"I could name close to 30 people in skating who have died from AIDS," former U.S. and world champion pairs skater Randy Gardner is quoted as saying in "Inside Edge: A Revealing Journey into the Secret World of Figure Skating," written by Christine Brennan of The Washington Post.
According to the book, the U.S. Figure Skating Association, the governing body for the sport, has not responded with sufficient urgency in addressing an illness that has killed many members of the skating community.
But association officials say the organization has been actively engaged in AIDS-awareness programs in recent years, and through an outreach program scheduled to begin early this year is expanding dissemination of information on the illness across the country.
Brian Wright, a former skater and current skating choreographer who has AIDS, has been lecturing on the subject, and he said he believes he and others like him could help the USFSA in AIDS awareness.
"I bring a sort of frightening element to it, which is essential," Wright said.
Since being found HIV-positive, he said he has lost part of his intestines and bowel, and the use of his right eye, and suffered increasingly from blood clots. Yet to emphasize how difficult it can be to impress young people, Wright said that "five or six times in the last two years" he has been shocked to learn from young skaters the extent of their sexual experimentation.
"From what I am getting, the way I interact with the skating community, I hear nothing about practicing safe sex," he said. "I hear a lot about exploration. When they [gay male skaters] talk to me of their sexual exploits, they never talk about practicing safe sex. With heterosexual boys, condoms don't come up. Even though here I am, 30 pounds thinner than last year. It's kind of astounding. I get really irate. I can't really believe it."
The USFSA includes about 450 skating clubs and 125,000 members nationwide, including the country's most promising young skaters.
"No other sports organization in the country has faced such a dilemma," Brennan writes. "How do you put a spin on AIDS? How does the organization say it has lost more athletes to AIDS than any other sport in the country?
"Perhaps it should say that gay men are believed to outnumber straight men, especially in singles skating. And that gay males are omnipresent in the judging ranks and represent a significant segment of coaches as well.
"If the USFSA
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