In memoir, skating champion Nicole Bobek confronts her past head-on, frightening details and all

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In memoir, skating champion Nicole Bobek confronts her past head-on, frightening details and all

 It's wild how fast life can flip. On minute, you’re center ice with the world at your feet. . .The next you're barefoot in a Florida jail cell shaking so hard you can't even hold the phone steady enough to dial your mom, let alone speak when she answers.

--Nicole Bobek in her new memoir, “Bobek: The Wild One”

 I texted Nicole Bobek last month to let her know I had received the review copy of her book.  She replied, “You might wanna put on your seatbelt for this one.”

Indeed.  As the except quoted above (and several to follow) illustrates, the figure skating champion’s life (lives?) has been a bumpy ride, with more than one crash landing.

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A season of tragedy and triumph for U.S. figure skaters

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A season of tragedy and triumph for U.S. figure skaters

The figure skating season that ended nine days ago at the World Team Trophy in Japan was one of overwhelming tragedy and historic triumph for Team USA.

The tragedy happened Jan. 27, when 28 members of the U.S. figure skating family were among the 67 people who died in a crash between their plane and a military helicopter near Washington, D.C.

Among the 28 with ties to the skating community were 11 young skaters, plus some of their parents and coaches, all returning from a development camp following the U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas.

At that point, with a pall hanging over them and hearts heavy with pain, the top U.S. skaters still had nearly three months left in the season, with three championship events left:  Four Continents, World Championships and World Team Trophy.

For nearly all of them, going back to practice was both incredibly difficult and necessary, as the U.S. elite sought ways to honor the memories of those who had died by honoring the sport they all loved with their best efforts.

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A special feeling in watching Alysa Liu triumph, both live and in the mind's eye

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A special feeling in watching Alysa Liu triumph, both live and in the mind's eye

As a journalist, you are trained to cover a story with neutrality and dispassion.

As a human being, you have emotions, and mine were provoked by watching a bogglingly brilliant performance by a person whom I have covered for many years, whose struggles and triumphs I have related.

In my 45 years of reporting on figure skating, I cannot recall being more emotionally moved by what I was experiencing than I was by watching Alysa Liu win the World Championships.

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Alysa Liu on top of the world, a startling position after two years away from skating

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Alysa Liu on top of the world, a startling position after two years away from skating

BOSTON — During her two-year retirement from figure skating, Alysa Liu joined four friends in May 2023 on a 40-mile trek to Mount Everest base camp, some 17,500 feet above sea level.

That was nothing compared to the trip Liu made Friday, climbing to the top of the world in her sport, a result that is one of the biggest surprise endings in figure skating’s long history. It seemed beyond the realm of comprehension even to Liu.

She did it by being unabashedly, completely herself, a 19-year-old who mixes adult maturity with teenage goofiness, as she did when asked by rinkside host Ashley Wagner how it felt to be world champion.

“Just, what the hell?” she told the sellout crowd at TD Garden, which had roared and stomped and clapped so loudly near the end of the program it drowned out the million-decibel Donna Summer music.

What the hell, indeed?

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates shuck weight of past ice dance glories to seek more

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Madison Chock, Evan Bates shuck weight of past ice dance glories to seek more

BOSTON — When the triumphs pile up, when you have been atop the field in your sport for more than two seasons, when you have been a medalist in national and world championships from your early 20s to your 30s, it is easy to become happy with what you have already accomplished in 14 seasons as competitors.

For those who become timeless champions, though, the Sisyphean but still fulfilling quest for perfection always endures.

So it is for U.S. ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who came into the 2025 World Championships with an Olympic gold medal, six national titles and five world medals, the last two of them gold.

“Yes, we’ve accumulated some titles along the way, but it still feels like we’re still striving for excellence and looking for ways to improve ourselves,” Chock said in a recent interview.

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