Men Dump Sequins, Try More Macho Style
| Source: |
San Francisco Chronicle, Ed: Final, Sec: Sports, P. D1 |
| Date: |
March 28, 1992 |
| Author: |
C.W. Nevius |
Copyright 1992 The San Francisco Chronicle
ONE OF the Canadian fans held up a sign at the Coliseum Arena the other day
during the men's competition of the World Figure Skating Championships.
"Kick some butt," it said.
Maybe that's not your impression of what happens during a men's
competition. Maybe you think in case of a tie, the winner is the man with
the most sequins on his costume. Maybe you should have taken a look at the
victory platform last night.
On the top step was Viktor Petrenko, who is ending a
well-documented career as a ladies man with his impending marriage. Instead
of waving his arms in time to the music and resting on his Olympic laurels,
Petrenko banged out five triple jumps and clinched the world title with a
strong, athletic performance.
Next there is macho Kurt Browning, a Canadian heartthrob who
became so annoyed with his costume during the short program that he ripped
part of it off and tossed it onto the ice.
"Aw, it was hitting me in the face," he said last night, "so I just yanked
it off."
And finally, in third, was a karate-kicking, motorcycle racing
Elvis Stojko, another Canadian.
Are you sensing a trend here? Some of skating's insiders are, and
it's not toward more sparkly costumes and cute dance steps. At the end of
the competition, the gaudiest item any of them was wearing were their
championship medals. There was barely a sequin in the bunch.
MASCULINE IS IN
"I think," said Linda Lever, coach of Olympic gold medalist
Brian Boitano, "getting away from the sequins is good for the sport. I
think both men and women like to watch men be masculine on the ice and
women be beautiful. The men can be stars in their own right if they will
put out athletic programs."
Meanwhile, if you're looking for an American, don't bother. The
top finisher was an ever-melodramatic Christopher Bowman, who suffered a
knee injury during his long program and limped in with a fourth-place
finish. The injury was nothing to joke about, but nearly everyone had to
agree with Browning.
If this really is Bowman's last hurrah, you might wonder about the
future of American men skaters. After all, this was the first time in 13
years that an American man has not placed in the top three in the worlds.
Perhaps they should copy the Canadians, who not only have
Browning, a three-time world champ, but Stojko, who is only 20. How would
you describe the Canadian style?
"Short and masculine," says Lever.
The irony is that the United States has a perfect skater for the
macho style, in Boitano, although the skating federation will not allow him
to compete, because he is technically a professional. Actually, even
amateurs are able to make huge sums in today's market, but Boitano is stuck
in an antiquated system.
"If Brian had been skating, we would have had an American on the
victory platform," Lever said.
Since he has turned professional and organized his own skating
show, Boitano has pushed the boundaries of traditional thinking. He has
abandoned the sequins and gone to running tights and what Lever calls "more
of a street look."
"I'm not sure how all this spandex and sequins happened," Lever
said. "I think that someone was successful, and instead of copying the
strength and power, people copied the look."
A NEW DIRECTION
It seems inevitable that this is the new direction of skating.
Someone like Stojko, who can often be seen wearing a baseball cap turned
backward, is going to force the point. Both he and Browning have already
successfully landed a quadruple spin in competition. And if Boitano gets to
compete, he'll push it even further.
"The men," says Lever, "should compete full out, full risk, and
some are going to flop, and some are going to stand up. That's the way it
should be, aggressive, athletic men, fighting it out on the ice."
Without sequins.
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