by LOIS ELFMAN Todd Waggoner, a pilot for United Airlines,


doesn’t often talk about his figure skating past. His medals and trophies are packed away in boxes in the basement of the Annapolis, Md., home he shares with his wife of 17 years, Kristan, and their sons Eric, 15, Kyle, 11 and Drew, 10. Friends and neighbors know that Waggoner skated competitively, but don’t necessarily know a lot about his career on the ice. A few years ago, one neighbor insisted on seeing a video and the neighbor was a bit shocked. “He said, ‘Todd, I knew you skated, I just


didn’t think you wore sequins,’” Kristan recalled. “We laughed so hard. He just couldn’t get over the sequins. Tat was the thing that blew our neigh- bor away. Tey only see him as a pilot and the guy out there cutting the lawn.” In fact, Kristan and Todd, both 48, have ex-


tensive skating résumés — with hers continuing to this day as a coach. She grew up the daughter of prominent coaches Rita and David Lowery. After finding her passion in ice dance and teaming with Chip Rossbach, she quickly found competitive success, medaling in junior dance at the 1982 U.S. Championships and then competing nationally at the senior level for several years before embarking on a pro career that lasted nearly a decade. Sibling rivalry got Todd into the sport. His


sister started skating and he thought if she was doing it then he wanted to do it as well. A coach suggested they start pairs skating together, so they did. A training camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., opened their eyes to serious competition, and they decided to leave home in Chicago to go to Delaware and train with Ron Ludington. He teamed with Gillian Wachsman in 1984,


and the following year they landed on the podi- um at the U.S. Championships. Coached by Pau- line Williams, they upset reigning champions Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard in 1986 for the title. Second in 1987 and 1988, they posted impressive results on World and Olympic ice. In their ABC up-close-and-personal profile


at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Todd spoke about a passion for aviation and his desire to be a pilot. A flawless free skate and fourth-place finish at the World Championships that year made the TV commentators certain that rumors of retirement were erroneous, but they weren’t. Todd, who’d already been taking flying lessons, was ready to pursue his education, as was Wachsman.


“I was always around aviation; my father


worked for TWA. My brother is also a pilot. It was something I wanted to do for a career,” said Todd, who attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and then flew cargo aircraft for the Del- aware National Guard before becoming a jet pilot for United. “Todd likes to travel,” Kristan said. “He will


venture out in the city wherever he is (he was just back from Paris at the time of this interview). He goes to museums, restaurants. He really likes the travel part. I’m jealous. I got to go to Amsterdam with him last year and we had a blast.” Kristan had her share of adventures during her pro career, which included time on tour with


Todd Waggoner and Gillian Wachsman


legendary ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christo- pher Dean, who were hugely influential in her skating, and then six years with Ice Capades. “Christopher Dean taught me so much be-


cause he’s such a perfectionist,” she said. “To him, there was no end to anything. Everything could always be better. He really pushed us.” Although he never envisioned a profession-


al skating career, Todd briefly reconnected with Wachsman after college and before his pilot train- ing in the military — skating as if they’d never missed a day and winning the one and only profes- sional competition they entered — before heading back to their new paths. Kristan and Todd began dating as teenagers when both trained in Delaware. Tey got engaged when they were 30. When asked if their back- grounds working with partners helped them in their marriage, both tended to agree. “Teamwork,” Todd noted. “Tat’s one of the


things I loved about pairs was you could have a bad day and your partner can pick you up and vice versa. Tat’s the same with marriage. Training and being with someone that close is definitely an education. You’re a lot more prepared for marriage


WHERE ARE THE NOW?


because you’ve done it.” “You really do learn how to compromise,”


Kristan said. “I also think you learn to fill in each other’s weaknesses. You learn from your partner what their strengths are, but you’re also helping them with their weaknesses. Tat has a lot to do with marriage. You work as a team and you help each other out.” When Todd accepted his job with United, they had a choice of locations in which to settle and picked Annapolis. Before starting a family, Kristan skated with the Baltimore-based ensemble skating company Te Next Ice Age, including its 1997 performances at the Kennedy Center, where she got to skate alongside her childhood idol Dor- othy Hamill. For 11 years, she traveled to Dela- ware weekly to coach and choreograph — work- ing with Ludington and good friend Pam Gregory, former coach of Kimmie Meissner (for whom Kristan choreographed an intermediate program). Five years ago she became director of the


Annapolis Skating Academy, a learn-to-skate pro- gram at a new rink at the Naval Academy. “A lot of the kids that come to the Naval


Academy are friends of my kids, so it’s a real sense of community,” Kristan said. “I like doing what I’m doing now. It’s learn-to-skate, so every day they’re learning something new. When I go volun- teer at the kids’ schools, everybody says, ‘It’s Mrs. Waggoner, the skating lady.’”


Teir sons did learn to skate, but have found their passions in other sports. “Tey all love basketball,” Kristan said. “Te


two younger ones love soccer. Kyle, our middle child, just qualified to be on the Maryland 100, which is an Olympic-development team.” His skating background also provided Todd


with a sense of discipline and determination for the highly competitive aviation field. In college, he saw other students drop out because they were unprepared for the workload, which, after 5 a.m. wake-ups and training sessions in cold rinks, left Todd unfazed.


When asked for competitive skating high- lights, they mention the 1985 National Sports Fes- tival in Baton Rouge, La., where they both skated well. Todd also has fond memories of winning the U.S. title and, of course, of the Olympics in Calgary, which he said were two incredible weeks in his life. Kristan recalls Skate Canada where she and Rossbach received a standing ovation. “We were the last generation of true ama-


teurs,” said Todd, who worked as a waiter (once employee of the month at Friendly’s) and a land- scaper while training. “It was rough then, but looking back on it now … I’m very proud of the fact that you did it because you loved it. “If we were 20 years later, I may never have


flown because it might have been lucrative to keep competing,” he added. Given the busy nature of their lives, Kristan


Kristan Lowery and Chip Rossbach


and Todd don’t get to watch skating too often, but promise to be glued to their TV during their Olympics. Having grown up in an era when U.S. ice dancers struggled for international respect, they said it will be especially exciting to see Meryl Davis and Charlie White battle for gold.


SKATING 9


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