Tonya Harding and Diane Rawlinson
Amy Mossman
has had since "breaking onto the World scence" in 1991 are very much
due to poor coaching and guidance from Diane Rawlinson. She was
not with Diane in 1991 when she won Nationals with the triple axel
and took the silver at Worlds. She was with Dody Teachman (sp??),
whom she left following 1991 Worlds to coach herself for a bit
then went back with Diance Rawlinson, her first coach. Since then,
she really has been struggling, bad costumes and hairstyles aside,
she hasn't done a proper triple axel in competition in ages, she
has gained weight, she seems to have all her competitive spirit
focused in the wrong places, and she has equipment failures with
stunning regularity. This finally hit me when I saw her trying to
replace the broken lace Friday night and Diane Rawlinson was just
standing there watching. Why wasn't she telling someone what the
problem was, getting word to the referee, etc.? Couldn't she do
something more than just stand around and watch? Doesn't she know
what size lace Tonya uses? Tonya may have many problems on her own
but I really wonder if things wouldn't be better for her without Diane.
Amy Mossman
mos...@cfa.harvard.edu
Swartz
Harding too. Like you, I noticed her doing little during the great
skate lace controversey (and you would think that *someone* would have
spare laces handy -- wouldn't this be a coaches responsibility?). Also,
I noticed during several practices shown when Tonya fell, Rawlinson just
appeared to be all smiles, like nothing was wrong. Struck me as kind
of strange.
John
--
JOHN A. SWARTZ---The MITRE Corporation---Bedford, Massachusetts
"Strange shapes light up the night. Never seen them though I
hope I might. Don't ask if they are real. The men in black -
their lips are sealed." Blue Oyster Cult
Ann Schmidt
Actually, as someone who has watched them for many years, I would say the
opposite it true. Diane has been a huge positive influence on Tonya and
very supportive without smothering her. Dody was coaching her in 1991,
but that was because Tonya and Diane weren't getting along at that point
(due to some things Tonya did). The fact that Mrs. Bakas (sp?) was
helping her with her lace could be totally irrelvant. Also, there are
ice monitors and other official types whose responsibility it is to
inform the referee of possible problems. As far as I know, even if the
officials know that there is a problem the skater still has to be on the
ice within the time limit or be disqualified.
In article <CLy5q...@cfanews.harvard.edu>,
Sandra Loosemore
As far as I know, even if the
officials know that there is a problem the skater still has to be on the
ice within the time limit or be disqualified.
I just checked the USFSA rulebook on this. It's CR16.032, and
includes the sentence: "The Referee may, for good cause, modify the
strict interpretation of this rule." I suspect that Tonya could have
gotten a couple extra minutes to fix the lace properly if her coach or
a team official had asked the referee on her behalf, especially since
the other rule about unexpected equipment damage that affects the
safety of the skater also applied.
-Sandra
George Robbins
> Hmm...I got the impression that Rawlinson hasn't done too much for
> Harding too. Like you, I noticed her doing little during the great
> skate lace controversey (and you would think that *someone* would have
> spare laces handy -- wouldn't this be a coaches responsibility?). Also,
> I noticed during several practices shown when Tonya fell, Rawlinson just
> appeared to be all smiles, like nothing was wrong. Struck me as kind
> of strange.
I dunno, Tonya was freaking with the lace - at one point someone was
trying to help and Tonya pushed them away and fiddled some herself, then
someone else was helping again. I didn't really really catch which
person was playing each part.
Some of this may be Diane's fault, but then Diane may be the best that
Tonya can get - and Diane and her Hubby would probably like nothing
better at this point than to take Tonya out behind the barn and put her
out of her misery.
She did appear supportive at various time in the program, so I wouldn't
draw any quick generalizations. You can't really tell what peoples
true feelings are, especially from sensational media coverage - Diane
could be a real Tonya fan, or simply stuck with the only "olympic property"
currently available.
--
George Robbins - now working for, work: to be avoided at all costs...
but no way officially representing: uucp: ...!rutgers!cbmvax!grr
Commodore, Engineering Department domain: g...@cbmvax.commodore.com
Margaret Esther Martin
: In article <2ktm8p$b...@linus.mitre.org> jsw...@mbunix.mitre.org (Swartz) writes:
[stuff deleted]
: She did appear supportive at various time in the program, so I wouldn't
: draw any quick generalizations. You can't really tell what peoples
: true feelings are, especially from sensational media coverage - Diane
: could be a real Tonya fan, or simply stuck with the only "olympic property"
: currently available.
I read an article awhile back in the New York Times which quoted someone
maybe an ex-manager of Tonya's, as saying that one of the reasons that
she broke with Teachman and got back with Rawlinson was that Rawlinson
could cut her more slack on late payments, since her husband is a lawyer
and has a pretty comfortable income wheras Teachman demanded to be paid
on time.
margaret
mmar...@umich.edu