges at the 1998 Olympics (an illegal move) to conclude her amateur career, her refusing (initially) the world silver medal in 1994, the fake story about some island she was born in. She made the sport interesting for sure. Her list of accomplishments are impressive: nine-time French Champion,
three-time world silver medalist, five-time European champion and a
whole host of other titles. I remember very few interviews with her (in English anyway) so we were left to imagine what she was like off the ice.
I caught up with Surya at Ice Theatre of New York's 2008 benefit gala. She was a special guest skater for the event and wowed the audience with her trademark backflip, jumps and flexibility. She's still got it at 35 which she turned on December 15, so happy birthday Surya! At the cocktail hour, she and I chatted about her still-busy touring schedule, her life with mom in Las Vegas, and boyfriends and marriage. And why Las Vegas? According to Surya, she was initially supposed to settle in San Francisco after moving to the United States. But first, she spent a few weeks at the Cirque du Soleil acrobatics camp in Las Vegas and the next thing she knew, she bought a house in Vegas! So she packed up her family after informing them that there's been a slight change in plans. Overall, Surya said she's very content with her life and that the fans all over the world keep her young and healthy and skating! If you'll be visiting Las Vegas anytime soon, Surya and mom Suzanne teach at the Skating Club of Nevada, so why not book a lesson?
Interesting tidbit: After the interview, I asked Surya if she wished she were back in competition and she said that she actually requested to be reinstated so that she could compete in the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy. But alas, she was denied. Now how interesting would that be? How many points would she rack up with her triples and spin elements?
**CLICK HERE TO CATCH UP WITH MORE OF YOUR FAVORITE SKATERS!**
You know who I like to watch during the competitions? The skaters of course, but also, their coaches. It's amazing to me that 15, 16-year-olds like Mirai Nagasu, Caroline Zhang, Rachael Flatt and others, are in this pressure-cooker of a sport and yet are expected to sometimes remain a kid and other times, criticized for not being mature like their older counterparts from other countries. And whenever I see them sitting with their coaches in the Kiss and Cry area, I often wonder what kind of person the coach is. The "business" of skating must weigh heavily on the coach's mind as nowadays, they deal with the team of agents, managers, sports psychologists, trainers, parents, goodness knows who else, whose job it is to maximize a skater's potential while the small window of opportunity is open to get THE title.
So I caught up with Charlene Wong, coach for 2008 U.S. national champion Mirai Nagasu (see above, Charlene and Mirai at 2008 Nationals), to get some insights into her personality as well as her thoughts on the current state of skating. Charlene, now 42, was a four-time silver medalist at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships (1983, 1988-1990) and also competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics. After turning professional in 1990, she won the 1990 U.S. Open Professional Figure Skating Championships and also toured extensively with Torvill and Dean. She currently lives in Hermosa Beach, California.
1. What do you think of the new judging system? Do you sometimes wish for the days of 6.0s?
There is one thing we can always count on and that is change. I remember when I was very little and they introduced the short program. With each year that passed, changes were made in how scores were calculated, how many times we went around our school figures, how many figures we had to practice, etc etc. Embracing the changes in our sport while honoring the talent and skill of those who succeeded when different criteria needed to be met is what I choose to do. I feel this is the best way to support both the forward evolution of our sport, educate and entertain audiences, and respect our skating heritage.
2. As a former competitive skater, and now coach/sometimes psychologist/de facto business person for skaters, is there something you wished you knew back then and have learned in recent years, that made you think, "Gosh, I wish I had known this back then."
I am not the type of person who thinks in terms of "if only" or "could have, would have, should have". It is what it is and everything happens for a reason. When a person thinks "if only I would have known such and such " it shows a certain amount of fear or lack of trust that everything is as it should be. I try to always do my best and if I look back and think I didn't do my best, then that is the only thing I acknowledge and then try to change. One of my favorite expressions is, "Everything is okay in the end and if it's not okay, it's not the end." If anything when I look back over what were my experiences as a competitive figure skater I think "ah ha" something, somewhere knew I would be here and that is why such and such happened the way it did. It was preparing me for what I am going through now, only I didn't know it then.
3. Other than Mirai Nagasu, who are some of your other students?
At any given time, I am training and working with up to 40 clients/students and offering a myriad of different services related to ice skating. I find myself to be quite different from many of the other coaches who choose to train several high level skaters in that I choose not to train more than a handful of elite or high level competitive ice skaters. I love working with the high profile skaters but I also love working with my baby skaters and test skaters, my regional competitors and of course my adult students. I coach because I like helping people enjoy their skating experience.
4. You are a vegetarian. Were you a vegetarian from a young age or was this something that developed later on in life?
Although I am not as strict a vegetarian as I once was, I do continue to choose to eat more like a vegetarian than not. I would call myself a "conscious eater". It all started with my desire to be as lean and healthy as possible as a teenager around 17-years-old. With more education, as well as trial and error, it also turned into an expression of my attempt to show compassion for all living things. Mostly, I try not to be a fanatic or push my ideas about this on other people, especially my students because everyone is on their personal journey regarding such things. I am far from flawless in my eating because now I am back to drinking diet soda...sigh... this will be my first day "off" of it ...again. I have gone as long as eight years no diet soda :) After speaking with one of my like-minded colleagues as Pacific Coasts I may very well be off it for good this time :)
5. What is a typical day like for you?
Usually I get up between 3:50 and 4:30 a.m. and try to get some yoga in before caring for my five dogs. Then it's off to work. I will either work a short "shift" and return home to do things - return e-mails, calls, do planning, music, etc - at my desk, or I will teach at the rink all morning and grab lunch on the run :) I usually have another "shift " from 3 to 7 p.m. I will hope to miss traffic on the way home, but usually end up in it and find myself making my final calls for the day. I get home, walk the dogs (this takes about 90 minutes), connect with friends, etc. and then it's bed and the whole thing starts again :)
6. If you could invite three people over for dinner (dead or alive, fictional or nonfictional), who would they be and why?
It's hard to narrow it down to three, especially if I were to include people who aren't alive. Honestly I would probably change these three people if you asked me tomorrow but right now the following people come to mind: I would invite CNN's Anderson Cooper because he is intelligent, well-spoken and charismatic, basketball coach John Wooden because I admire his coaching and life philosophy, and the actor Scott Speedman just because ;)
7. If we looked in your i-Pod/CD player right now, what would we find?
I don't have an i-Pod and I just played Christina Aguilera's new cd which I put on after listening to a Japanese language learning cd.
8. What is your guilty pleasure?
Getting a Thai Yoga Massage.
9. Which skaters do you admire because they have led a well-balanced life and lead by example?
I love the skaters from my generation, Barbara Underhill and Paul Martini, Brian Orser and Randy Gardner.
10. Can you update us on the Charlene Wong Ice Skate Foundation, which is a program you wanted to start to give underprivileged children access to figure skating?
