The first Olympic figure skater I saw was Peggy Fleming in an ice show at the Boston Garden in 1971. I went with my sister and her husband, Ralph.
Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia
My boyfriend, then husband, Bill, and I went to the annual Figure Skating program at Harvard in the fall of 70 and 71. We saw, Tenley Albright, Janet Lynn (see note), Julie Holmes, John Misha Petkevich, a world champion in 1971 and 1972, and other skaters. I remember getting lots of autographs as well. (Note for Janet Lynn. She was a U.S. Champion five times, a World medalist two times, and the 1972 Olympic bronze medalist.)
Won the Gold medal in the 1984 Olympics.
They skated to Ravel's Bolero. You should watch this.
World Champion from 1981-1984
Olympic Gold in 1984
Russian married pairs, Oleg Protopopov and Ludmila
They won two Olympic gold medals in 1964 and 1968 I saw them in DC in December 1984. Their Swan Lake routine was like watching ballet.
Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia
World Champions in 1979. I saw them in DC in December 1984.
* I decided to include information found on the internet about Tenley Albright. So many accomplishments. How could I not admire her?
"Tenley Albright began skating at eight in Massachusetts, after seeing Gretchen Merrill perform at an ice show. Soon after she committed to rigorous training, encouraged by her coach Maribel Vinson Owen, Albright contracted polio (poliomyelitis) in September 1946. She used her ice skating to regain strength after the attack, and in early 1947, she won her first major competition. By age 13, she had won her first national title, the U.S. Ladies Novice championship.
Albright was not expected to win a berth on the 1952 Olympic figure skating team, but she did -- and then won the silver medal at Oslo, the highest rank for an American woman skater since 1924. A month after the Olympics she won her first of five consecutive U.S. national championships.
In 1953, Tenley Albright not only won the "triple crown" (U.S., North American, and World titles) but also entered Radcliffe College as a premed student. In 1956, in the first Olympics televised around the world, she won the gold medal despite a serious injury to her ankle and competition from Carol Heiss. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.
Albright retired from competition in 1957. She graduated from Radcliffe that year, despite taking time off for her skating practice, and she entered Harvard Medical School, one of only 6 women out of 130 in her class. Albright became a surgeon, joining her father's practice in Boston. She retired from medicine in the 1990s."
The last figure skater I saw was Nancy Kerrigan who performed in an Ice Show at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell around 1998. I had a first-row seat with my husband Bill because of my connection to previously working there and I knew the right people. Nancy won the 1984 Olympic silver medal.
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Information about the 1961 skating team members who died is located at Find-A-Grave and Wikipedia. If you watch the Winter Olympics this week and happen to catch the figure skaters, please think of those who died in the crash.
* I decided to include information found on the internet about Tenley Albright. So many accomplishments. How could I not admire her?
"Tenley Albright began skating at eight in Massachusetts, after seeing Gretchen Merrill perform at an ice show. Soon after she committed to rigorous training, encouraged by her coach Maribel Vinson Owen, Albright contracted polio (poliomyelitis) in September 1946. She used her ice skating to regain strength after the attack, and in early 1947, she won her first major competition. By age 13, she had won her first national title, the U.S. Ladies Novice championship.
Albright was not expected to win a berth on the 1952 Olympic figure skating team, but she did -- and then won the silver medal at Oslo, the highest rank for an American woman skater since 1924. A month after the Olympics she won her first of five consecutive U.S. national championships.
In 1953, Tenley Albright not only won the "triple crown" (U.S., North American, and World titles) but also entered Radcliffe College as a premed student. In 1956, in the first Olympics televised around the world, she won the gold medal despite a serious injury to her ankle and competition from Carol Heiss. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.
Albright retired from competition in 1957. She graduated from Radcliffe that year, despite taking time off for her skating practice, and she entered Harvard Medical School, one of only 6 women out of 130 in her class. Albright became a surgeon, joining her father's practice in Boston. She retired from medicine in the 1990s."