Perfection a myth in skating, life
Nicole Bobek's face was splashed across newspapers and TV screens from London to Los Angeles, the figure skater's latest doings making her tabloid fodder once again.
It hardly mattered the former U.S. champion hadn't competed in a decade, or that she was a relative bit player in the Michelle Kwan era. Fifteen years after Tonya Harding and the Whack Heard 'Round the World, her arrest last week was a reminder that ice princesses can find trouble just as easily as any other athlete.
"Figure skating, especially for women, is so much about femininity," said Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist at the University of Southern California. "You're judged on grace and beauty. You wear a dress in competition, and makeup.
"When they commit crimes or challenge our expectations, they also challenge our expectations of hyperfemininity."
Bobek has been accused of being a "significant player" in a New Jersey drug ring. The 31-year-old former U.S. champion was charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
She is free on bail, with the case now moving to a grand jury.
Deep down, of course, fans know skaters aren't perfect. Figure skating, after all, is a sport that can make "The Young and the Restless" look prim with its cattiness, breakups and whining about judges.
But the hair, the expertly done makeup, the gorgeous costumes, the fact a skater's very success depends on the illusion of making a grueling sport seem effortless — it all contributes to a glamorous, idealized image.
"I think we have a rather sophisticated aura," said Kathy Casey, a longtime coach who worked with Bobek for four years. "We don't have so many of us, and we've been very successful on the world and Olympic scene, and our skaters are very well-known."
Fans often feel they have a personal connection with the skaters, too. In most other sports, athletes are part of a team or, if it's an individual sport, compete head to head against someone else.
In skating, the athletes are on their own, and their choice of music and costumes create a feeling for fans that they have a sense of the performer's off-the-ice persona. Throw in those schmaltzy up-close-and-personal features that are as much a part of NBC's Olympic coverage as the rings, and fans sometimes think they truly know the skaters.
