February 2006 Olympic Issue :

	Short Takes
	Surfer Beware: Olympic Mistakes in Wikipedia and Online Encylopaedia Britannica.
	Interviews
	Nikki Nichols, Author of "Frozen in Time: The Enduring Legacy of the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating Team," Discusses the Legacy of the Airplane Crash That Claimed the U.S. Figure Skating Team 45 Years Ago.
	As She Prepares to Play in Torino, U.S. Olympian Angela Ruggiero Talks about Her New Autobiography, "Breaking the Ice: My Journey to Olympic Hockey, the Ivy League, and Beyond."
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	Get Your Teddy Bear Clip Art.

With the Torino Olympic Winter Games just weeks away, journalists, teachers and students around the world will be logging onto the Internet to research the Olympic Games. Many of these Web travelers will find and use articles from the free Internet encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org, which allows anyone to anonymously write articles or edit existing pieces. From the inception of this open access reference source, people have expressed concern about accuracy and quality of Wikipedia.

In November 2005 John Seigenthaler, Sr., a former assistant to Robert Kennedy, made news when he publicly objected to a Wikipedia article that falsely accused him of being a suspect in the assassinations of both John and Robert Kennedy. Seigenthaler criticized not only the content, but also the inability of anyone at Wikipedia to tell him who the author was. The author eventually came forward and acknowledged the hoax. Advocates of Wikipedia were buoyed, however, by an article in the December 15, 2005 issue of the journal Nature reporting that a comparison of 42 entries on scientific topics in Wikipedia and Encylopaedia Britannica showed that the Wikipedia entries were almost as accurate as those in Britannica.

The conventional wisdom regarding Wikipedia is to "use Wikipedia as a starting point for research (it's an excellent place to find links to other Internet resources on your topic), but double-check with another reliable source before you rely on Wikipedia for any crucial information." After reviewing a few samples of Wikipedia's entries on the Olympic Games, SportsLetter agrees. Use Wikipedia for Olympic research, but be careful. Wikipedia's Olympic articles about the Olympic Games provide good overviews, but they also contain errors.

The staff at the AAF Sports Library in Los Angeles reviewed four Wikipedia articles: "Olympic Games," "Winter Olympic Games," "1932 Summer Olympics" and "1984 Summer Olympics." Our fact check revealed several errors, most of which were minor, as well as some questionable claims. Let's take each of these entries separately and look at the questionable passages in the order in which they appear in the text.

"Olympic Games"

1) The text: "A special edition for winter sports, the Olympic Winter Games, was established in 1924."

Comment: Minor point. The IOC did approve a sanctioned winter sports competition to take place in 1924. However, it was not until the following year, 1925, that the committee retroactively declared this competition to be the first Olympic Winter Games. In other words, the Olympic Winter Games were not established in 1924, but rather 1925.

2) Text: "Even though the bearing of a torch formed an integral aspect of Greek ceremonies, the ancient Olympic Games did not include it, nor was there a symbol formed by interconnecting rings. These elements were introduced during the 1936 Berlin games."

Comment: Not true. The five ring symbol was introduced more than two decades before the 1936 Games.

3) Text: Re: the 1906 multi-sport competition in Athens, usually referred to as the Intercalated Games, "Although originally the IOC recognised and supported these games, they are currently not recognised by the IOC as Olympic Games, which has given rise to the explanation that they were intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the Modern Olympics. Most contemporary Olympic historians, however, consider them to be official Olympic Games."

Comments: It is not clear on what basis the writer claims that most historians believe that the 1906 competition was an "official" Olympic Games. The scholarly literature does not seem to support the claim. It might be the case that most historians believe that the 1906 Games should be official, but even that is a questionable and unsubstantiated claim.

4) Text: "The growth of the Olympics is the largest problem the Olympics face today."

Comment: The largest problem? Maybe, maybe not. Other contenders for "largest problem" are doping, commercialization, over-exposure due to the two-year rather than four-year cycle between Olympic events, a sense that the Olympic Games no longer represent "Olympic values" or "Olympic ideals," and competition from other sports events and entertainment products. Regarding the last point, some television analysts predict that in the United States the television show "American Idol" will attract more viewers than the Olympic Games when the two programs go head-to-head.

5) Text: “In 1972, when the Summer Games were held in Munich, West Germany, eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists. A bungled liberation attempt led to the deaths of all of the abducted athletes and a policeman, with five of the terrorists also being killed.”

Comment: The bungled rescue attempt did not result in the deaths of all eleven athletes. Two already were dead at the time of the raid. They were killed before the rescue attempt, when the Palestinian terrorists raided the Olympic Village. Also, most sources state that three, not five, Palestinians were killed at the airport.

6) Text: "The Soviet Union did not participate in the Olympic movement until the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki."

Comment: Soviet participation in the Olympic Movement began in 1951, when Constantin Andrianov became an IOC member. Soviet participation in the Olympic Games began in 1952.

7) Text: "Between 1996 and 2002, Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee was suspended from the IOC because of the Taliban regime's ban on any kind of sport."

Comment: The Afghanistan National Olympic Committee was suspended from the Olympic Movement, but not from the IOC. The IOC is composed of individuals not national committees. The suspension took effect in 1999, not 1996. Afghan athletes actually competed in the 1996 Olympic Games. Finally, the Taliban did not impose a "ban on any kind of sport." In fact, in 2000, the Taliban-led government wrote to the IOC seeking readmission to the Olympic Movement.

8) Text: "Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism. In the 1980s, amateurism regulations were relaxed, and completely abolished in the 1990s … As of 2004, the only sport in which no professionals compete is boxing."

Comment: The IOC removed any reference in the "Olympic Charter" to amateurism in the 1970s. Restrictions in the 1980s and 1990s were imposed by individual sport federations. As for boxing, although Olympic boxers do not compete in professional bouts, some Olympic boxers can and do receive cash bonuses from their National Olympic Committees for winning Olympic medals.

"Winter Olympics"

1) Text: "Three years later, Italian count Eugenio Brunetta d'Usseaux proposed to the IOC to stage a week with winter sports as part of the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. The organisers opposed this idea, wanting to promote the Nordic Games, a winter sports competition held every four years between competitors from the Nordic countries."

Comment: The Nordic Games were not just for athletes from Nordic countries. Austria, Hungary, Germany and England sent athletes to the Nordic Games.

2) Text: "Originally, the 1976 Winter Games had been awarded to Denver, but in a 1972 plebiscite, the city's inhabitants voted against organising the Games."

Comment: True, but incomplete. The state's voters also voted against the Games. The state referendum was the more important of the two.

3) Text: Re: the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games, "The threat of the American boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics was also clouding these Olympics, as the decision to do so fell during the Games."

Comment: President Jimmy Carter first floated the idea of a boycott in January 1980. The Lake Placid Games began February 4. The USOC voted in April 1980 to not send athletes.

4) Text: Re: 1992 Albertville Winter Games, "Germany competed as a single nation for the first time since the 1930s, and former Yugoslavian republics Croatia and Slovenia made their debut. The Soviet Union still competed as a single team, under the name of Unified Team."

Comment: Germany had competed as a single nation as late as 1964. Also, there was no Soviet Union in 1992.

5) Re: 1994 Lillehammer Winter Games, "American skater Nancy Kerrigan had been injured some months before the Games in an assault planned by the ex-husband of opponent Tonya Harding."

Comment: The phrase "some months" is misleading. The attack took place January 6, less than six weeks before the Games began on February 12.

6) Re: 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, "Canadians jubilated as both their men's and their women's hockey teams defeated the United States to win the gold; the men's team thus ended a medal drought that had lasted 50 years to the day.

Comment: This should read "gold medal drought." The Canadians won bronze and silver medals in ice hockey between 1952 and 2002.

"1984 Summer Olympics"

1) Text: "The organizers of the Los Angeles Olympics are able to produce a profit of over $200 million. It is the first Olympiad ever to make a profit."

Comment: "Olympiad" is misused here. An Olympiad is a four-year period, not a sports event. More importantly, 1984 was not the first time an Olympic Games produced a surplus. The 1932 Games resulted in a surplus of about $1 million dollars.

2) Text: "Tennis and Baseball are included for the first time (as demonstration sports)."

Comment: This is simply incorrect. Tennis first appeared on the Olympic program in 1896. It remained on the program through the 1924 Games. Baseball was a demonstration sport a number of times before 1984. There is no doubt that baseball was a demonstration sport in 1912 Games. Some historians cite 1904 as the first appearance of baseball as a demonstration sport. One well-known source, David Wallchinsky’s “The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics,” contends that baseball exhibitions took place in conjunction with the 1900 Paris Olympic Games.

3) Text: "Steffi Graf wins her first Olympic title."

Comment: Tennis was a demonstration sport in 1984. Winners of demonstration sports are not considered medallists or Olympic champions.

4) Text: "The opening ceremony featured the arrival of Bill Suitor by means of the Bell Aerosystems rocket pack (also known as a Jet Pack) who flew in from the roof of the main stadium to the location of the Olympic Flame."

Comment: The last part is wrong. Mr. Suitor's flight was a defining moment of the Opening Ceremony, but he neither took off from the roof nor landed at the "location of the Olympic Flame."

"1932 Summer Olympics"

1) Text: Re: the Olympic Village, "An Olympic Village was built for the first time, occupied by the male athletes. The village is now a part of the nearby University of Southern California."

Comment: No. The site of the 1932 Olympic Village was and is several miles from the university.

2) Text: "Babe Didrikson wins two gold medals in the javelin throw and the hurdles event, and only loses a third in the high jump because her jumping technique is ruled inferior and is placed second."

Comment: Her jump was not ruled "inferior," but rather illegal according to the rules of the competition.

Add Wikipedia . . . The Wikipedia terms "Olympics" and "Winter Olympics," for the record, are not part of the official Olympic Movement lexicon. The preferred terms are "Olympic Games" and "Olympic Winter Games."

Last Wikipedia . . . The AAF Library staff also checked the online Encyclopaedia Britannica, examining roughly the same topics covered in the review of Wikipedia. Britannica, in our opinion was better written than Wikipedia, but it contained several errors, too.

"National Olympic Committees"

1) Text: "A person who has ever competed in sports as a professional, who has ever coached sports competitors for payment, or who is engaged in or connected with sport for personal profit is not eligible to serve on a national committee."

Comment: This was true at one time, but is decades out of date.

2) Text: "In some sports, including track and field, figure skating, and skiing, athletes must place income from commercial endorsements and sponsorships in a restricted trust fund, which is controlled by their national federation."

Comment: Again, this claim is out of date by many years.

"Los Angeles, California, U.S., 1932"

Text: "The star of the Games was American Babe Didrikson (later Zaharias). She had won five events at the U.S. Olympic trials, but Olympic rules allowed women to compete in no more than three."

Comment: Britannica is one of many sources claiming that "Olympic rules" prevented Didrikson from participating in more than three events. This is a dubious claim. The event referred to as the "Olympic trials" also was the Women's AAU National Track and Field Championships in Evanston, Ill. Two of the five events Didrikson won at Evanston — the shot put and baseball throw — were not Olympic women's events in 1932. The 1932 "Report of the American Olympic Committee" clearly indicates that there were no Olympic trials in shot put and baseball throw. More to the point, the 1930 "General Rules Applicable to the Celebration of the Olympic Games" makes no mention of a three-event limit. The minutes of the 1931 IOC Session, the last Session before the 1932 Games say nothing about a three-event cap, nor does the "Handbook of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, 1929-1931" or the athletics rule booklet published by the Olympic organizing committee in 1932.

"Los Angeles, California, U.S., 1984"

Text: "Under the direction of the American entrepreneur Peter Ueberroth, the 1984 Olympics witnessed the ascension of commercialism as an integral element in the staging of the Games. Corporate sponsors, principally U.S.-based multinationals, were allowed to put Olympic symbols on their products, which were then marketed as the "official" such product of the Olympics."

Comment: The statement regarding symbols is true, but the implication of the passage is that 1984 marked the first time corporate sponsors were allowed to put Olympic symbols on their products. That is not true. As an aside, it is interesting to note that the organizers of the two Games preceding 1984 used far more official sponsors and partners than did Los Angeles. There were 628 companies in Montreal's 1976 "Official Sponsors Program," compared to 164 in Los Angeles.

NIKKI NICHOLS

On February 15, 1961, Sabena Flight 548 crashed in a Belgian field near the Brussels airport, killing all 73 passengers on board. Among those who perished were the 18 members of the United States Figure Skating team en route to the world championships in Prague, as well as the 16 coaches, officials, and family members who were accompanying them. The crash remains one of the most tragic episodes in American sports history: never before had the U.S. lost an entire national team in any sport. Among the victims were Maribel Vinson Owen, the nine-time national champion and the 1932 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games bronze medallist, and her two daughters, 16-year-old Laurence (the singles champ), and 20-year-old Maribel, Jr. (one half of the pairs champs).
		This book may be purchased at amazon.com

Many top coaches also passed away, and the incident left the national skating program in temporary ruins. American women had won the previous two Olympic gold medals (Tenley Albright in 1956 and Carol Heiss in 1960), while American men had captured the previous four Olympic gold medals (Dick Button in 1948 and 1952, Hayes Alan Jenkins in 1956, and David Jenkins in 1960). At the 1964 Olympic Winter Games, the U.S. managed only a bronze.

Now, with the 45th anniversary of the crash fast approaching, Nikki Nichols revisits this story and details how the U.S. Figure Skating program recovered in "Frozen in Time: The Enduring Legacy of the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating Team" (Emmis Books). Trained as a television reporter-producer, Nichols is a part-time journalist whose work has appeared in Skating Magazine and the Indianapolis Star. She also trains as a competitive skater, having won a state title and competed as a finalist (in singles) at the 2005 U.S. Adult National Championships.

SportsLetter spoke by telephone with Nichols from her office in Indianapolis.

Nikki Nichols: I read about the crash on the U.S. Figure Skating Association website — they had links to all these articles that were done for the 40th anniversary of the crash. Being a TV person, I talked to one of my bosses and said, "I would really love to do a documentary about this." He said, "Why don't you write a book?" So, I was very intrigued by that idea, and I decided to figure out who was out there who would talk to me.

SL: Was it difficult to locate surviving family members and friends and to get them to talk about this incident? How did you research this?

NN: I called the U.S. Figure Skating Association, and I was told that the archivist at the World Skating Museum [in Colorado Springs] was in charge of the material [about the crash]. She told me that I needed to fly out there and spend some time in the archives. Which I did — and there were binders and baskets and crates full of letters from family members to the Association, newspaper clippings, the crash report, and letters from the victims to the Association just before they departed. Looking through those articles, I got a sense that there were a lot of people around who were still willing to talk about it. I was interested in talking to the family members, but it was impossible to get a complete list of family members.

SL: What primary sources were most helpful in writing the book?

NN: Because I skate, I had a lot of connections in the skating world. My coach — Natalie Seybold — is a 1988 Olympian in pairs, and her coach was Ron Ludington, who was a 1960 bronze medallist. He was supposed to be on the plane because he had coached a team in the dance. Back then, they just didn't fund their excursions the way they do now, so he was left behind. One person led to another person, but there was a long list of people who I wanted to talk to but was unable to locate or approach. There were people who just came right out and said they didn't want to talk about it. And that's totally understandable. My biggest regret about that is there are certain people in the book who aren't given as much attention, and that's because their family members either didn't want to talk or there just weren't any surviving family members to talk to.

SL: You write that these were the first U.S. Figure Skating Championships to be televised (by CBS for its "Sports Spectacular" show, although it aired several weeks later) and that the year before, the 1960 Squaw Valley Games were the first Winter Games to receive U.S. television coverage. What has changed in figure skating — and the television broadcasting of figure skating — from 1961 to the present?

NN: Looking at the 1961 broadcast, a lot was different. First, it was in black and white. The first Winter Olympics to be televised in color was in 1968. That was the first time Americans could watch a long program in color, and they saw Peggy Fleming. Her blazing green dress against her dark hair and white skin was very dramatic.

In 1961, television didn't go out of its way to make the competition dramatic or compelling. It was a very basic and bare-bones broadcast. The human side of skating was totally de-emphasized. I don't think it was deliberate. I just don't think they realized how dramatic it could be. The two most compelling stories to me were what was happening in the pairs event and the ladies event. You had the two daughters of Maribel Vinson Owen both vying for national titles once owned by their mother. I mean, this is outstanding television, and they barely mentioned it.

Back then, they didn't save the ladies competition for last. Instead, the men's event came last. The men were put on an equal billing with the women, which is not what happens today. Today, they call the ladies free skate "the biggie." Now, the ladies close the event.

What was also funny were the commercials. In terms of the demographics for skating, the understanding didn't seem to be in place. There were mostly cigarette, beer and car commercials. The one for cigarettes shows these two skaters — they're pairs skaters — and the announcer says, "Looks like you could use a re-charge." They come over to the side of the rink, and the guy lights up a cigarette, and they actually start skating around the rink smoking.

SL: : Why do you think the marriage of figure skating and television has been so successful?

NN: I think that it's hard not to watch. It's such a unique and elegant art form. It's this rare combination of artistry and athleticism. And, in some of the disciplines, it's a combination of Hollywood and dance coming together. I think that it's very television-friendly — you've got all the make-up and the dresses and the sparkles — and I think helping it along was getting rid of the "school figures."

SL: Why were the compulsories eliminated and do you think that the elimination of compulsories has been good for the sport?

NN: Skating purists will argue that they never should have gotten rid of figures, but the audience would watch a competition and be completely perplexed as to how the person who skated the most beautifully in the long program was not able to win. And that's because, until a certain point in time, figures were worth 60 percent of the final score. Then they added the short program, to lessen the impact of figures, while also giving good free-style skaters another chance to shine. By 1992, figures were eliminated from international competition.

Once the TV producers got involved in the sport, it became clear that figures were not an audience-friendly art. It's impossible for the audience to see what's actually being performed on the ice. The judges are looking for very specific tracings on the ice, which the camera doesn't pick up too well. You have to be well-trained to understand what exactly they're looking for.

Whether or not it was good for the sport, the jury is still out on that. I think figures were really valuable for skaters to master the edging and blade work that you need to have a certain polish. I loved watching that with the 1961 skaters — they had such a great quality to their skating.

SL: You write that, in 1961, the skaters were very different physically than today's athletes. Why is that and how have the changes in physique affected the sport?

NN: Back then, because the skaters were doing compulsory figures and emphasizing that over jumps, they weren't putting as much practice into the jumps as today. In 1961, they were doing double jumps, as opposed to the more demanding triple jumps of today. The athletic quality of the jumps was different back then. So, their bodies were curvier then — they looked like real girls for their age. They weren't these waifs that are around today.

But, today, skating has transformed into such an athletic endeavor that you have to be in peak performance shape in order to do these jumps. Skaters have to supplement their training with weight training, endurance training, and stretching. A lot of skaters do yoga or ballet. You have to be more lean to get into the air and do those revolutions. Somebody like Michelle Kwan — she's a lean pocket of muscle mass.

SL: In 1961, the Owen family was a figure skating dynasty. How would you describe the influence of "Big Maribel" in the sport?

NN: Maribel was a single mother, ahead of her times, and she was the first female sportswriter for the New York Times. She was blazing trails all over the place. She was an extremely outspoken, incredibly charming, loving woman — and also very, very tough. She never took a break. She was always working on something.

One story I relate in the book was that, at the end of the school figures at the 1960 Olympics, Carol Heiss was marked second. Maribel went out on the ice and looked at the tracings, and she went ballistic and called it "rank ignorance." Somebody who heard her outburst came to her and said, "If you make a stink out of this, your daughters might not do so well." Her response was, "I don't care. We need to clean up our act in the judging." She was willing to put her neck and her daughters' necks on the line to stand up for what was right. That's what I admired about her. She had an incredible sense of decency. She was known for sneaking a little black girl into the rink at Boston after the cashier had told her that "No blacks are allowed here." That skater's name was Mabel Fairbanks, who went on to coach Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardiner.

As a coach, her legacy lives on in a lot of people. She coached Ron Ludington, who goes on to coach Kitty and Peter Carruthers. She coached Frank Carroll, who coached Linda Fratianne and Michelle Kwan. Last year, when Michelle Kwan won her ninth U.S. title, she tied Maribel Vinson Owen. There was a big deal made about it, and Michelle said that she had a "cosmic connection" with Maribel. I think that says a lot. She died 45 years ago, but her coaching techniques are very much alive today.

SL: Maribel had an intense rivalry with Norway's Sonja Henie — and Henie won every time and became the first great star of figure skating, with gold medals in 1928 (St. Mortiz), 1932 (Lake Placid) and 1936 (Garmisch and Partenkirchen). How would you describe Henie, on and off the ice?

NN: Her impact on the sport was incredible. She brought glamour to the sport, which was not an area that Maribel excelled in. Sonja Henie was very flirtatious and engaging on the ice. She had a charisma that translated well onto the big screen — she was one of the first Hollywood female millionaires. There was always a lot of fuss around her — what is she wearing?— and I think some of the other skaters didn't like that.

SL: In 1961, Laurence Owen was considered the future of U.S. figure skating. You describe her as "like a Picasso — bold unpredictable patterns, strong colors, very abstract." What made her so different on the ice?

NN: I don't want to slight the other skaters because the bronze medallist [at the 1961 U.S. Nationals] that year, Rhode Michelson, was the clear athlete in the field. She was very reminiscent of Midori Ito of Japan in the way she went for the jumps. Extremely muscular. The silver medallist, Steffi Westerfield, was very dainty and had a lot of polish to her skating, but didn't do so well on the jumps. But what made Laurence stand out was this wide grin — this joy — that spilled out of her on the ice. She didn't skate a technically clean program — she had a couple of bobbles on jumps — but it was easy to overlook because the rest was so joyous.

A lot of people talked about how her mother pushed her, but watching her skate you knew that she wanted to be there, that she was most at home on the ice. She had the air of a champion from the minute she took the ice. The excitement of her program kept building and building and building, and at the end you wanted to explode because she had put her whole soul out on the ice. It was the kind of performance that you remember for a long time, and it worked very well on television. She was made to be on television, and it's sad that her life was cut short right as she was about to become this break-out celebrity. She would have been huge.

SL: A photograph of Laurence appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated the week of the crash. Was she one of the first "victims" of the SI jinx?

NN: They boarded the plane on February 14th, and the issue of the magazine was dated February 13th. It's coincidental — and I don't believe in those things — but unfortunately there had been others.

SL: You write that there have been several airplane crashes that have affected sports teams, from the University of Evansville to the infamous Uruguayan soccer team in the Andes. Should sports teams not travel together?

NN: I don't know if that's practical. But this wasn't the normal procedure for the skaters. The team had competed all together in Philadelphia [at the North American Championships]. It just ended up being convenient that they take the same flight together [to Europe] from New York City a few days later, instead of them all returning home and then flying to Europe separately. The U.S figure skating team no longer travels together now.

SL: How did the crash affect the U.S. figure skating team for the 1964 Olympic Winter Games?

NN: Back then, you had a system where there weren't the scores of competitors like you have today. It was an egalitarian sport with a lucky few competing on the national level. So, it was way scaled down in numbers.

When we lost those top champions of that year, we didn't have a deep field to turn to. It wasn't as easy as saying, "Okay, the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-place finishers are going to be next in line." That wasn't how it worked out. The following year, you had all these people who were in the novice and junior levels, who hadn't yet gotten to that point technically in their skating, who were asked to step up to the plate. Otherwise, it would have been an empty field.

The immediate impact on the sport was that you had a lot of young people all of sudden on the world stage with no experience. The first couple of years, nobody won any medals at the world championships. At the 1964 Olympics, there were two surprises: Scott Ethan Allen won a bronze in men's [at age 14], and the junior pairs champions of 1961, Vivian and Ronald Joseph, won a bronze medal. They actually placed fourth at the Olympics, but they were later given bronze medals because it turned out that the silver medallists had signed a professional contract before the Olympics.

The full recovery didn't really happen until Peggy Fleming showed up on the scene and won the worlds in 1966 and 1967 and then the gold medal in the 1968 Olympics.

SL: How did the crash affect the coaching system in U.S. figure skating?

NN: It's interesting because Peggy Fleming lost her coach on the plane — Bill Kipp — and many of the nation's top coaches were on the plane. All of a sudden, there were vacancies at all these rinks where coaches were needed, and the top coaches available had a lot of skaters competing for their attention. So, there were a lot of coaches brought in to fill the gap, including Carlo Fassi [from Italy], who ended up coaching Peggy Fleming to her victory. There was also [British-born] John Nicks, who now coaches Sasha Cohen. He told me, "Guys like me may not have been given that chance had the crash not happened, and we were all very aware of it."

SL: What is the legacy of the 1961 team?

NN: I think the crash itself caused people to learn more about skating, but the lasting legacy is the Memorial Fund. Basically, people just started sending in money and money was collected at several ice shows. And, the president of the U.S. Figure Skating Association [F. Ritter Shumway] decided instead of building some big statue to remember the team, he wanted to use the money that made a difference. By creating the Memorial Fund, it created opportunities outside of the usual skating hubs of Boston, Philadelphia and New York City. It helped to promulgate the sport in other areas of the country where people couldn't afford to skate or where there were few opportunities to train. Now, there was a stipend available for them to pursue various training routes, and I think that helped spread the sport.

SL: What did it mean to the U.S. figure skating community when Peggy Fleming won the gold medal at the 1968 Grenoble Games?

NN: I think a lot of people were relieved because they expected the recovery was going to take a lot longer. Her winning sent a message: "Hey, we're back." It was the delayed catharsis that everybody needed. I think she completed the journey. There was something so elegant and graceful — in some ways, very simple — about her skating. It was such a delight to watch her skate.

But, I don't think the pairs and dance teams ever really came back to the same level. Back then, our pairs were a lot more competitive on the world level, and we had a lot of dance teams on the podium at worlds. This year, with Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto [in ice dancing], we have a real shot for the podium [at Torino].

SL: You attended the most recent U.S. Nationals competition. There was some controversy about Michelle Kwan's situation: do you think she should be allowed to compete in Torino?

NN: Michelle has done a lot for the sport, and I think the broadcasters would be very concerned if she wasn't there. Not that that should be how you select your team, but I think she's earned it. It's not her fault that she had two different injuries this season. Even if Michelle went out and doubled all of her planned triple jumps, there would be something so special in her skating at the Olympics, her swan song. Is it disappointing for Emily Hughes, who won the bronze medal. Yes, but she's young and she'll be around. What makes it a hard deal to pass up is that Michelle is willing to audition for the committee. She's not saying: "Give me the spot, no questions asked." She's saying: "Give it to me and I'll prove to you that I deserve it."

What I took away from the Nationals is that we have a lot of growing to do in the ladies division. I didn't get that gripping emotional moment from watching the ladies this year. In the free skate, Sasha Cohen was the only girl who didn't fall.

SL: As you mentioned, Maribel Vinson Owen was outspoken about the judging system in figure skating — and controversy over judging is something that hasn't changed in 45 years. How do you think the current system will work at the 2006 Torino Games?

NN: People who are not die-hard figure skating fans might struggle to understand what those big numbers mean. I think what's positive about it is that people are being rewarded for everything they do in their programs, not just their jumps. Now, a really nice spin combination gets a lot of credit. I love the fact that the results are very unpredictable. Look at the results of the world championships last year: if you had told me that an Italian girl would be standing on the podium ahead of Michelle Kwan, I would have said you're crazy. Under the old judging system, I think Michelle would have probably ended up with a medal. In the old judging system, if you had a fall during the short program, you could pretty much kiss a medal good-bye. Now, you can really launch a comeback and win, like Canada's Emanuel Sandhu has done. I like the fact that, going into this Olympics, it's anybody's game to win.

ANGELA RUGGIERO

Unlike its basketball and soccer counterparts, women's ice hockey has managed to slip under the media radar (except for Olympic years). Angela Ruggiero wants to change that — and soon. Her new autobiography, "Breaking the Ice: My Journey to Olympic Hockey, the Ivy League, and Beyond" (Drummond Publishing), details her life in hockey, from her childhood playing in Southern California, to college stardom at Harvard, to Olympic glory and disappointment. The timing couldn't be better: Ruggiero is on her third U.S. National Team and readying to compete in Torino. (Women's ice hockey was added to the Olympic program in Nagano; Ruggiero is one of a handful of players worldwide who have participated in all three Olympic Winter Games.) She's also won an NCAA title, was part of the U.S. Team that won the 2005 world championships, and was the first female non-goalie to play in a men's professional hockey league. In her spare time during the summer, she runs ice-hockey camps for girls.

This book may be purchased at amazon.com

Most puck experts believe the Torino competition will end up as a showdown between the U.S. (gold medallists in Nagano) and Canada (gold medallists in Salt Lake City). The Canadians have the advantage going into Torino, having won eight of the last 10 meetings against the Americans, but Ruggiero points to their upset of Canada at the 2005 worlds as proof that the U.S. will be competitive in Torino.

SportsLetter spoke with Ruggiero as she traveled on the team bus along the Massachusetts Turnpike, en route to Connecticut, where the U.S. was scheduled to play one of its last pre-Torino scrimmages before leaving for Italy on February 3. The U.S. opens Olympic "Pool B" play on Feb. 11 against Switzerland, then plays Germany (Feb. 12) and Finland (Feb. 14). After that? Oh, Canada.

—David Davis

SportsLetter: You just turned 26 — why did you decide to write this book now?

Angela Ruggiero: I wanted to put something out there because there's such a lack of information about our sport. You know, I do hockey schools every summer, and I get asked the same questions all the time — about my childhood, about making the team, obstacles I had to overcome, and how to train. It just seemed like the right time for me to answer all of those questions. I had a year off after I graduated from Harvard in '04, and I knew that we'd be getting a lot of attention coming into these Games.

SL: How did the process of writing the book work — did you do this yourself?

AR: I originally started out with a ghostwriter at the beginning of February of last year. We talked and she helped me lay the framework for what I wanted to do. When I got back from the world championships in April, I sat down and wrote a lot of it. Then my editor at Drummond helped me to smooth things out. It was fun. I guess it wasn't as hard as I had anticipated because it's just my life — it's not like I had to go and do too much research. It was just remembering names and dates.

SL: In the book, you write that your father pushed you and your brother into ice hockey. How did you feel about that at the time and how do you feel about that now?

AR: My dad always made it clear that I didn't have to play hockey. But if I chose to play, I was agreeing to this schedule and this type of life. I think it's a great lesson for kids. When I have kids, that's what I'm going to say: if you choose to do something, you have to follow through and go to all the practices and fully commit yourself to it. There definitely were times as a kid where I would want to skip practice or stay home, and my dad wouldn't let me because I had committed myself in the beginning of the season to go to every practice, even if it meant having to juggle a million things. I wouldn't be here without my dad's help as a kid, and him showing me what hard work, dedication, and commitment can do.

SL: Your relationship with your father revolved around hockey, but you write that he saw you play very infrequently because of the travel and expense. How has your relationship with your father evolved over time?

AR: It's evolved in that, before, it was a lot about hockey. I'm more mature now and I can understand some of the things that he went through. I can relate to him better. We're in a really good spot — he supports me even though he can't be at all the games. He checks the box scores on the U.S. hockey website. He won't be at Torino, but my mother will be there.

SL: Growing up, you played a lot of hockey with and against boys (including your brother). How did that affect your development as a player?

AR: My brother is one of my best friends. He supports me so much. He still plays pro hockey in Michigan. Every summer since I was 16, he'd work it out so that I could go and skate with him and his teammates. And that's been huge in my development.

Playing with the guys — they're naturally more competitive and bigger. As a kid, having the mentality of always having to prove myself, they pushed me to be better, to accelerate my game.

SL: You recently played in the Central Hockey League with your brother against other men. What was that experience like?

AR: Playing with Billy was the most supportive thing I had out there — it was like when we were kids. The biggest challenge was that they were men. They're great athletes who are very powerful and strong and explosive. Just trying to elevate my game to a level that I had never played before was a big challenge — and doing it under the spotlight. I never expected it to blow up like that — it was the brain-child of my brother, just to play a game together — but it turned into a media frenzy.

SL: Do you have plans to play again in the CHL?

AR: Not right now. I'm trying to just focus on these Olympics. When the Games are over in a month, I'll sit down and figure out my next step.

SL: You write about being kept off one all-star team when you were a kid and, later, that you were refused access to ice-time because of your gender. Why do you think that happened? And, did that motivate you?

AR: I think it's normal that it happened — I know it's happened to a lot of girls who speak to me and tell me their stories. Women's sports, in general, are becoming more and more accepted, but there are definitely still pockets where it isn't. The team that I was trying out for at age nine [in Southern California] was going to Canada, and they didn't want to be embarrassed by having a girl on the team, even though I could hold my own out there. As a kid, when you're faced with something like that, it was obviously very powerful to go through. It taught me a lot. It completely motivated me.

My first two years of hockey were about enjoying the sport. Everything was so much fun — I was playing with my brother and my sister. But from age nine, from that point on, I felt that I was out there alone. My sister ended up quitting after two years, and so I became the only girl out there. I'm such a competitive person, so for these parents to tell me that I can't do something because I'm a girl became my motivating force as a kid. Every time I was on the ice I felt I had to prove myself. It's really all I thought. The experience at the rink in 1998 [when Ruggiero went to play drop-in hockey at a Michigan rink and was told the ice-time was for men only] caught me off guard. I had just won the gold medal [in Nagano], and this was a city-owned arena. But they resolved it, and it's the same rink where I have my summer camps now.

SL: You write that there is a double standard regarding female athletes exhibiting aggression: why do you think this is so?

AR: I think just because, traditionally, sports have been exclusive to men. Women have been able to participate, but if you look at the ones that are really accepted in the mainstream, it's the sports where you can see finesse and the feminine side, like tennis and golf. Obviously, it's changing now, but if you're a tough, aggressive hockey player or soccer player or basketball player, you run into age-old stereotypes. They say you play like a guy.

SL: You also write about your size and advise young women who pursue weightlifting and other strength sports to embrace their body types. Was that difficult for you as an athlete?

AR: It definitely was. Luckily, I never had an eating disorder although I was surrounded by it at prep school. I felt more of an appreciation about my body because this was the means through which I was going to excel in my sport. I knew I needed to be stronger and fitter — and that's not necessarily the body type that you're going to see in the magazines. I'm 5-9 and 185 pounds — I'm a big, strong woman. I was only able to embrace that through sports.

I've worked on a few projects with the Women's Sports Foundation. They emphasize getting adolescent girls involved in sports for that reason — that you're going to have a healthier self-image if you play sports. Boys tend not to have the same body-image problems that girls have, and so that's why getting girls involved in sports is so important.

SL: How has women's ice hockey changed since you started playing as a kid?

AR: It's grown I don't even know what-fold. There were about 5,000 girls registered in 1990. Now, that number's over 50,000 in the U.S., and if you were to go up to Canada, there would be a lot more. That number doesn't include the girls and women who aren't registered through USA Hockey and the girls and women who play against men.

I think a lot of that has come from having the sport go from non-Olympic status to Olympic sport [in 1998] and then from non-NCAA status to full NCAA sport [in 2001]. That was huge: parents can see that, while their kid may not necessarily be good enough to go to the Olympics, she could be good enough to get a full scholarship to a great university. To me, that's one of the best things about women's hockey — the academic opportunities that are now open.

SL: What was the difference between your first two Olympic experiences — in Nagano and in Salt Lake City?

AR: Nagano was the first Olympics for everyone. Even though I was the youngest, everyone was a rookie in terms of Olympic experience. We went in there wide-eyed and excited about every little detail. We weren't expected to win, so when we came out with a gold, it kind of put us on the map. For me, it was a whirlwind of a year — it was my senior year [in high school] and I was able to get into Harvard that spring. It was like, wow, things can't get any better.

In 2002, it was great that the Olympics were in Salt Lake City — we were able to have so many family and friends there and to have the whole country behind us. We had a great hockey team, but for a million different reasons we didn't end up with gold. I don't think we had the best chemistry, and I think we felt a little more pressure because we were the defending gold medallists and the Games were in the U.S. Expectations were a little bit higher.

SL: How has the caliber of play in women's international ice hockey changed since Nagano?

AR: Dramatically, really. It's kind of funny, you see the same teams dominating, but the caliber keeps going up and up because each country is putting more and more resources into it, especially the teams at the top. It's getting harder and harder to make the national team. With the caliber of play today, back in '98 I wouldn't have made the team.

Sweden and Finland have picked up their programs in the last couple of years. You can tell — when we play against them, it's one- or two-goal games now. Luckily we're still on top of them.

One thing that I hope for is that some of the countries that have great men's hockey teams — like Russia, the Czech Republic, and other Eastern European countries — would put some of the same sort of resources into their women's teams. They have the potential to be really good — they have the numbers.

SL: A couple of well-known veterans were cut from the U.S. team in 2005 — how would you describe the U.S. Olympic Team for Torino?

AR: We're a little bit younger than in 1998 and 2002 — the average age of this team is about 24. This time around, we have the perfect blend. We have some rookies, we have some veterans. These Games, we're going into it with a little less pressure.

We obviously miss Cammi [Granato, the U.S. team's all-time leading scorer] and Shelley [Looney] quite a bit — their leadership and their experience and what they've done for the program. They're great hockey players, and they helped every individual on this team. We've had to find our own identity as a team, and I think we've done that recently. We're all figuring out what our roles are — designated checker, designated scorer, whatever it is — and how we can help the team. It's been all about the team.

SL: You've been switching back and forth from your usual defense position to center: what will you play in Torino?

AR: I'm back at "D" as of the beginning of this week. I look at it as, now that I played a month at forward, if Coach [Smith] wants to put me out front, he can do that. If they need me back at defense, he can put me there. Whatever the team needs. It was tough at first, getting use to the uncertainty, but I've accepted it. Now it's almost like a new challenge me. You don't know where you're going to be, but just play well wherever you are.

SL: Your chief international rival has been Canada: how would you describe the rivalry? Which game against them — win, lose or draw — do you most remember?

AR: Every time we play them — that's my favorite. It's like the Red Sox and the Yankees. It's that intense. I love it — I play hockey to play Canada. Every time we come out to play them, it's really about who's going to show up. In sports, you love that because it could go either way. When I'm in the gym and on the ice in the summer and all the little extra things I do — I always have Canada in the back of my head.

SL: In 2005, you ended Canada's eight-year run as world champs, and yet they've had the advantage over you since then: are they the team to beat for gold in Torino?

AR: Canada is definitely the team to beat right now. They got together a little bit sooner than us — they got the jump in terms of their schedule a good couple of months before us. We're hoping they've already peaked because they beat us earlier in the season and were the better team then. We're just hoping that we'll peak at the right time this season.

They're a hockey nation, and their country is behind them. They have great skill players across the board. They live for their hockey, and they have a lot of support from their federation.

SL: What does women's ice hockey need to grow the sport?

AR: One, more exposure. Next month, you're gonna see us on TV a lot, and I guarantee the number of women hockey players will go up, especially if we do well. Little girls across the U.S. will want to play hockey and be like Team USA. That's a sure way to grow the sport.

Also, having more NCAA institutions with women's hockey teams will help grow the sport.

SL: There's now an opportunity for women to play ice hockey after college with the Canada-based National Women's Hockey League: do you think the league will make it?

AR: I played half of a season there last year [for the Montreal Axion]. It's a semi-pro league — we don't get salaries, but we have sponsors that take care of everything else. I think it's a great springboard if we can get some more sponsors and expand the league, possibly have a few teams play in the border cities of the U.S. Start small, otherwise you run into some of the problems that the women's soccer and basketball leagues had. Don't try to enter markets that are already saturated with other sports teams. Start it like minor-league baseball — in smaller venues and get the cities really excited about it. We have a great product — we have a great sport — but when we're done with college, most women hockey players have to retire. We lose a lot of really good talent: women peak in their late 20s and yet they're retiring when they're 22. The potential is definitely there, it's just a matter of getting the support.

SL: You founded the All-American Girls Hockey School: are you still involved in that?

AR: I'm in the process of organizing schools that I'm going to be working with this summer. I know I'll do one school in Detroit. I'll post the schedule later at my website — www.angelaruggiero.com. At Torino, I hope to keep a journal and post every few days.

SL: Do you have plans to play hockey after Torino?

AR: I'll definitely play next year for the national team. I'm kind of taking it year by year. I have to figure out what the next stage holds for me. I've been thinking about going back to school — maybe business school — but for now I'm just trying to focus on the next month. When I get back home in March, I'll re-evaluate everything.

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