WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
REC ONNECTI ON Barbi Smith excited once again about skating
JOYFUL by LOIS ELFMAN
What he found was an audio recording of Smith’s 1975 free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, along with a selection of photos and a letter Smith had written to a fan. “My son was reading some of the comments that people had written.
A
Even kids I used to teach had commented. Wendy Burge (a competitor and friend) wrote a comment and my son posted something to her. She wrote back right away saying, ‘Give her my number,’” said Smith, 53, describing her re-entry into the skating world after more than two decades. Her son was hesitant to tell Smith, who largely kept skating in the past
for personal reasons, about the video, but eventually he showed it to her. Touched by the kind comments, she picked up the phone and called Burge. “She was telling me all these skaters were on Facebook,” Smith said.
“My kids had been on MySpace and we had done all the junior high drama. I didn’t want anything to do with it. Why would I need Facebook? It was a heck of a learning curve getting my kids to teach me.” In 2010, Smith finally gave in and signed up for Facebook. Within a
couple of weeks countless people from the sport were back in her life — thus solving one of skating’s big mysteries, “What ever happened to Barbi Smith?” “It was such a huge joy,” Smith said. She went to Baltimore and visited friend Tracey Cahill and also saw her
former coach, Barbara Roles Williams, for the first time since 1977. During a trip to Los Angeles, where Smith grew up, Burge threw a party attended by many fellow Los Angeles Figure Skating Club and Arctic Blades mem- bers.
“It’s been pretty amazing,” she added. “It helps make sense of what was
a very confusing time, trying to grow up and not have the benefit of school and something away from the ice. Everything was on the ice and under a microscope and that microcosm of people you see every day. “Reconnecting has been absolutely terrific for me, very gratifying to know that people remembered me.” Smith, known for being a dynamic free skater with an
effervescent smile, won the U.S. novice and junior titles back to back in 1973 and 1974. After that exciting senior debut in 1975, she was expected to contend for a spot on the 1976 Olympic team, but a stress fracture forced her to withdraw after the short pro- gram.
She came back in 1977 to win
the U.S. silver medal and place fourth at the World Figure Skating Cham- pionships in Tokyo, but soon af- ter, her competitive career came to an end due to family issues. Smith had gotten into skat- ing at the age of 6 by accident — there was a rink on the way home from school. She had en-
8 JUNE/JULY 2012
bout four years ago, a friend contacted Barbi Smith, a popular and charismatic U.S. ladies competitor of the 1970s, to say she had found a video of her on YouTube. Not even knowing what YouTube was, Smith asked her then-teenage son to check it out.
joyed watching Peggy Fleming skate, so her mother took her to Olympic Ice Arena. Frank Carroll taught her first group lesson, years later reminding her that she fell down and cried. Although Smith hardly seemed to be a natural, her mother kept bringing her to the rink. “If you got there early enough, you’d get the size 11 (children’s) rentals
because there was only one pair,” Smith recalled. “If not, I had to wear the 13s and I’d fall all over the place.” After a year or so, Smith moved to Paramount Ice Land/Arctic Blades
Skating Club to take lessons. Smith was soon coached by Evy Scotvold in Anaheim. He took her through her third test. Ten she switched to Roles Williams for freestyle and Richard Swenning for figures — winning inter- mediate ladies at the Pacific Coast Championships in 1970. During the next six years, Smith was part of an exciting group of
young skaters from Southern California making their names in U.S. skat- ing, including Burge, Linda Fratianne, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, Terry Kubicka and fellow Roles Williams student Lisa-Marie Allen. Every Friday night there was club ice, which was where skaters would scope each other out. “Everybody was friendly, but it was competitive,” Smith said. “It was
social as well.” Something that frustrated Smith was not attending regular school.
From eighth grade on she was in correspondence school. She vividly remembers watching the World Championships on televi- sion and attending international competitions where she was fascinated by the confidence and sense of authority shown by the skaters from the Soviet Union and East Germany. Tey also seemed to have choreographers, which she didn’t have. Following the disappointment at the 1976 U.S. Championships,
Smith moved to Colorado Springs, Colo., to train with Carlo Fassi. She en- joyed working with him and wife Christa, who she said was a great teacher. After leaving competitive skating, Smith coached for four years in Ana-
heim, Glacier Falls and Paramount, which she loved doing. Ten in 1981, she hit the road with Ice Capades for four years. “It was a feeling of belonging,” she said. “Tere were a lot of skaters I
had known for many years or seen every year at nationals. It was some good times, a lot of laughter, a lot of camaraderie. “It was very impressive to be on tour and have people like Peggy Flem- ing come in and tour with us for eight to 10 weeks. Dorothy Hamill would come in and do a month. After the Olympics, Scott Hamilton came in. It was so good to be with them and so inspiring to see these people.” Smith vividly recalled Canadian ice dancing champions Lorna Wigh-
ton and John Dowding doing an energetic routine to “Rock Around the Clock.” Smith was the centerpiece of a spy-themed production number called
“Jane Blonde,” which she said she would never have survived without Rob- ert Brown, a member of the chorus and a licensed hairdresser who did her hair to perfection every show. After leaving Ice Capades, Smith disappeared from skating. She moved
around and ultimately settled in a small town in Oklahoma, where she raised son Ryan, 21, now in the Air Force and stationed in Great Britain, and daughter Shelby, 20, who last year made Smith a grandmother by giv- ing birth to twin boys. She has also dealt with health issues. After experienc-
Barbi Smith and boyfriend Dan Yoder like to spend time at the beach and going to concerts.
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