I scramble upstairs with a pillow in hand and plop myself down in front of the VCR. I press the play button and resume the movie. I will sit here for over an hour, mesmerized by the combination of ice and skates. A few tears may roll down my cheeks as I am secretly being touched by this love story.
Ekaterina Gordeeva was born in Moscow, Soviet Union, and grew up on the ice. From the time she was four years old to this day, she has been figure skating. At just eleven years old, Gordeeva was paired with fifteen-year-old Sergei Grinkov. Together they will have become one of the most talented pairs skaters in history.
The contributions to figure skating demonstrated by the career of Ekaterina Gordeeva prove beyond a doubt that the Figure Skating Hall of Fame should induct this figure skater. Gordeeva’s worthiness of this award is shown in her achievements, inspiration, and charitable contributions.
First of all, Ekaterina Gordeeva should receive this award because of her outstanding achievements. “In the 31 competitions whose results are known at the senior and professional levels, they finished first 24 times, and never lower than second from the time they won their first senior world title.” (Rabinovitz). At the World Championships, Grinkov and Gordeeva received gold medals at Geneva in 1986, Cincinnati in 1987, Paris in 1989, and Halifax in 1990. At the Olympic Games, Grinkov and Gordeeva received a gold medal for pairs skating at Calgary in 1988. During the European Championships, Grinkov and Gordeeva won gold medals at Prague in 1988, Leningrad in 1990, and Copenhagen in 1994. At the International level, Grinkov and Gordeeva competed at the Olympics from 1987-1988, receiving first place, and from 1993-1994, also receiving fi...
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...he Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Not only has she touched millions of people and showed them just how far a person can go, but she has made an impact on my own life in inspiring me to take to the ice at a young age as well.
Works Cited
Doolittle, Robyn. "Ekaterina Gordeeva: Battle of the Blades' perfect partner." The Star. N.p., 25
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"Ekaterina Gordeeva." People. 09 May 1994: n. page. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
"Ekaterina Gordeeva - A Tragic Loss." - Skating, Grinkov, Ice, and Book. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
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"From Canada With Love.”CBC Revenue Group. CBC Revenue Group, 24 Nov. 2010. Web. 11
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"Great Russian women-skaters." Russian-women.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Rabinovitz, Jonathan. "When Olympic Champions Moved In, They put Simsbury on the Map."
The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Feb. 1997. Web. 11 Apr 2014.
People consider the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to be one of the greatest things to happen in U.S Olympic history. Their game against the Soviets is known as "The Miracle on Ice." The world was stunned when the United States defeated the Soviets in the semi-final game of the 1980 Olympics. The Soviets hadn't been beaten in the gold medal game in years. This miracle game is still greatly known around the world and will not be forgotten by Americans any time soon.
The most memorable moment in hockey history came thirty-four years ago with the 1980 Miracle on Ice. The Americans defeating the dominant Soviet team at the Olympics was not only an important triumph for USA Hockey, but for the entire nation. Contrary to popular belief, the underdog win was not only the result of a miracle; it was also the result of a hard-working team led by Coach Herb Brooks. With increasingly negative views on the position of the United States in the Cold War, the Miracle on Ice and the gold medal win lifted the spirits of the nation and brought hockey into the American spotlight.
Before the 1980 Winter Olympics began, the US Olympic hockey team was not expected to do as well as they did. They had many powerhouse teams to beat and the team was just a bunch of college kids who wanted to play hockey. In the end, they had performed one of the greatest upsets in the history of hockey by defeating the USSR, the whom many thought of as the greatest hockey team in the world.
For every Olympic games, there always seems to be some type of scandal or drama. The 2002 Winter Olympic games in Salt Lake City proved itself to be full of this excitement and controversy. That year the scandal appeared in one of the most popular events, figure skating. The competition was between the Russian and Canadian figure skating pairs. The Russians showed a performance full of technical difficulty without pulling it off completely. Their performance was marred by simple mistakes. On the other hand, the Canadian pair performed a piece full of emotion, and while not as technically difficult as the Russians, more thorough and precise in their landings and jumps. After their performance the audience and the television commentators all believed they were the gold medallists. However after their score went up, they were sorely put in second place. As it turns out a French judge exchanged votes with a Russian judge so that the Russians would win the event. Since this happened, it has opened up the doors to the world of figure skating and informed the public of its corruptness. What people need to notice is that judges exchanging votes is only one part of the problem and how well a person actually performs the techniques on the ice is only one part of the judging. In an article published in Newsweek right after the scandal was exposed the author states, "For ages figure skating has attracted ridicule for letting a competitor's nationality, make-up, costume, and choice of music seem to count as much as the athleticism and grace." (Begley 40) As it stands now in 2010, it looks as though no one has learned a lesson from this event or article. Judges who make deals before competitions and get caught do not suffer any harsh consequences. They continue to practice unsportsmanlike conduct while judging. In my movie (as yet to be titled) I hope to address not only the fact that judges make deals ahead of time, but that certain skaters are discriminated by their race and sexuality as well as for arbitrary reasons.
New York Times. The New York Times Company, 23 Jan. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
Kerri Strug is remembered today for her performance at the 1996 Summer Olympics, but very few people know the rest of her story. Kerri was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. The Strugs were a family of five, and Kerri was the youngest. She had both an older brother and an older sister. Although Kerri had many outstanding accomplishments as a gymnast, her vault on July 23, 1996, earned her a place in gymnastics’ history. Kerri was limping because on her first attempt she fell and sprained her left ankle. After she finished somersaulting through the air, Kerri stuck the landing on one foot and then collapsed in tears. Kerri’s story is one of great courage (“Heart” 12).
Hill, Christopher R. "The Cold War and the Olympic Movement." History Today. History Today, 1999. Web. 18 May 2014. .
Truly special athletes, the ones that fathers talk about to their sons and daughters, change the game they play. Arguments emerged late in the 20th century about who most deserved to be called the greatest hockey player of all time. Perhaps it was the retirement of Wayne Gretzky in 1999, or perhaps it was a desire to sum up 100 years of a sport that had come into its own and grown exponentially around the world that led to these discussions.
I used September 16, 1996 issue of US News & World Report as my source.
Sonya Kovalevsky was born on January 15, 1850 in Moscow, Russia. She grew up in a very intellectual family. Her father was a military officer and a landholder; her mother was the granddaughter of a famous Russian astronomer and an accomplished musician. She grew up living a lavish life, and was first educated by her uncle, who read her fairy tales, taught her chess, and talked about mathematics. She even bumped into the subject of trigonometry while studying elementary physics. She achieved all of this by the age of thirteen.
Organized figure skating has been around since the 18th century. Since then it has grown and evolved into the Olympic sport we see today. There have been many notable skaters and moves in skating's distinguished history. One of the most interesting and storied is the axel jump.
At the time of 1980, a rule was in place that no professional hockey players could play in the Olympics; however, the Soviets were able to dodge this rule by claiming that their government-trained players were recruited from the amateur Central Army hockey club (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). The American team consisted of a bunch of rag-tag college kids and amateurs while most of the players on the Soviet team had been practicing together for a decade and were coached in the finest training facilities in the world (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). Many people are unaware of just how great the Soviet team was at this time in history (Russell). They had won eight of the past nine Olympic gold medals and five of the last seven world championships (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). They defeated the NHL’s All-Stars, an American hockey team packed of the professional league’s star players, just the following year by a huge margin (Russell). The Soviets were even nicknamed the “Big Red Machine”, because th...
A lot was heard, and learned, about figure skating during the past month of Olympic coverage. This year, a problem with judging and secret deals caused two gold medals to be given out; one to the Russians and one to the Canadians. What happened off the ice seemed juicier than the actual competition, according to many sources of media. What is interesting, is that controversy is not uncommon to the sport of figure skating. A Newsweek article, “The Sleazy Side of Skating,” gives many examples of past figure skating scandals. In 1908, at the London Olympics, Russian Nicolai Panin withdrew from competition, saying the judges were stacked against him. At the 1936 Games, a Hungarian judge placed the Hungarian skaters second and third, which stood out when no other judge had placed them higher than seventh. In 1927 at the World Championships in Oslo, a Norwegian skater placed first, thanks to three Norwegian judges. That led the International Skating Union to restrict each country to one judge. Although these are significant examples of figure skating trickery, they were not really important until now. Journalists are researching the history of figure skating, and making known scandals that had occurred in the past. In 1993, Tonya Harding’s husband paid $6,500 to have Nancy Kerrigan injured so his wife could have an advantage. The Harding-Kerrigan scandal was this country’s first real taste of the drama that goes on with figure skating. Because a scandal involving money and crime took place, it was shown all over television, and talked about on the radio.
Huffington Post, 2013. http://huffingtonpost.com/ Web. The Web. The Web. 29 Nov 2013.
Figure skating helps older adults to strengthen their lower leg muscles which includes hip adductors and abductors, calves and ankles. Figure skating helps older adults to improve their balance and helps maintain proper alignment of the upper body (McKay, 2014). “Many older adults are donning skates, spandex and sequins and going after golds of their own” (McKay, 2014). Older adults are very careful with their jumps and spins in figure skating and which are easy for them to do at their age compared to young adults. Older adults can fracture their bones or disturb their muscles easily when they jump or spin while skating. Figure skating is a great sport, it helps older adults to clear their mind and it is a good way to get exercise while they are enjoying their skating with a partner (McKay, 2014). Figure skating gives opportunities to older adults to meet with new partners, and they sometimes get involved in a relationship especially who are single, divorced or widowed. Figure skating is not easy for older adults as they can injure themselves if they fell on ice, so the older adults who like figure skating or participate in figure skating sport they spend their money to get training for figure skating. There are many older adults who are passionate about figure skating and they skate like young adults. When people get older they enjoy figure skating because it brings a good memory to them from their young adulthood. "It's nice to skate as an adult because you make the decisions," says Ms. Panzer. "It's your money, your time, it's not your parent telling you what to do" (McKay,