Here is an article from a few days ago from the Associated Press. It kind of tries to use the Nicole Bobek meth-ring situation to reiterate the point that figure skaters (or "ice princesses") can "find trouble just as easily as any other athlete. " But it's weird for us as an audience because - hey! Skaters wear dresses and makeup! Not my favorite article (and I'm assuming we can find many of these floating around from the Nancy Kerrigan attack and Oksana Baiul's drunk driving incident).
In particular, I don't like the section about how it's difficult to make the transition from skater to...normal person:
While most skaters make the transition between their competitive careers and the rest of their lives just fine, many said they can understand how some don't. Most skaters start so young they can barely remember a time they weren't on the ice. Those with ambitions of the Olympics or world championships often sacrifice "normal" teenage activities, trading parties and after-school activities for training and travel.
"It's such an adrenaline rush of being fit and being able to handle the pressure. It's empowering," Fleming said. "You want to get that feeling over and over again."
While this is obviously a true phenomenon that many athletes and performers experience, I don't think Bobek's case is the best one to use to exemplify this point because, as the article reminds us earlier, Bobek was a law-breaker even in her skating years. And she notoriously did not give up "parties and after-school activities" (although her activities were a bit different than Mathletes, I am guessing) for skating; that was one of the problems she had as a skater. Hence the rebellious, wild child image she was branded with. So, it's not like this behavior came out of left field for those of us who knew about her past. Still, it's a sad story and it's gotten a lot of press - it seems figure skater scandals are irresistable.