Skating Team Nears Goal of Competing in ’92 Olympics

Tristen Vega was 3 when first mesmerized by a figure-skating performance that she saw on the Donny and Marie Osmond television show.

Now 17, Vega and partner Richard Alexander, 22, form one of the top figure skating pairs in the country.

Vega, a Torrance resident, and Alexander, of Hermosa Beach, have skated together for two years, and finished third in the U.S. Olympic Festival competition last summer. They are participating in the Skate Canada International competition in London, Ontario, this weekend.

Currently they are ranked fifth in the country, but are hoping that a strong performance in Canada and at the national championships in January will move them up in the rankings. The Olympic team will be composed of the top three teams.

Peter Oppegard, a 1988 Olympic bronze medalist, and Luanne Kulp-Stevens have been coaching Vega and Alexander.

“This is their time, these can be their years,” Oppegard said. “They haven’t come near their potential. It’s exciting for all of us because we don’t know exactly what they can accomplish yet.”

But they have accomplished a great deal in two years.

A successful junior singles skater, Alexander was approached by Vega after his pairs partner decided to quit. They clicked almost immediately and within eight months had passed their senior pair test and had qualified for the U.S. National team.

In their first year on the senior circuit, Vega-Alexander finished second at the Pacific Coast Championships and seventh at the 1991 National Championships. Two teams have disbanded this season, so Vega-Alexander have moved up to fifth in the rankings.

Although the Olympics are less than four months away, Alexander says they try not to focus too far ahead.

“We just want to skate to our potential,” Alexander said. “I just try to focus on tomorrow, be prepared for the ultimate goal” of making the Olympic team.

Originally from Oregon, Alexander didn’t begin skating until 1984. His younger brother and sister were skaters and he was often drafted to “baby-sit” them at the rink. His siblings gave up the sport, and Richard became the skater in the family. He moved to Agoura, and relocated to Hermosa Beach last year.

Tristen, who has been skating for 13 years, still competes in junior singles competitions. Richard has taken this year off from singles competition, although he still works on his individual program and will probably return to singles next year.

During their two years together, the team has represented the U.S. in competition in France and Germany, where they finished third and fourth, respectively. Their competitors are starting to take notice, Oppegard says.

“They haven’t been skating together very long, but they have already gained a reputation for being aggressive, consistent performers,” Oppegard said.

Unlike Alexander, who at times grows weary of the daily practice routine of “hearing the same music, hearing the same voices every day,” Vega loves the daily grind.

A typical morning will find Vega arriving at the Olympic Ice Arena in Harbor City at 7 a.m., where she will begin a singles practice session with Kulp-Stevens. She goes home to work on her school assignments after the one-hour session and returns to the rink to skate with Alexander from 9:40 a.m. to nearly 1 p.m.

In the afternoon, Vega heads to the gym, where she does aerobics and trains on the Stairmaster and treadmill. Because of her schedule, Vega cannot attend a regular high school; she is enrolled in an independent study program through Torrance High.

“The toughest thing (about skating) for me is giving up going to a regular high school,” Vega said.

But Alexander, whose skating schedule places him on the ice at 6:30 a.m., doesn’t miss school at all.

“I hated school,” he said. “Not the studies part, but the fact that the people around me were doing nothing” with their lives.

On a rare day off from skating, Alexander said he likes to go to the beach and collect his thoughts, although skating and “the reason that I am here” is never far from his mind.

Vega said she doesn’t think about skating when she is away from the rink.

“You can usually find her in the shopping malls on her day off,” Kulp-Stevens said.

Days off will be a rare commodity for the Vega-Alexander team in the immediate future. After Skate Canada, they will prepare for the Pacific Coast Sectionals in Tacoma, Wash., in December and the Nationals in Florida in January.

Alexander feels that he and his partner are ready for competition.

“The favorite part of skating for me, is when I have finished the competition, taking my bow before the audience,” Alexander said. “I put a lot into each performance and I want to get everything out of it that I can.”

Vega loves the competition, too, but can do without a certain lift in which a fall during practice left her momentarily blinded and with a slight concussion four hours before their competition in France.

While practicing the lift, Vega caught her skate on Alexander’s shoulder padding and crashed to the ice.

“I understand at first I couldn’t see,” said Vega, who can’t recall the incident herself because of a slight case of amnesia. Vega was taken to the hospital, where she was given smelling salts and cleared to return for the competition.

Because of the amnesia, Vega had forgotten the program that was to be performed that evening, so Alexander had to shout instructions to her while on the ice. The performance, including the lift move that had sent Vega to the hospital earlier, went smoothly enough to land the team in third place for the event.

After their program, Alexander told Vega about the details of her fall and that they had performed the lift. According to Vega, that was the last time they performed that movement. It wasn’t until two weeks later, while undergoing testing at the Olympic training facility in Indianapolis, that Vega found out that she had sustained a concussion in the fall.

According to Vega, just getting to some of the competitions is a trying experience for her. Vega’s fear of flying, said Kulp-Stevens, has led them to drive twice to Phoenix from Los Angeles for competitions.

“When we finally flew to Phoenix, which is the shortest flight possible,” Kulp-Stevens said, “Tristen had a death grip on me and was turning purple.”

Vega said that she is conquering her fear of flying and hopes to make a transcontinental flight to Albertsville, France for the 1992 Olympics.