Skater Missed Chance To Make Admirable Stand

Have you seen the spiffy new monument downtown? It is a fine monument, as monuments go. It is located directly across from San Jose Arena, and it is both striking and appropriate. And blatantly dishonest.

Let me explain. America’s best figure skaters are coming to our town this week. Therefore, the city is unveiling a pillared tribute to the area’s champion ice people: Peggy Fleming, Kristi Yamaguchi, Debi Thomas, Brian Boitano … and Rudy Galindo.

It’s the Galindo part of the monument that has become controversial. The monument includes quotes from each champion, immortalized in zinc letters. The artists interviewed the skaters, in search of a quote to use.

The chosen Galindo quote was: “It’s hard enough being a Mexican-American skater when the judges are looking for an All-American boy.”

Well, that was the original chosen Galindo quote, anyway. After fretting that his words might offend the “skating community,” Galindo asked local art officials to retract his zinc testimony. And his wish was granted. the artists were ordered to use another, more bland-type Galindo quote.

Pity. Galindo, who grew up in East San Jose, had a perfect chance to stand up for a side of figure skating that needed to be represented in any sort of comprehensive monument to the sport. But he blew that chance. Years from now, he’ll regret it.

Galindo’s specific sentiment about implied racism isn’t the issue here. Oh, it’s probably true. The first rule of figure skating is, all rumors are true. And the second rule is, all gossipy remarks about all rumors are also true.

This is the issue. Figure skating likes to promote itself as a sweet bundle of spangles and delight. It isn’t. That’s why Galindo should have allowed his remark to stand in zinc forever. It would have lent some needed counterpoint to the spangled myth. As things stand now, the San Jose monument is like building a memorial to Iwo Jima and focusing only on the swell beach scenery.

And there’s a lot more to figure skating than the scenery, believe me. It might be the nastiest sport going, all things considered.

Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion from Sunnyvale, once told me about a German skater who stunk up the joint at the world championships. After leaving the ice, the skater stormed back into the locker room where the other competitors were sitting and pointed at them while shouting: “Maybe I skated bad today, but at the European Championships I was better than you - and a lot better than you!”

Across the locker room, a stunned young U.S. skater looked at Boitano in puzzlement.

“Get used to it,” Boitano said.

None of that is represented on the monument.

And neither is any of the other stuff that makes me feel creepy when I’m around figure skating. I remember the first practice session I attended at the 1980 Olympics. In addition to coaches and reporters, I noticed some other folks in long coats, holding clipboards and talking to one another.

“They’re the judges,” someone explained.

“The judges? What are they doing here? The competition isn’t for two more days.”

Then someone explained. In figure skating, judges are allowed to watch practice so they can “prepare” themselves for their duties. They can talk to one another and the coaches and skaters. Of course, the judges never discuss with one another which skaters they like best, or form any preconceived opinions based on personal prejudices. Not a chance.

And you wonder why there’s such controversy about judges’ scores in figure skating? You wonder why coaches and skaters swear under their breath about the system?

None of that is on the monument, either.

Sure, there are noble athletes in figure skating. But they are made noble by the seaminess around them. The comic opera with Nancy and Tonya and the Great Gillooly’s Gang of Goofballs was only the most extreme example.

Rudy Galindo has the perfect right, I know, to be memorialized with an innocuous remark on a spiffy monument. But it would have been nice if he had agreed to let the original zinc quote stand. It would have been nice to see someone represent the whole spangled truth.