One Rant For The Road
I won’t be around for a few days because as I am sure you all already know today is the start of the Southwest Pacific Regional Figure Skating Championships. There are a lot of young skaters eagerly awaiting to hear me cheer myself hoarse for them. I feel so sad for these kids. They have no idea that that skating world they have worked so hard to join is gone. They don’t realize that the tv ratings and the ticket sales are going to keep going down and all the excitement and glamour and money have been systematically stripped from the sport.
It isn’t the kid’s fault of course. This started before they were born. Throughout the 90’s the greed of the pros and the staggering corruption of the ISU combined to start the process of killing the golden egg laying skating goose. Added to that were the three most undeserving Ladies Olympic Gold Medalists one right after another in 94, 98 and 02. They were the final nails in skating’s coffin. Shizuka Arakawa, the stunning champ from ‘06, did revive the sport. Unfortunately she has only revived it in Japan which does these kids in the Southwest USA no good.
So there is no Collins tour for these kids to join, no Pro-Ams to get judging exposure, and money to train. The sponsors are off follwing beach volleyball players and the tv cameras are busy searching through Gov. Palin’s garbage cans. These kids are working day and night for a dream that is really already dead. All they have left is us few, devoted, die hard fans. And I am not going to let them down.
