Tai Babilonia
Tai Babilonia 
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| Full name | Tai Reina Babilonia | ||||||||||||
| nation |
 United States
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| birthday | September 22, 1960 | ||||||||||||
| place of birth | los Angeles | ||||||||||||
| size | 159 cm | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 46 kg | ||||||||||||
| Career | |||||||||||||
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| discipline | Pair skating | ||||||||||||
| Partner | Randy Gardner | ||||||||||||
| society | LAFSC | ||||||||||||
| Trainer | John Nicks | ||||||||||||
| status | resigned | ||||||||||||
| Medal table | |||||||||||||
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Tai Reina Babilonia (born September 22, 1960 in Los Angeles ) is a former American figure skater who started in pair skating .
Career
Babilonia's figure skating partner was Randy Gardner . They both started figure skating together when Babilonia was eight and Gardner was ten. Your trainer was John Nicks . From 1976 to 1980, Babilonia and Gardner became US champions . They made their debut at world championships in 1974 in Munich , where they finished tenth. They repeated this result a year later . They reached the top of the world in 1976. They finished fifth at both the World Cup and the Olympic Games . They won their first medal with bronze behind the Soviet couples Irina Rodnina and Alexander Saizew as well as Irina Vorobjowa and Alexander Vlasow at the 1977 World Championships in Tokyo . Also in the following year they won the bronze medal at the world championships in Ottawa , this time behind Rodnina and Saizew and the GDR couple Manuela Mager and Uwe Bewersdorf . In 1979 Irina Rodnina and Alexander Saizew took a break because Rodnina was pregnant. This cleared the way for the US couple. Babilonia and Gardner became world champions in Vienna . It was the USA's first pair skating world title since 1950 , when Karol and Peter Kennedy won, and it was the second and last pair skating world championship win for the USA to date. It was also the first non-Soviet pair skating world title since 1964 .
The meeting of Babilonia / Gardner and Rodnina / Saizew, who returned after maternity leave, was to be a highlight of the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid . However, this did not happen due to an injury to Randy Gardner during training in Lake Placid. He was given local anesthesia on the day of the competition to relieve the pain, but then couldn't control his leg enough and dropped Babilonia several times in the warm-up area. As a result, the couple had to withdraw and watch Rodnina / Saizew pass the Olympic victory. After that, Babilonia and Gardner ended their amateur careers and switched to professionals.
In 1988, the professional career of Babilonia and Gardner was interrupted because Babilonia had to be treated for amphetamine addiction and a suicide attempt . After the treatment, they continued their professional career at Eisrevues until 2008. Today, Babilonia also designs their own collection of sportswear.
Babilonia is of Filipino, Indian and African descent and was therefore the first African American woman to take part in figure skating for the USA in the Olympic Games.
Results
Pair skating
(with Randy Gardner )
| Competition / year | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 |
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| winter Olympics | 5. | Z | |||||
| World championships | 10. | 10. | 5. | 3. | 3. | 1. | |
| American championships | 2. | 2. | 1. | 1. | 1. | 1. | 1. |
Web links
- Tai Babilonia in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Tai Babilonia in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Babilonia, Tai |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Babilonia, Tai Reina (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American figure skater |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 22, 1960 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Los Angeles , California , United States |