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Issue 07 – Saint Rose 2021

Features

Kiss and Cry

On skating.

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A couple months ago, I sat down to watch the World Figure Skating Championships.

This was my second attempt. Back in March my mom and I had tried to catch N.B.C.’s coverage, but the “skating boom” of the 1990s is ovah, my friends, nobody here cares. The T.V. Guide listing was wrong and so we were left with only skating morsels: the bronze and gold medalists in the men’s event, and maybe the top five ladies. In the halcyon days when little girls played “Nancy and Tonya” and fought over who got to do the whacking, skating was on T.V. every week. Sundays were a broad glassy expanse of silly sponsored “championships”: the Hershey’s Kisses Challenge, the Fox Rock ’n’Roll Championship, the Hallmark Skaters’ Challenge. Ice Wars: The U.S. vs. the World! You could watch Oksana Baiul heaving sensually to Enigma’s “Sadeness Pt. 1,” or Sasha Cohen doing her breathtakingly pretty layback spin for the glory of Keri Lotion. Kurt Browning, on an iced-over movie set gliding through “Singin’ in the Rain”; America’s sweetheart Rudy Galindo, pushing the boundaries of the family hour with a Rocky Horror medley in corset, fingerless opera gloves, and tearaway pants. All of that was on T.V.! Here in the worst timeline, I had to resort to YouTube to piece together as much world-class skating as I could find.


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About the author

Eve Tushnet

Eve Tushnet is the editor of Christ’s Body, Christ’s Wounds and the author of several books.