Explaining Nicole Bobek’s Fall
Nicole Bobek AP
This week the skating world watched in horror as we witnessed Nicole Bobek’s fall from grace. Bobek was arrested and is being charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Her mug shot hit the internet on Tuesday, and the woman in the photo resembled nothing of the Nicole I once knew.
When news of such a shocking nature hits, it generally leads to the question: How did someone who was so talented end up in such a horrible place?
Although I don’t know the answer–and perhaps even Bobek doesn’t know–I’ve found myself contemplating the issue and coming up with my own hypothesis.
It should be noted that Bobek is not the first skater who has struggled with drugs or the law following their competitive career. Just last year, two-time U.S. national champion and Olympian Christopher Bowman was found dead in a Los Angeles hotel–a result of an apparent drug overdose. Gary Beacom, a well-known Canadian skater, spent time behind bars for tax evasion in the 90s. And, of course, we all know what happened to Tonya Harding.
But why their troubles and why Nicole?
Nicole Bobek
Well, when a person is growing up as a star in the skating world, they are much like the child stars who grow up in Hollywood. They’re sent strange messages subliminally, which basically tell them that they’re the most important thing in the world. Often parents of competitive figure skaters are forced to change jobs and uproot their entire family in order to extend and enhance their child’s skating career. As the skater becomes the focus of the family, other siblings can be pushed to the side. The skater may sense that their success in the sport is vital to the well-being of their parents and siblings. This can put a lot of stress on a child and creates a feeling of inflated self-importance.
As a young up-and-coming skater, one has a bevy of adults around them: their parents, coaches, choreographers, and off-ice trainers. Whether these adults admit it or not, they all have something riding on the skater’s success. When a skater does well, they feel like they’re on top of the world. It creates an inner sense for them that they’re omnipotent, and at times, unstoppable. This, I would assume, is much like the feeling one has when they are high from drugs.
The problem comes when a skater, like Nicole, is constantly being sent mixed messages. When they skate well, everyone is proud of them and happy. When they don’t skate well, or when the judges mark them down for seemingly no apparent reason, suddenly a skater’s self-esteem plummets. They can sense their mom or dad is upset with them, and their coaches are forced to brainstorm on what needs “fixing.” All of this can manifest itself in a feeling of intense pressure.
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that the majority of skaters’ careers end in their early twenties. Someone like Nicole, who spent much of her life in an ice rink, may have found it difficult to enroll in college or find a life outside of the sport. Just a decade ago, a life as a professional skater was a lucrative way to earn a living; in recent years this hasn’t been the case. Being forced to completely change one’s life after much success and time spent in one arena is quite difficult.
Two years ago Champions On Ice, I assume Bobek’s largest source of income, ceased touring. Last we heard, Nicole was trying to make it as an actress, but this didn’t pan out. She was presumably left out of work, was struggling with a loss of community following her skating days, fell in with the wrong crowd and into the world of drugs.
Drugs can and may offer some skaters the high that skating well and feeling unstoppable gave them on the ice. And perhaps the control from dealing makes a person feel powerful–a similar sensation to that of receiving acclaim and adoration from the adults in their life while they were skating. Being a public figure in the skating world comes with its fair share of criticism, which may result in a lack of self-esteem for certain skaters. Perhaps this feeling of low self-worth may pave the way to drug use. The rest–the downward spiral and the subsequent arrest–aren’t as difficult to spell out.
While this is only my hypothesis, I feel like it‘s tough for certain skaters to find their way once they leave the sport. My first memories of Nicole are from the 2004 Champions On Ice tour, and I was slightly in awe of her as a skater and person. She was so beautiful, and when she wanted to be, she could be an incredibly amazing performer and competitor.
That spring she was really nice to me, and I saw Nicole as a passionate and fun-loving spirit. A group of us would ride on the “Russian bus” after the show, and at the time I was about to switch coaches. Nicole counseled me about the change and offered her advice on what she believed I needed in a new coach. I respected her opinion, and I always thought it was kind of her to have taken an interest in my career.
She and her mom owned a store in Florida. Each year we had a small break in our touring schedule, during which time Nicole would go home for a bit. When she returned, she came back with small gifts from her store. She gave me a really cute necklace one year, and whenever someone would compliment me on it, I held great pride in telling them it was a gift from Nicole.
It’s been really difficult this past week seeing someone whom I admired fall so far. If she is found guilty, she will have a tough road ahead of her not only to rebuild her life, but her fan base as well. I hope the allegations of dealing and the suspicions that she was using aren’t true. If they are, Nicole (rightfully so) faces up to 10 years behind bars. It appears–at least to me–that although Nicole could charm a crowd with her smile and amazing flexibility, the odds aren’t in her favor to skate away from this one.
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment
T/S Members
Log in with your True/Slant account.
Like you, many of us struggle to understand what can’t be fully understood. How can something like this possibly happen? No doubt there’s a tangled web of partial answers and no one factor will explain it all. But thanks for trying to unravel an important one. Most of us who lead normal lives can’t comprehend the emptiness that some may experience when they fall from grace after having experienced an almost unnatural high at a very young age. But that alone cannot account for it all.
For every Nicole or Chris Bowman there are many others skaters who faced similar or worse difficulties and are now in college, coaching, or otherwise leading model lives. Maybe they had more family support. A different personality. Their brains are surely wired differently. The factors are endless. In the end, we’re all responsible for our choices regardless of the cards we were dealt in life. If found guilty Nicole will deserve whatever sentence she gets. But as human beings we can’t help feel for her, at least a little, and say thanks for the joy she once brought us with her skating.
You said a lot of great things in your comment. I think it is up to us to take responsibility for our actions. Even knowing that, it’s never fun to see someone take such a wrong turn in their life, and I hope Nicole will be able to rebound from this horrible setback.
In response to another comment. See in context »I enjoyed your post very much. As a skater yourself, you are very aware of many of the pitfalls of being a child in the spotlight.
One other enormous factor in Nicole’s problems is that she didn’t get an education as a child. Much was said and written about her being in school or working with tutors, but I know exactly how much time she spent in school and how much time she spent with tutors before the age of 17 and it was so little, it’s embarrassing to say how little it was. Nicole is extremely bright, and again, none of this was her choice. Education was seen as something that might take her attention off of skating. Her mother put more value on getting an education than Joyce did, but not enough to see that she got one. It’s possible Nicole has managed to get some education for herself in the years since then, but during the normal school years, it never happened for more than a few weeks or days at a time with very long pauses in between.
I’m not trying to imply that Nicole didn’t make some terrible choices that she alone is responsible for, but a halfway normal childhood might have helped a little.
Thanks for your comment. I’m planning on writing a blog next week about skaters and homeschooling. I think perhaps not having a “normal” schooling experience played into Nicole’s troubles. It’s all just really sad.
In response to another comment. See in context »I’m very interested in reading your thoughts on skaters who “home school” versus skaters who attend public school. I was delighted to read your comments about the inflated ego’s of competitive skaters (delighted because I haven’t heard a single skater talk about it in the past, they BS everyone and say they’re “normal” children like everyone else), although I would imagine it to be a very similar condition in many other athletes. Not only could a skater have an overdeveloped feeling of self-importance, but their ego’s can become so inflated that they cannot accept defeat or truly revel in their successes. For many children, public schools are where they become socialized, so to speak. So I can no doubt see why many skaters are homeschooled, although for different reasons. If the skater is truly experiencing some kind of neurosis where their feelings of self-worth are truly inflated, attending public school could create a terrible scenario, because top figure skaters are not “normal” children, they’re elite athletes, they’re extraordinary individuals. Public school could have a humbling effect on these skaters, but I can’t help but think that by attending public schools it is merely an attempt on behalf of the child and her parents to “normalize” the child, which is an absurd thought. Home schooling could be positive, but it could also merely feed the child’s growing ego. It’s a real predicament. Although I must say Jennifer that for someone with your extraordinary abilities on the ice, you have other abilities off the ice that can help you live a happy life without touring as a skater. Something happened in your development that encouraged these other skills you have and I’d very much like to hear about it.
In response to another comment. See in context »I was not surprised to hear of her arrest and getting in trouble with the law. I’ve read various articles about Nicole being the Wild Child of the figure skating world. In fact, fluff pieces about Nicole always emphasized and played up her edgy, push-the-envelope persona.
I think the problem with Nicole was that she was so super talented, everything came easy for her. She wasn’t able to develop the discipline needed and a steady work ethic; she could go out and do well at competitions without having to put in the time and practice of a lesser talented individual. My brother-in-law was the same way in baseball; he had so much talent that he didn’t need to work as hard as other kids. That changed once he started college ball; there he faced kids just as talented if not more. His solution was to goof off and party instead of putting his nose to the grindstone. Sometimes a less talented person will get ahead of somebody more talented because they’ve had to work harder at the sport and thus develop a stronger work ethic and more discipline. I imagine with Nicole, the constant switching of coaches did not provide her with the stability she needed. What was her mother thinking? Nicole needed structure and discipline and stability which she obviously did not get growing up.
Another problem with these young athletes is many do not have a back-up plan once they leave the sport. They are suddenly adrift, without purpose or plan, and that’s when they get into trouble. My brother-in-law also had a run-in with the law over drugs. It is eerie how his life exactly mirrored Nicole’s. He never had a back-up plan, should his baseball career end.
Nicole was a beautiful skater. I could see how brilliant she was when she was “on.” She was breathtaking. But too often she was missing jumps or watering them down. She did not make the most of her talent, which deprived us of seeing more beautiful skating that she was capable of doing.