Skating Through Harvard

In the wee hours of the morning, when most human beings are still in bed recovering from a post-party hangover, figure skater Paul S. Wylie '90 is practicing one triple jump after another on the ice at the Boston Skating Club.

As Wylie runs through the difficult program which he will unveil at the International SkateAmerica Competition this week, the fourth-ranked male figure skater in the country moves gracefully around the rink, his quick athletic body becoming a colorful blur against the chilly drabness of the skating club walls.

But early morning hours are nothing new for the freshman from Colorado. Wylie was fitted for skates at the age of three, and has had to deal with the early-to-bed, early-to-rise syndrome ever since. Since that inauspicious beginning, the Harvard freshman has captured three amateur titles in consecutive years: National Novice title in 1979; National Pair in 1980; and National Junior in 1981. Two years ago, Wylie placed fourth in the nation in the Senior Men's category, becoming an alternate member of the 1984 Olympic Team.

In fact, Wylie is currently the only male skater among the nation's top 10 who competes on the amateur level and attends college full-time. And he lives in Canaday D.

Travelling to Sarajevo, Yugoslavia for the Olympic Games was a "good experience" for Wylie, although he did not actually compete. "1988 is definitely my goal," Wylie says about the Winter Olympic Games to be held two years from now in Calgary, Canada. "Skating is a type of family thing. It's kind of like an entry way--that's how close you get when you're on an Olympic team, although skating is really a sport for individuals."

Hopelessly Devoted

During the period when Wylie trained for the 1984 National and World Championships, he practiced five to six hours a day at the Olympic Skating Center in Colorado Springs under Carlo Fassi, coach of such skaters as Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, John Curry and Robin Cousins.

"I was just skating and doing nothing else, so skating became the dominant thing in my life," says Wylie. "It actually got to the point where I couldn't concentrate on my skating effectively. I started to not be devoted to it."

Although he won't admit it, one might say Wylie is serious about his skating. Out of love for the sport, he moved to Denver from Dallas during high school to be closer to Colorado trainers. And then when his coaches moved to Boston, Wylie started considering New England colleges. For a while, skating came first for the 21-year-old; he deferred admission for two years in order to train for competition.

Wylie admits, however, that during his years of concentrated training, many of his skating friends became companions off the ice. "I remember Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner [former National and World pair skaters] took me to my first ever rock concert when I was fourteen and got me totally wasted. I got really sick and everything. It was kind of funny."

School and Skating

He began skating with Evy and Mary Scovold, a husband-wife coach team who now work out of the Boston Skating Club, and it was there that Wylie began to think about applying to Harvard.

"Some skaters that I've seen get caught up and overloaded with the terrific disciplined burden of both school and practice, but Paul has been able to handle it," says Coach Evy Scovold. "I think if you have the desire to work hard you can come out with a good result, which Paul does."

Wylie is not the first skater to both compete regularly and attend classes at Harvard. While living along the river, Dick T. Button '52, somewhat of a legend in men's figure skating, held five major figure skating titles in 1949 simultaneously--including medals at the Olympics, World, National, North American and European competitions. Radcliffe captured its own share of skating glory when Tenley Albright '57 captured her fifth consecutive National Ladies' Title and second Olympic Gold Medal in 1956. Both of these Olympians naturally spent much of their time shuttling between the Yard and the historic Boston Skating Club across the Soldiers Field Bridge in Allston.

"Dick Button was way ahead of his time," Wylie, his modern successor, says. "He was doing triple axels before people were doing all of the double [axels]. (A triple axel, by the way, is an ice skating maneuver in which the skater jumps off a single blade and completes two and one-half revolutions in midair before landing backwards on a single blade.)

"But skating is a totally different world than it was 20 years ago. It's much more competitive and there are more `stars' now in the skating world," says Wylie, adding that he has no plans to enter "Ice Follies"-like employment after graduation.

A Galaxy of Luminaries

Speaking of `stars,' Wylie will be joined by several of the top figure skaters in the country to participate in this year's "Evening of Champions," an Eliot House-sponsored skating show which helps raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. "People at Harvard sometimes don't realize how respected the show is, and how skaters die for that invitation to come," Wylie says. "Skaters really like the atmosphere here."

Carl D. Shannon '87, co-chairman of the November show, says Wylie has picked up quite a few fans here at Harvard since he first skated in the Jimmy Fund show three years ago. "A lot of the undergraduates who work on the Jimmy Fund show know very little about skating, and Paul helps bridge the gap between the actual skaters and the students. It also helps the skaters when they come that they have someone to connect with."

Another world-class skater at Harvard, Elise R. Davison '86-'87, sports as much experience in both the skating world and the Jimmy Fund. "Paul is a great example for young skaters who don't believe that you can mix skating with an education. It has either been one or the other in the past," she says. "He has a lot of determination to succeed in both worlds." Last year, Davison represented the United States in the professional World Figure Skating Competition held in Spain.

Moscow or Bust

After Wylie competes in the Portland, Maine, SkateAmerica Competition later this week, he will fly to Moscow to participate in the "Prize of the Moscow News" competition, a different sort of international skating meet. Early in February, Wylie will then attempt to move closer to obtaining the Men's National Title when he skates in the National Figure Skating Championships in Washington state. "That's going to be during spring shopping week," he muses.

Skating on the international circuit has even created possibilities for a little East-West diplomacy. When Wylie competed in another world competition in Canada, he had a chance to skate against some of the top Russian and East German figure skaters. "We sat down once, and had a couple [of shots] after a competition," he says, "but [the Russian skaters] just didn't stop with one or two. They just kept going. It was amazing."

Wylie's roommates, however, are nonplussed with their suite-mate's status. "I knew that when I came to Harvard I would meet people like Paul," says bunk-mate Tad A. Dibbern '90. "He sure gets a lot of phone calls, though, from radio stations wanting interviews."