Las jueces—the judges--Ariadna, Lee Lonsdale Schaffer, and Liz, at Deportivo Alpino Chipinque, Monterrey, Mexico, October 13, 2002. Ariadna is from Mexico City, Liz from Tulsa.
She writes:
This photo was taken at the Chipinque Sports Complex on a beautiful hillside in Monterrey, Mexico, during the annual championships for their state of Nuevo Leon. The top skaters advance from here to the national championships in Mexico City several weeks later. We seldom sit this close to the ice in competition situations, but this rink is tiny, with an ice surface only 15 by 30 meters, a real challenge for all of us -- skaters try to perform programs choreographed for full-sized (85 by 185 meters) ice, and we try to avoid the flying snow from Lutz jumps into our corner! The rink has a second-floor gallery with lights so bright that the glare is blinding, so our hosts fixed us up with the first thing at hand: caps from the car of a member whose family are the original importers of "Coca" (Coca-Cola) into Mexico... a wonderful keepsake for this Atlanta resident.
On September 24, 2004 Lee Lonsdale Schaffer wrote, "I sent words to our reunion of my wonderful academic family. All four are teaching and/or studying: husband Bill and son Teddy, economics at Georgia Tech; son Sam and his wife Dana, American history at Yale. Meanwhile, I stand quietly by -- trying to keep up and marveling at the pace of today's world.
And I? I judge figure skating. I judge tests and competitions, in singles, pairs, and ice dance, anywhere I am invited. I've been a United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) judge for 37 years. I'm qualified to judge all tests in figures, moves, free skating, and dance (except the highest level of dance), plus all United States (U.S.) competitions up to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Since I'm not an international judge (for International Skating Union competitions), most of my judging has been in the U.S., and all of it in this hemisphere.
I have judged in a sundress in a mountaintop rink in Mexico, in everything I own on an outdoor rink in Pennsylvania, and in sunglasses at a sky lit mall rink in Texas. I've judged in French in Montreal, in Spanish in Monterrey (Mexico), in a raincoat in the Lussi rink in Lake Placid, and during a blizzard in up state New York, a hurricane in Tampa, and a tornado in Tulsa.
I've judged with panic at my very first competition, as I desperately tried to rank the skaters of 31 back inside circle eights while a deafening non-stop jackhammer reverberated from the stands of the Pittsburgh arena.
I've judged with difficulty as I tried to focus on the skaters and ignore furious basketball games going on behind them, visible through the glass wall at the other side of a tiny 15 by 30-meter rink.
I've known unspeakable relief when I managed to concentrate on "my" dance couples, throughout a day when sets of four couples were tested simultaneously by four judging panels.
I've known indescribable emotion as a teenaged Special Olympic skater blew a two-handed kiss to the judges as he swept past in his gleeful version of a spiral (arabesque).
Judging has taken me from Oklahoma to Nova Scotia, from Texas to Ontario, from 21 US states and a Mexican one to 3 Canadian provinces.
The sport itself has taken me from California to Virginia, Texas to Illinois, and Quebec to Germany. I've judged Nancy Kerrigan as a ten-year-old, have compared notes on sons over cocoa with Dick Button, and have chatted with Brian Boitano and Michelle Kwan on buses and behind the scenes. I've voted on new rules at meetings of the USFSA, edited rules for its official rulebook, and selected the cities where its US championships will be held. I've been third in command for two of these championships, in Atlanta in 1980 and 2004.
Figure skating is an elegant and elusive sport. It can make judges cold, hungry, tired, thirsty, sleepy, ill, confused, overworked, frustrated, drained…and we still come back for more! We can experience joy, despair, anxiety, satisfaction…all in the space of one performance. We receive no money except to cover our expenses, and we spend far more than we are reimbursed…but we receive pleasure beyond price.
Figure skating is a blend of many elements, among them athleticism, grace, strength, form, precision, timing, endurance, and musicality -- an overwhelming combination of intangible factors. It transports judges all over the globe, with people we love and hate, under conditions stressful and rewarding…and to us it's still the most beautiful sport in the world!