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Next year, it was. She made the Olympic team, and though 15 and frightened of the pressure and the presence of machine-gun-toting guards, she placed a respectable eighth at Innsbruck. She won the World Championship in 1977, a tiny (5 ft. 1 in., 97 lbs.) wisp of a girl who could whip through spectacular leaps and spins in the blink of an eye. Yet her skating never flowed with the liquid style of Peggy Fleming's; it flared in a series of brief, athletic explosions. Before one could count the spins, she was gone, halfway across the ice and midway through another trick. She never imparted the joy of Janet Lynn or pushed her personality to the rafter seats as Hamill had done. She simply whipped the bejabbers out of gravity and seemed to make it all look easy.
For judges, and the very vocal figure-skating crowds, what had been exciting in a young princess was disquieting and vaguely mystifying in an ice queen. In
1978 Fratianne lost her title to East Germany's Anett Poetzsch, 19. In 1979 Linda regained the title, having stretched her style and slowed it somewhat in an effort to infuse her routines with the grace that had been lacking. She got a new hairdo, a nose job to repair the deviated septum that impaired her breathing, and checked in with Pat Collins, the Hip Hypnotist of Sunset Boulevard, to learn "positive reinforcement self-hypnosis." She gets up at 6:30 a.m. six days a week to travel to a rink near her Northridge, Calif., home for practice. She takes a break for a two-hour nap at midday, then practices until 6 p.m. Twice a week she works out in a gym, and once weekly she attends ballet class.
She will never be a classically elegant skater: her body is too small for the sculptured reach that accents the intricacies of the tricks she performs. But she will always be lightning fast and agile. Says she of what will be her last Olympic meeting with Poetzsch: "I'm glad it's in the States. I'll feel more comfortable. But it's hard going in as the favorite. The underdog has it easier, nothing to lose and a lot to gain. If I can just realize that the world doesn't end if I have a silver..."
CHARLIE TICKNER. If Tai, Randy and Linda face tough times, consider Charlie Tickner's task. The current European champion among men's figure skaters is Great Britain's Robin Cousins, a dramatic, innovative stylist in the mold of his countryman John Curry, the 1976 gold medalist at Innsbruck. The Soviet Union's
1979 World Champion Vladimir Kovalev, like Countryman Zaitsev, is fast, strong and sure, if a bit wooden. East Germany's Jan Hoffmann is a methodical craftsman, usually not daring enough to take chances but steady enough to walk over those who risk and fall short. Tickner, 26, whose turn in the round-robin of world champions came in 1978, is like a sophisticated Broadway chorus dancer who can give you the big moves but takes particular delight in demonstrating the fun and precision of a few simple tap steps.