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<\/a>\nAs young skaters, Babilonia and Gardner were already breaking barriers and setting records as children in Los Angeles. Babilonia is African American and so was Fairbanks. In 1973, Babilonia and Gardner became the first skaters the U.S. sent to compete in the former Soviet Union. After winning silver medals at the U.S. Championships in 1974 and 1975, they struck the first of five golds in 1976 and headed to the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, as teenagers. They finished in fifth-place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a good Olympics for skating because Dorothy (Hamill) won and John Curry won,\u201d Gardner recalled. \u201cI would do that again if I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babilonia added that there was no pressure because of their ages, saying, \u201cIt was a watch and learn moment because the next four years were a different ballgame. That is when the pressure starts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following those games, the pair won bronze medals at the World Championships in 1977 and 1978 in Tokyo and Ottawa respectively. In 1979, they would return to Austria to stand atop the world podium at Vienna.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery athlete has one of those nights or events,\u201d Gardner said, \u201cand that was ours. It was a ramp up to our future. Some people get that and some don\u2019t. If you write down your goals as an athlete – that was on the list.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skating to Igor Stravinsky\u2019s \u201cThe Firebird,\u201d Babilonia and Gardner held off a strong field of Soviet and East German teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything went into that one year,\u201d Babilonia remembered. \u201cAnd we went out, and it was like we had wings. It was almost like an out-of-body experience. It was one of those nights that you don\u2019t want to end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rare company<\/b><\/h3>\n
\u201cI met him at (2025) Worlds in Boston for the first time, and he is a great guy,\u201d Gardner said of Frazier. \u201cHe was really fun to be around and coaching up a storm. He is passionate, and I am proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n Though they had won the U.S. title that year and had qualified for the Olympics, in a heartbreaking twist, Gardner sustained a thigh injury and they were forced to withdraw. That marked the end of their competitive careers. Babilonia stressed that the team had peaked, and they wanted to go out on top. She noted that they had to be strict amateurs in that era and were not opportune to the money the athletes make today.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce our amateur career was over,\u201d she said, \u201cyou could go coach or we had the big ice shows – the Ice Capades, Ice Follies or Disney on Ice. Now, they stay in because they don\u2019t have these outlets any more. We had access to more as professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n Babilonia said that she and Randy appeared on a Flip Wilson TV special, taped in Sun Valley with Peggy Fleming and speedskater Sheila Young. Because he knew they couldn\u2019t get paid, Wilson gave them Siberian huskies that he used in a skit with Richard Pryor. Tai named hers Flip, while Randy named his Geraldine, after one of Wilson\u2019s characters.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we would have accepted money, we would have been disqualified,\u201d Tai said.<\/p>\n Once they turned professional, Babilonia and Gardner toured with the Ice Capades<\/i> and with Champions on Ice<\/i>. They also competed professionally, earning first place in the\u00a0World Professional Championships\u00a0in 1985.<\/sup><\/p>\n \u201cActually, the film has more in it than the play does, in terms of different angles,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cI just wanted to share my story.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the things mentioned in both the play and film was how Gardner found out at the age of 40 that he was adopted at a young age.<\/p>\n \u201cShe happened to be a fan of Tai\u2019s and mine the whole time we were skating,\u201d Gardner added of his birth mother. \u201cBut she didn\u2019t know I was her son. I wanted to tell that part of my story.”<\/p>\n Gardner said his birth mother, Dottie, was 16-years-old when she became pregnant with him as a result of rape. She was 17 when she delivered him. After 40 years, a search agent assisted and tracked her to her home in Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote her a letter,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou don\u2019t know who knows about your circumstances. In my letter to her, I was a little vague. I said I was a performing athlete. My real name is Lawrence Randolph Gardner, and I told her I was born Lawrence Albright, which is her last name. She knew right away because I told her my birth date. I am really glad I did it!\u201d<\/p>\n Dottie\u2019s husband opened the certified letter and called her at her clerk job at Albertson\u2019s Grocery Store. The mother and son would meet for the first time in person in San Jose, Calif., midway between Idaho and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n The play and film also shared about Gardner’s sexuality as an athlete.<\/p>\n “Also (I wanted to tell about) coming out as a gay athlete and being in the closet in the Seventies and Eighties, even into the Nineties, when I finally felt comfortable about coming out in People Magazine,” <\/i>he said.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/a>Babilonia and Gardner\u2019s world title was only the second for a U.S. pairs team since the first edition of the event in 1908. Karol and Peter Kennedy, who Gardner mentioned he met, won the first in 1950. It wouldn\u2019t be until 2022, when Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier became the third.<\/p>\nEnd of an era<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a>After Babilonia and Gardner won the world title, the pressure was mounting and the media was buzzing in the lead up to the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.<\/p>\nGo Figure<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/a>After they retired from show skating, producing biographical stories became a theme for the pair. They performed together in Gardner’s stage show, “Go Figure: The Randy Gardner Story.” The play came about after a theatre director friend of Gardner’s approached him about doing a one-person play, highlighting his eventful life. The live autobiography then became a documentary two years ago.<\/p>\n