Bobek Says Her Chance May Come Somewhat Older U.S. Skater Discovers Some Inner Strength

Forgotten, but not gone: Nicole Bobek. The buzz in Olympic women’s figure skating is over Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski, but Bobek is here to remind everyone that there are three U.S. women in that event.

“It’s been hard. It has been hard,” Bobek said. “Most of the time in the papers or on TV, it’s ‘Tara and Michelle, Tara and Michelle.’ In a way, it makes me feel left out.” When Bobek, who trains in the same Lake Arrowhead, Calif., rink as Kwan, returned there after last month’s Olympic trials, she saw huge signs screaming, “Congratulations, Michelle!”

“I was kind of, ‘Hey! Don’t forget me,”’ Bobek said Monday.

A native of Chicago, she had gone to California in the fall of 1996 to be trained by Carlo Fassi, whose students included Olympic gold medalists Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill. Insiders believe Bobek rarely has lived up to her potential; she won the 1995 U.S. title coached by Richard Callaghan, now Lipinski’s coach, but continued to change mentors.

A year ago, Fassi had helped put Bobek back in the world championships, where she had won a bronze medal in ‘95, but in the middle of that competition, Fassi suffered a fatal heart attack. “Carlo would be proud,” Bobek said. “I’m an Olympian and he’d be very proud of me. I still consider him my main coach.”

Fassi’s widow, Christa, and three-time Olympic pairs champion Irina Rodnina now coach Bobek, who, though only 20, somehow seems late in her career.

“I definitely have had a lot of ups and downs, but with Carlo, I always knew where I stood,” Bobek said. “And as you get older, it’s harder.

“When you’re young, you just skate and don’t think about pressure and all the other stuff. When you’re older, all of a sudden, you’re thinking, ‘What about my hair? How’s the makeup? Does my costume look OK?”’

After finishing a 13th in her griefstricken ‘97 world championships, Bobek said it was “a good month” before she returned to training. When she did, she found she had new resolve.

“Even the year I won the nationals, I was so mechanical. It was more like something I had to do; it didn’t come from me,” she said. “This year is so deep inside me when I’m skating. This is it. It’s not what I’ve got to do, it’s what I want to do.”