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In
1983,the ISU restricted the number of jumps that a skater
could repeat in a long program. Some call it the Zayak rule.
I started the whole triple-jump thing," says Zayak, speaking
of the current race for women to do multiple triples in their
programs. "There are so many triples that the girls have to
do now, it's terrible. But it's the name of the game."
Zayak
faced that game when she reinstated as an amateur for the
1994 season, ten years after she retired. She had been off
the ice for three or four years, was twenty pounds (nine kilograms)
overweight, totally out of shape, and concerned only about
having a good time. At age twenty-eight, she had to turn her
life around completely.
And
that she did. She skated with a glow at the U.S. nationals
in Detroit, Michigan, where she finished an unexpected fourth,
skating to the music she used at the 1984 Olympics. In Detroit,
Zayak won the hearts of skating's avid watchers and received
a standing ovation even before she took her opening pose for
the long program. Sometimes the best of skating isn't about
finishing first.
With
all her repetitive triples, Zayak had narrowly defeated Katarina
Witt of the German Democratic Republic at the 1982 world championship.
But after the rule change, Zayak was at a disadvantage, and
Witt's superior artistry won the day, almost every time, from
1984 to 1988.
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