SHOWS FOR YOUNGSTERS AND THEIR PARENTS TOO : ABC’s ‘Skating Adventure’ is that and more for 12-year-old reporter

Maria Sansone, 12, never dreamed she’d be part of a news story of tabloid proportions when she attended the National Figure Skating Championships at Cobo Arena in Detroit on Jan. 6. Sansone was covering the event from a kid’s-eye view for ABC’s Wide World of Sports for Kids: Kids on Ice! A Skating Adventure when skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked.

“I was actually there,” Sansone says from her Erie, Pa., home. “But I didn’t realize what was happening until I heard another reporter talking about it.”

Sansone, whose previous national sports-reporting experience was covering the Little League World Series last summer, had the instincts to attend a press conference immediately after the attack.

“You could see me (on television) at the conference,” says Sansone, who is believed to be the youngest network reporter in TV sports history. “(The attack) is definitely something kids are interested in.”

For one thing, Sansone says, kids love skating: “It is so graceful and difficult, and that’s what you associate with skating.”

The Kerrigan assault--and the almost immediate accusations of a rival’s plot--were a shock to Sansone. She believes her peers will feel the same.

“It’s so unreal,” she says, thoughtfully. “Kids are very competitive, and if they see their idols are possibly going to such lengths to win, why can’t they? It’s such a bad example to kids.”

A bad example is especially disappointing in a sport that Sansone calls “unlike any other.” She adds: “No matter how much you practice, how good you are or how much you practice, you can fall from a jump and then have to get up quickly and smile. It’s hard to do that, so skaters get a lot of respect.”

Sansone has a lot of respect for her co-host Kristi Yamaguchi, who appears in the opening demonstrating some of the more difficult skating maneuvers on the show.

Sansone will talk to young athletes whose lives are ruled by skating; many do not attend regular school but have tutors. There’s also a look at the competition via 13-year-old Amanda Ward. Costumes, ice shows, judging, the technical vs. the artistic, and long and short performances are explained.

Finally, there’s a look at the skating life as well as a behind-the-scenes glimpse at nationals for both seniors and juniors.

“Wide World of Sports For Kids: Kids on Ice! A Skating Adventure” airs Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on ABC. For ages 6 and up.

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