All That Glitters Isn’t Gold : Figure skating: Once an Olympic showcase, money and TV exposure have some worried about a sport out of control.

Before Tonya and Nancy, figure skating’s image was all sequins and rhinestones, a glittery spectacle to enjoy every four years when an ice princess and prince were crowned at the Winter Olympics.

The winners had uplifting stories that reaffirmed the existence of the American dream. Peggy Fleming wore costumes stitched by her mother. Scott Hamilton overcame a medical condition that hampered his growth. Dorothy Hamill was a sweet teen-ager with a shy smile and a saucy hairstyle that sent thousands of women to beauty salons for wedge cuts.

When their two weeks in the spotlight ended, they took their medals and glided off to professional ice shows, presumably to live happily ever after.

That shiny-clean image was obliterated at the 1994 U.S. championships with the attack on Nancy Kerrigan and revelations that Tonya Harding’s ex-husband and three associates were responsible.

Suddenly, figure skating was thrust into the realm of soap opera.

What did Tonya, the cigarette-smoking, pool-playing blonde from the wrong side of the tracks, know about the hit? Was Tonya in on the plot or the victim of a hateful ex-husband? And was Nancy a heroine or an ungrateful brat who became the Other Woman in the breakup of her agent’s marriage?

But unlike daytime dramas, figure skating has no script to follow.

In the year since the Tonya-and-Nancy saga began, skating’s popularity has skyrocketed. Exhibitions and competitions have consistently earned strong TV ratings and drawn sellout crowds. After the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, ABC signed a six-year, $4.5-million contract with the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. to televise four events per year. Membership in the USFSA jumped to 125,101 for 1993-94, up nearly 23,000 from 1991-92.

Yet, as the 1995 U.S. championships begin today at the Providence Civic Center, skaters, coaches and administrators are divided over how to mine this boom while preserving the sport’s integrity.

“It’s in transition, a rapidity of transition that is frightening,” said John Nicks of Costa Mesa, who has coached for 34 years. “A lot of people think it’s out of control, and they’re not quite sure where it’s going to end. . . . It’s sort of an exciting time, but it’s a worrisome time too.”

The public’s fascination with celebrity scandals, intensifying as the Harding-Kerrigan case unfolded, created a feeding frenzy. Skating was always a good TV draw at the Olympics and had a solid core of fans, “but now they’re obsessed and they’re willing to pay to see these events,” USFSA President Claire Ferguson said.

“Some rink managers would send us flowers every week. I can’t say anything is good that came out of anything as tragic as (Kerrigan being clubbed on the knee), but it certainly did bring attention to the sport. It has created a flow here that is difficult to describe.”

Others see it as a flood.

“There have been some control issues because a lot of money has been offered,” said Frank Carroll, who coaches Michelle Kwan of Torrance, the runner-up to Harding in 1994 and the women’s favorite this year. “It could interfere with your progress if you’re not careful.”

To stage shows, promoters need a steady supply of talent, so they pursue kids whose parents have stacks of bills to pay and aren’t sure the child will win a medal and get enough endorsements to recoup the investment.

“They do dangle the carrot, and the carrot gets larger if you keep saying no,” Carroll said. “That’s one issue that’s negative. The positive is we have a lot of youngsters who would not have been drawn into skating without (the events of) last year, and it’s a good sport.”

Its prosperity, however, could be its ruin.

The number of competitions and exhibitions available at the touch of your remote control is overwhelming, perhaps leading to overexposure. Their formats vary from week to week and differ from the formats of the U.S. championships and Olympics, causing confusion. Skaters are judged on a scale of 1-10 rather than the 6.0 perfect score of Olympic and USFSA-sanctioned events, and few rules govern jumps or music. Few of these events have been sanctioned by the USFSA, but that’s no concern to skaters when the prize money is $40,000 or more.

It’s also impossible to figure who skates where. Fans who saw Kerrigan one Saturday might expect to see her this week in Providence because professionals such as Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt were allowed to compete in the Olympics. But Kerrigan is ineligible for the U.S. championships.

“Based on recent conversations, it is difficult to sort out, even if you’re the most devoted skating fans,” Ferguson said. “As far as calling events professional, (they are) promoter-driven events. As the national governing body, we have to be the caretaker for amateurs.”

Actually, no one is classified “amateur.” Skaters are called “eligible,” like Kwan, and “ineligible,” like Kerrigan and other overt pros. By whatever name, the public calls for more. Fox’s Rock and Roll Skating Championships--produced by its entertainment division--got an 11.0 rating and a 16 share on Jan. 17, the network’s best Tuesday night until it aired a movie about O.J. Simpson.

CBS’ Eye on Sports’ 11-event figure skating series, which aired from Nov. 24 through Jan. 8, was seen by 53 million people. Eye on Sports was the highest-rated sports show, other than football and one NBA game, in the fourth quarter of 1994.

Rick Gentile, senior vice president, production, for CBS Sports, was instrumental in making skating part of the network’s programming after it lost the NFL to Fox. His decision was based on the 30 shares and 30 ratings recorded in Calgary in 1988 and Albertville in 1992, not on the notoriety sparked by Tonya and Nancy.

“Figure skating was not discovered with that,” he said.

Gentile believes skating hasn’t exhausted its audience potential, but he would like to see more stringent standards.

“We at CBS and all networks have to be conscious of the credibility issue,” he said. “If it’s an exhibition, fine. But if we say it’s a competition, we have to be credible. I do think it’s a concern, and we try to be conscious of what the rules are and the judges.”

Promoter Jerry Solomon, president of ProServ--and Kerrigan’s agent and companion--agrees the events must “have some rhyme or reason” to retain their appeal.

“Nancy’s having a problem looking at the professional events because they don’t have any meaning for her except money,” he said. “She’s coming off the Olympics, which is the height, so there’s not the motivation for her. If the sport were able to become organized like the PGA, that might help.”

No Olympic berths are at stake in Providence. The most recognizable skater is Kwan, who went to Lillehammer last February as an alternate but did not compete. Still, USFSA executive director Jerry Lace expects as much attention to be paid this week as ever.

“Long before the incident with Tonya and Nancy, there were indications skating was increasing in popularity,” he said. “Our membership has increased steadily. I’m not saying Tonya and Nancy didn’t bring great interest in the sport, but it brought it a whole new market.

“Have we hit a crest? We haven’t yet. . . . We’re having problems that we like to have.”