---- Jennifer Lyon <jenniferlyon@...> wrote:
> --- In SkateFans@yahoogroups.com, vsethi@... wrote:
>
> > Here's another AP article, this one with quotes from Jana Bobek.
> >
> >
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802042.\
html
> > Ex-skate champ Bobek posts bail, faces meth charge - washingtonpost.com
> >
> > "Jana Bobek said her daughter liked to party and may be in trouble
> > because of the company she keeps.
> >
> > "'If she is in some kind of trouble, she is probably in some trouble
> > because she got in with the wrong company. I do strongly believe she
> > would never do anything criminal,' Jana Bobek told The Associated
> > Press."
>
> Nicole is 31 years old, well beyond her teen years and not even what I would
consider a young adult. That whole "she got in with the wrong crowd" excuse
doesn't wash with me. This isn't high school. This also isn't Champions On Ice
circa 1996 where they'd have 17-year-olds partying after the show with skaters
twice their age. When you're 31, you're old enough to know better.

Yeah, Nicole's had a long time to grow up and outgrow the whole "peer pressure"
thing. She also doesn't seem to have been very good at finding worthy role
models to hang with...she chose the company of poor ones over better ones. When
you're 31, that no longer washes as an excuse that gets you anywhere but prison.
There's a reason they call it JUVENILE delinquency, after all.

Truly sad that Nicole is shaping up to be yet another huge waste of national
talent in the figure skating world...yet another person with an incredible
natural gift who's never been quite able to figure out what to do with it.

Something rang wrong with me years ago when she was still on the COI tour and
she was living in a gigantic mansion with her then-boyfriend, showing off their
swimming pool and whatnot on TV like she was on Lifestyles of the Rich and
Famous. I mentioned at the time that she seemed to have an awful lot of
ostantatious wealth for someone so very young, and someone responded to that
with something like "Well, Tom Collins does pay awfully well."

Now I'm wondering whether he really did, or whether Nicole and her boyfriend had
other "businesses" going on on the side even then. Or whether maybe at the time
they were living high off the hog from her earnings as a skater, but when her
touring opportunities faded away, so did her ability to live in the manner to
which she had become accustomed. And she saww a quick way to make easy money
and...there you have it.

I hope somewhere Nicole has a friend willing to say to her that she's headed
down Christopher Bowman Boulevard right now, and if she doesn't shape up, she's
going to reach a similar destination.

Trudi