COMMENTARY : Connecticut Ice Rink Lures Leading Skaters

Far from their native land, Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko have found a new home. So has Ekaterina Gordeeva. And so have dozens of other world-class figure skaters, along with thousands at lower levels right down to beginners.

The International Skating Center of Connecticut, located 12 miles from Hartford in the small town of Simsbury, provides one of the great success stories in sports. Open just over a year, it is fast becoming the place to be in figure skating.

Olympic champions Baiul and Petrenko relocated from Ukraine and settled in Simsbury, along with Galina Zmievskaya, their coach--and Petrenko’s mother-in-law--who has coached 10 Olympic winners.

Gordeeva and her late husband, Sergei Grinkov, the 1988 and ’94 Olympic pairs gold medalists, began training there last year; Grinkov died of a heart attack in November.

Gordeeva recently returned to the ice and is now usually accompanied by her 3-year-old daughter, Daria. y ‘ We had four Olympic champions on the ice,” says Bob Young, a world and Olympic coach who is the executive director of the ISCC. “I don’t think you will find another facility with that kind of daily training. We had a pair team that was two-time Olympic champions, and Oksana and Viktor--on a day-to-day basis, you really don’t have that kind of training on a local basis.

“That was a key to getting this off the ground: You bring in the best coaches and some of the best skaters, you show people it is for real. It’s not just another hockey rink going up with a few hours of figure skating.”

The high visibility of its stars has helped the rink lure competitive skaters from eight countries, Young said.

“When you have Galina coaching and Oksana and Viktor skating there, people are going to have to look at it, take notice of it and at least come by and check it out, if you are serious about the sport,” Young said. “Then once you get there and see the facility and the amount of ice available and the kind of coaches we have, usually the parents and the kids are excited about being a part of it.”

Recruiting such an all-star roster to the rink actually began long before the ISCC was built. Young knew Zmievskaya for years, even stayed at her home in Russia. He informally spoke with her eight years ago about someday working in the United States.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union, it became clear to many top Russian coaches that relocating across the Atlantic made sense--financially and artistically. Natalia Dubova went to Lake Placid, N.Y. Natalia Linichuk and her husband, Gennadi Kasporov, are at the University of Delaware Figure Skating Club.

And Zmievskaya landed in the Connecticut countryside.

“I mentioned to her at a competition in Europe the possibility of coming over, and does she still feel the same way about wanting to come to the United States?” Young says. “She said, ‘Absolutely, but not until after the ’94 Olympics.’ Because of Oksana and Viktor, she stayed.

“I said that was perfect, because our rink would be opening in the fall of ’94. She was very excited about it.”

Along with the coach came Petrenko and Baiul; Nina Petrenko, Viktor’s wife, a choreographer; and Viktor’s brother, Vladimir, who coaches full-time.

Also working with Young are John Thomas and his wife, April Sargent-Thomas, who run the dance program along with Hugh Seaman. Thomas skated in the Olympics for Canada and Sargent-Thomas represented the United States. For them, it’s thrilling just to work in the same arena as such international stars.

“I am a new coach, I just started, and to ever gain her experience and knowledge would be a dream,” Sargent-Thomas says of working with Zmievskaya. “To just be able to watch her teach is a real treat.”

Adds her husband, “We work really hard to get the kids interested in dance there, locally. It is hard to bring in kids from all over the world; sometimes with a new facility there is a lot of local talent there. We are trying to get it going.”

ISCC’s programs have gotten going like, well, Petrenko taking off for a triple axel. Young admits much of the credit for the rapid success is tied to the association with Baiul, Petrenko, Gordeeva and Grinkov.

“We find some days we have to do a lock-down situation where the fans can stay in the lobby--it’s all glass, so you can watch,” he says. “We’ve had situations where we have had over 100 people in just to watch them practicing, to a point where it was hard for them to even practice.

“People come in just to sit in the restaurant and watch them skate. Tour buses come in. There isn’t a person in the neighborhood who is not aware. They are part of the community.”

The stars from afar even are blending into the Connecticut countryside.

“It’s funny to the point where we wil have a big ice show at the rink and people will say, ‘Who is starring in the show?’ and we will say, ‘Oksana and Viktor are starring.’ And they will say, ‘Yeah, but who else?”’ Young said. “Now, it’s not Olympic champions, it’s like somebody next door is going to skate.”