LIGHTS, CAMERA, AXEL (PART #3)

For years, whenever producers of ABC's Wide World of Sports were asked by eager athletes, 'how do I get on TV?' their standard response was always, 'Either win or be spectacular.' At the 1972 Worlds, an up-and-coming American skater fulfilled the second half of the command. Director Doug Wilson remembers being so smitten by a little girl with a big pink bow, that he broke precedent and, in the middle of the dance event, "flashed back" to show a ladies' competitor who hadn't won even a medal. Thus giving the world their first glimpse of a teen-age Dorothy Hamill.

Skating and television broke another precedent, when, in 1980, a group of amateur and pro skaters, including Peggy Fleming, Lisa-Marie Allen, Linda Fratianne, JoJo Starbuck & Kenneth Shelley, Tai Babilonia & Randy Gardner, Judy Blumberg & Michael Seibert, David Santee, and Elaine Zayak -- skaters who, under the old amateur and pro rules should not even have been performing on the same ice -- became the first U.S. skaters to perform in Communist China. Apparently, one of Peggy Fleming's television specials had aired there, raising interest in her performing live, and opening a door to the historic visit. The United States Ambassador later told the athletes, that what they did to promote U.S./Chinese goodwill was worth a thousand political speeches.

The 1980 show aired live in China, and was seen by two hundred million people. Among them may have been a three year old Chen Lu, who, after winning the 1995 World Championship, admitted her childhood idol was Peggy Fleming.

(TO BE CONTINUED WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2005)