T A B L E+T A L K Who are the two worst American presidents of the 20th Century. Cast your vote in Headlines. D A I L Y+Q U O T E They shoot actors, don't they? R E C E N T L Y The man behind Paula Jones By Jonathan Broder The head of the Rutherford Institute says he's not political. An examination of his record suggests otherwise (01/13/98) Lord of the dance By William O Beeman The Iranian president's carefully choreographed interview with CNN carried a large message to the U.S., and to his own people (01/12/98) Slaughter of the innocents By Erik Marcus The killing of 1.3 million chickens in Hong Kong is child's play compared to the massacres that occur on American farms every day (01/09/98) The new anti-Christ By Jonathan Broder Republican right gears up to fight human cloners (01/08/98) Taps for Sonny Bono By David Corn He came in to Washington as a joke and went out a mensch (01/07/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		Dream girls PAGE 2 OF 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What made her programs so exceptional? First of all, they were skated to very difficult music. She chose two piano pieces by Rachmaninov for her short program, and "Lyra Angelica" by William Allwin performed by the London Philharmonic for her long program. No one has ever skated to these pieces before. The music was much more intricate than, say, a movie soundtrack or a Broadway show tune, and therefore much more difficult to skate to. Second, she was perfect in her jumps and her spins. And she did all that with a fractured toe! She's like Michael Jordan on skates. One of the Philadelphia judges, who's never given a perfect 6.0 score in his life -- and he's been judging for 25 years -- gave Michelle Kwan two. He told me it was the greatest thing he had ever seen, that she brought tears to his eyes. Yet last year, it was Lipinski who grabbed the glory at the World Championships and Kwan who fell. Last year, Michelle's body was changing -- we're watching girls go through puberty on national television -- and she had some trouble dealing with that. Those mistakes created Tara. Tara walked through the door, but it was Michelle who opened the door. This year, Tara doesn't seem to have the pizazz and the spark. She's grown a little bit, but she's still tiny. She doesn't have the presence. That's not her fault, but it makes you wonder whether last year should have happened for her. If it hadn't happened, maybe she'd just be moving up nicely. But now she's being scrutinized so much, and Michelle has come roaring back. You think Lipinski is in over her head? She's still a very good skater. And given the volatile nature of this sport, if Michelle falls in the short program in Nagano, then Tara could win the gold medal. But only if Michelle makes a mistake. If she skates clean in the short and long programs, she's the gold medalist. You can take that to the bank. In a way her loss last year was the best thing that ever could have happened to her. It fired her up incredibly. It forced her to think, to change things, to look at herself in a different way, and clearly she's come back stronger than ever. How does the third woman on the U.S. team, Nicole Bobek, rate? She's the ultimate showgirl on ice, the All-American blond bombshell. In Philadelphia, she looked great. Artistically, I believe she's better than Lipinski. If she had trained properly and not moved from coach to coach -- she's had 10 so far -- she could have been the greatest figure skater in the world. She's got the looks, the ability. But she didn't train. She's the opposite of Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski, both of whom are dedicated workhorses. Nicole Bobek? Hey, a couple of cigarettes, hang out with the guys. This is her life. So the training isn't there, and now she runs out of gas in the last half of her long program. Also the technical difficulty of her jumps is nowhere near those of Michelle and Tara, and I don't think she can get them at this point. Still, if Nicole gets her act together between now and the Olympics, she could take a silver. With Bobek, you just don't know. She could be great, or she could finish 10th. There's talk of a U.S. sweep of the women's figure skating medals. How likely is that? There's always a chance, but I think in general international judges would prefer not to see three U.S. flags hoisted up in the international arena in Nagano. All things being equal, I think they'd like to see someone else get in there. The most likely person who could sneak in is Tanya Sheshenko of Germany, who is very good. But I can't see her winning the gold, and if Tara is on, Tara should win the silver. So at this point I would say it's Sheshenko and Bobek fighting it out for the bronze. How much personal rivalry exists between Kwan and Lipinski, and how much is media hype? The rivalry -- if there is one at all -- is purely a one-way affair. Michelle doesn't even think about Tara. She's on another wavelength. She's thinking about her place in history. Tara, however, is obsessed by Michelle. Speaking of rivalry, whatever happened to Tonya Harding? The last I heard of her, she was living with some family, unemployed, no money. She had her truck repossessed. She got kidnapped a year ago by some bushy-haired man, although we're not quite sure whether that was real or not. She got away, but of course the police never found him. And the kidnapping just happened to occur the same week as the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships. What a coincidence. This is why I love this sport so. It just doesn't get any better -- from the ridiculous Tonya to the sublime Michelle Kwan. There's nothing like this sport. Nothing like it at all. SALON | Jan. 14, 1998 Jonathan Broder is Salon's regular Washington correspondent. Why do you think women's figure skating is so popular? Are you a fan? Discuss it in Table Talk.