World-Class Skaters Glide Into Arena

Thu., June 20, 1996

By Susan English susane@spokesman.com

The dream team of American figure skaters - Todd Eldredge and Michelle Kwan - and a host of other heavy hitters skate into the Spokane Arena Sunday afternoon to perform a show that’s been sold out for more than six months.

Eldredge and Kwan took the gold medals at the World Figure Skating Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, in March, the first American sweep of the top prizes since 1986 when Brian Boitano and Debi Thomas won. Kwan won with two perfect 6.0s and seven 5.9s for artistry to edge defending champion Chen Lu of China. And, good news for those with tickets to Sunday’s show, Boitano and Lu are also both in the lineup.

Others skating Sunday include Nancy Kerrigan, Rudy Galindo and Nicole Bobek of the United States, Elvis Stojko of Canada, and Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko from the Ukraine.

Skating fans have had no lack of opportunity to see many of these athletes perform throughout the winter on TV, in professional and amateur competitions, prime-time specials and in a televised tribute to the late Russian skater Sergei Grinkov.

An impressive array of skaters perform with the Discover Card Stars on Ice Tour that came to the Arena in January, among them Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt, Paul Wylie, Kurt Browning, Scott Hamilton and Rosalynn Sumners. But where that lineup is impressive, it’s Sunday’s show that’s really the best of the best in the skating world. Tickets sold out in hours when they went on sale last fall.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SKATING The Campbell’s Soups 1996 Tour of World Figure Skating Champions will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Spokane Arena. The event is sold out.

This sidebar appeared with the story: SKATING The Campbell’s Soups 1996 Tour of World Figure Skating Champions will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Spokane Arena. The event is sold out.

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