SOI vs COI : The Outsports edition
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Champions on Ice was a big successful show since 1969. Despite competition from the newer Stars on Ice, COI hung in there through the peak of figure-skating popularity in the 1990s and a change of ownership in 2006. The show always took a liberal tack - hiring not only the “safer” gold medalists and world champions, but controversial figures like Rudy Galindo. Like Surya Bonaly, who never medalled at the Olympics - apparently because she was considered too athletic, muscular and masculine to fit the profile demanded of female figure-skaters. Like Oksana Baiul, in spite of her DUI arrest and notorious battles with drugs and booze.
Stars on Ice didn’t debut till 1986, starting as the “American Tour” organized by Scott Hamilton, with sponsors Discover Card and Plymouth. Though Hamilton was openly homophobic, the show did have its gay faces in the earlier years - Rob McCall and Brian Orser. But the emphasis began to veer towards male skaters like Kurt Browning who were paragons of “masculine heterosexual skating style.” SOI’s turning point into deep figure-skating conservatism probably came in 2001, when Smucker’s became the show’s title sponsor.
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Full article at sauce.
( Warning: Reading the article may do terrible things to your blood pressure. Proceed with caution.)