Figure Skating History

Knocked Flatt for skating through pain

Imagine this scenario: An NFL player being reprimanded and fined for not disclosing an injury before playing in a Super Bowl.

But no one has ever confused figure skating with football, despite sharing a propensity for spectacular crashes, and former U.S. champion Rachael Flatt was sanctioned by the sport's national governing body for quietly playing through pain at the World Championships in Russia in April – and then admitting she had a stress fracture afterward.

Flatt, a federation spokesperson confirmed in an email Thursday, was issued a letter of reprimand and fined an undisclosed amount “for not reporting her injury in advance to U.S. Figure Skating, as was required.”

It is probably one of those incidents best shoved in the only-in-figure-skating file, next to the sequins, velour, twizzles and the infamous “kiss-and-cry” area where you await your scores. It may, however, raise larger questions about whether elite athletes, conditioned to persevere through pain and desensitized to its impact, should – or even can – properly disclose injuries.

And whether they should be punished if they don’t.

Flatt, 18, who grew up in Del Mar and whose family is in the process of moving back, was unavailable. Her mother, Jody, declined comment.

But local skater John Baldwin Jr., who has competed at more U.S. nationals than anyone in history, did not shy from condemning a federation he butted heads against more than once in a career that included a trip to the 2006 Olympics in pairs with Rena Inoue.

“If you’re injured, you’re supposed to tell them if you think it’s going to hinder how you’re going to perform,” said Baldwin, who lives in Escondido with Inoue, now his wife. “She obviously didn’t think it would. She didn’t purposely deceive them to take a free trip. I mean, who wants to go to Russia?”

(Full disclosure: Baldwin was once assaulted and robbed during a skating event there.)

Flatt, the 2010 U.S. champion who was seventh at the Vancouver Olympics, said she learned of the stress fracture a week before the ladies competition in Moscow. Sometime during the short program, either in the warm-up or actual performance, she appeared to tweak her leg further and had trouble landing jumps.

Her problems worsened the next day in the free skate, and she finished 12th.

The number of entries each country gets is determined at the previous World Championships, and Flatt and fellow American Alissa Czisny needed a combined placement of 13 or better to earn a third U.S. ladies spots for 2012. Czisny (fifth) and Flatt were a combined 17.

Adirondack Almanack: A Brief History of Figure Skating in Lake Placid

According the Skating Club of Lake Placid historian Barbara Kelly, figure skating in Lake Placid really started to develop in the 1930s. The Sno Birds hosted their first indoor competition in 1932 in the new Olympic Arena. This was also when the skating club, then called the “Adirondack Skating Club”, was formed after the Olympics. The board of directors were influential local people, among them the manager of the Olympic Arena Jack Garren and Chairman of the North Elba Park Commission Rollie J. Kennedy. In 1937 the name was changed to the “Skating Club of Lake Placid”. The “Golden Age” of skating continued through the 40s, when skaters flocked to Lake Placid to train in the summers with the best coaches in the world. This provided them the opportunity to skate in the two spectacular summer ice shows, some of the most elaborate shows in the country. At this time, well-known skaters such as Dick Button trained with equally famous coaches like Gus Lussi. Through the 50s , 60s, and 70s, the figure skating program continued to attract talented and well known skaters. Some notables included Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Ronnie Robertson, Tab Hunter, and Evelyn Mueller Kramer. Fleming and Hamill were the 1968 and 1976 Olympic Gold Medalists in Ladies Figure Skating, respectively. Ronnie Robertson was the 1956 Olympic Silver Medalist in Men’s Figure Skating, and was best known for his amazing spinning ability. Coached by Gus Lussi, Robertson’s incredibly fast spins were tested by the American Space Program to determine how to achieve balance in a weightless environment; they were baffled by his lack of dizziness after spinning. Tab Hunter was a movie star and recording artist best known for his good looks and roles in movies such as “Damn Yankees”. Hunter was a figure skater as a teenager, competing in both singles and pairs; he was another of Gus Lussi’s famous students. Evelyn Mueller Kramer trained alongside Ronnie Robertson and Tab Hunter, and is currently a well-known skating coach. Summer skating continues every year, bringing skaters from all over the world to train with a variety of coaches. Celebrity skaters train here as well; the most well known are Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov, 1964 and 1968 Olympic Gold Medalists in Pairs Skating. Part time residents of Lake Placid, they train here every summer and can often be spotted practicing on one of the rinks (see photo above).

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