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[ice skates scraping] ["Lift You Up" by Lexxi Saal] ♪ ♪ When I was young ♪ I was told to jump ♪ And built my own wings on the way down ♪ ♪ Maybe one day we'll meet the ground ♪ ♪ I've seen darkness deeper than the night ♪ ♪ They didn't know how long I can fight ♪ ♪ I found my rescue ♪ I found my light ♪ ♪ I'll lift you up ♪ I'll lift you up ♪ We'll rise ♪ We'll rise above ♪ We'll rise, we'll rise above ♪ ♪ We will rise, we will rise above ♪ ♪ We will rise ♪ We will rise above ♪ I'll lift you up ♪ I'll lift you up ♪ We'll rise above ♪ You're already enough ♪ So I'll lift you up ♪ ♪ [cheering and applause] RANDY GARDNER: Thank you.

JIM MCKAY: And there is Randy Gardner, making his way out to the ice.

DICK BUTTON: What a moment, what a time for this to happen.

RANDY: From writing memoirs to the play, when I got up to the play part, I was like, "Wow, the world's really gonna know 'cause I'm telling it myself and they're gonna see it live."

And that was really cathartic 'cause I was ready for it.

JOHN HEILMAN: I wanna thank Randy for agreeing to do this show as a benefit for our AIDS Monument to recognize those who we lost and to continue to educate people about the impact of AIDS on our community.

[cheering and applause] DOROTHY HAMILL: I have known Tai and Randy since they were 10 and 12.

I was, you know, four.

We have skated together in more shows than I can count.

It was the height of the Cold War, Jimmy Carter was president, and that poster of Farrah Fawcett was on the bedroom wall of every teenage boy in America.

It was the '70s, and an era where hair got a bizarre amount of attention.

[laughter] It is thrilling for me to introduce my dear friend, skating colleague, in his critically acclaimed show, "Go Figure."

[cheering and applause] RANDY: My parents were middle class Republicans.

My dad was in World War II.

My mom and dad were Depression kids.

So it was a somewhat conservative upbringing.

Wasn't crazy, kooky.

It was friendly, but it was definitely Republican conservative.

My grandmother, my mom's mom, Eunice Blossom Baker-- I called her Lommie-- she enabled me to kind of be myself when I was a little boy.

I danced, I did acrobats, I did gymnastics.

I could not play baseball worth ... even though my dad wanted me so bad.

But during that time, my parents liked ice shows.

This was in the '60s.

And we would go to Ice Capades, Ice Follies, Holiday on Ice, and I just loved going to see the skating shows.

And I liked everything about it.

The, you know, all the grand-- And I remember it raining on the ice once.

And the color and the costumes and I liked the skating.

I liked to sit in the front row and hear the sound that the skates made when they went by.

So I was fascinated by skating when I was little, little kid.

I was seven the first time I put a pair of skates on these feet.

My dad took me to the rink.

We rented skates, laced them up, and I stood on the ice.

When I looked down, without even realizing it, I was already floating 30 feet away from my dad, and it was magic.

[soft dramatic music] ♪ Two years later, when I was nine, I entered my first competition, and I got the bronze.

A year later, it was the Culver City Ice Skating Show, and what happened that day would really change my life forever.

The skating teacher needed a pair team, so I was introduced to an eight-year-old girl with pigtails with a strange name from a very far away place.

Tai from Babylonia.

[laughter] I had never met anyone from Babylonia before.

That alone was exciting.

And from that day forward, the great Tai Babilonia and I have been inseparable.

And she's here today.

[cheering and applause] ♪ Whoo!

♪ JOHN NICKS: 1971, I was introduced to Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner by their first coach, Mabel Fairbanks.

Tai I think was 12 years old.

Randy was 14.

I was 42.

It was 46 years ago.

Just seems like yesterday.

Mabel had given them a wonderful foundation.

TAI BABILONIA: With one glide, Mabel Fairbanks changed the color of figure skating forever.

And that's so powerful.

It's so powerful.

And you know, we were her children.

And she supported us, she took care of us, she protected us, but she-- but she created Tai and Randy.

And that's, you know-- we can't thank her enough for that.

Changed our lives.

JOHN: Although she said at the beginning of the first few months when they were very young, they didn't even want to hold hands.

TAI: In the beginning, she had to bribe me because I didn't want-- you know, holding a boy's hand at eight years old who you really don't know, and Randy, in school, he would play on the bars on the jungle gym, and he had blisters, so that didn't-- that didn't help.

RANDY: You know, I didn't wear any of those gloves or any protection.

And so I'd go to the rink and my hands would be all blistered up and icky and she'd go, "Eww."

We called it-- well, you had cooties.

Cooties.

JOHN: I thought they had a little talent.

I didn't realize then quite how much talent.

The following year, Tai and Randy won the United States Junior Pair Championship, and then of course moved into senior competition.

♪ ♪ RANDY: Early on, Tai and I competed in singles competition.

But as a solo skater, I would have to beat the likes of Scotty Hamilton.

Scott won four world championships and of course the Olympics.

So we left singles skating behind and never looked back.

And then, Tai started to grow up, literally.

She grew four inches in one year.

And I couldn't throw her into those magnificent jumps that used to come so easily for us.

In '75, when I grew, you stopped growing.

And I forgot how to skate, um, basically.

It's like, "Oh, my God.

I lost my jumps."

You didn't forget.

You tried.

-I tried.

-There was stuff going on.

Puberty, the puberty fairy stepped in and I was off for a whole year.

RANDY: Mentally and emotionally we were on the same track.

Our coach sort of kept us on the same track.

And then we realized we were gonna be like four inches apart.

We weren't gonna be the Russian team-- tall boy, short girl.

So that's when John Nicks had to sort of reinvent, figure out what to do so we could compete and do something that the other teams weren't doing.

We concentrated very much on what was then called the second mark, which was artistic impression.

Artistic impression consisted of unison, a musicality, elegance, a wonderful look, choreography, all of the arts.

A lady by the name of Terry Rudolph came in.

Wonderful balletic coach.

She taught them balletically both on and off the ice and I believe gave Tai and Randy the look, the original look that they were so well known for.

RANDY: And we were coming of age 'cause we were about 18, 19, 20, and our bodies were developing and we were getting strong.

And it's where we locked in our signature look.

TAI: And Mr. Nicks installed this in us-- the boy takes the lead.

That's fine.

Um, even on the ice, the spins, Randy counted.

RANDY: I preferred the pair because there was an extra dynamic that you had to work with.

I liked lifting.

I liked doing the guy stuff.

I liked sort of taking control of the team because, believe it or not, I believe that the male pair skater leads the team, takes control of the team, but the girl has to finish it off.

I knew my place, and I was...

They call it the rose-- the flower and the stem.

And I always knew my part was the flower 'cause most people are gonna be looking at the girl.

RANDY: When you throw a girl into a throw, it's theirs.

We can get them there.

They have to do it.

So you better shine and you better look pretty, your skates better be white and your laces better be clean, and all of that.

When a girl's in a lift, it's the guy.

The girl has to finish it and be up there, but the lift happens because of the guy's strength.

And I like that part.

I like that part.

So that kind of gave me that adrenaline.

MITCH O'FARRELL: I am here to celebrate two Los Angeles area Olympians who made history in the sport of pairs figure skating.

HERB WESSON: Mr. O'Farrell, let me jump in.

Randy, come on.

We can't even see you.

-HERB: Yeah, yeah.

-You mean here?

HERB: Yeah, now we got you.

Okay, so, Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia... HERB: Let's give 'em a round of applause, yeah!

MITCH: Tai and Randy rose through the ranks of pairs skating, and as teenagers, earned a coveted spot on their first Olympic team in 1976, bringing with them a winning, uniquely American, youthful exuberance that made them favorites to the crowd in Innsbruck, Austria, that year.

CHRIS SCHENKEL: And now making their first competitive appearance in Innsbruck, 15-year-old Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner from the Los Angeles Skating Club.

HERB: This is just an unbelievable moment to have both of you here in the Los Angeles City Hall, in our council chambers.

Members, they are champions.

DICK: Nice rotation, nice.

Look at the art, look at the conviction there.

-DICK: Now those are superb.

-CHRIS: Beautiful.

DICK: Those are superb.

They're some of the best looking we have seen so far, and look at the audience go for that.

They recognize that.

CHRIS: Oh, they have the crowd with them here in the short program at the ice stadium.

DICK: Oh, they're a very exciting young pair.

Very exciting.

And here's their final move, a paired sit spin.

♪ [cheering and applause] And that's it.

Very good!

RANDY: '76, our first Olympics.

We had just won the U.S. championships.

But we knew there was only one or two teams ahead of us in the world.

And one of them was Rodnina-Zaitsev.

And that was gonna be a tough one to crack.

But Rodnina got pregnant.

That only made one team ahead of us in the world.

We knew we could win it if we skated it and if another team screwed up or if something happened.

You know, you just don't know in sports.

It's that night.

It's that moment.

We're in Vienna, Austria, on the ice at the World Figure Skating Championships.

JIM: Since pairs competition started in 1908, only one American pair has ever won this championship-- Karol and Peter Kennedy in 1950, 29 years ago.

This, then, is a very big moment for American figure skating.

And they are the leaders.

DICK: And the first of their program, the first five or six moves are the power moves and the difficult ones.

They open first with a throw triple Salchow.

♪ Here it is.

♪ -[cheering and applause] -Beauty and lovely.

TAI: It was like a dream 'cause everything clicked.

DICK: Double axel.

Here it is.

Watch him lift her.

Nice, nice, nice!

RANDY: My right skate came unlaced the last 30 seconds, but I had the boot cover on to keep it.

And you'll see at the end, I'm doing... -...the death spiral at the end?

-Yes.

-And I was just-- -I didn't know!

And I was just holding on.

I felt it in that last jump combination.

[Tai gasps] Yes.

Dun-dun-dun-dun.

I was like, uh-oh, something snapped, but I-- what could I do?

JIM: This could be a little sporting history.

-JIM: The end of their program.

-DICK: Here it is, a death spiral.

He has only enough to go off the edge or she too?

And there it is!

It is it!

[cheering and applause] DICK: ...not only the technical superiority, but look at the energy and the complete security they have.

The smiles on their face show every, every inch of it, that they know that they're in command and in power.

Look at the snap over, the height of his legs as he gets those pull Arabians around, and look at the smile on her face.

Beautiful, really.

-TAI: It all clicked.

-RANDY: It clicked.

-TAI: It clicked.

-RANDY: And you-- it's luck, it's timing, it's training, it's whatever it is.

It's all those things.

JIM: Isn't that a great scene?

Isn't that beautiful?

The 18-year-old girl, 20-year-old young man... TAI: I got that hug and kiss from Mr. Nicks, which he didn't do that all the time.

I got one of those.

JIM: Now the second set coming up.

Look at that.

5.9, 5.9, 5.9, 5.8, 5.9, 6.0!

A perfect mark from the West German!

No question, you're looking at only the second American pair ever to win the world championship in pairs figure skating.

TAI: Randy and I grew up on "Wide World of Sports."

People saw us every Saturday afternoon from when I was 14 years old.

Dick Button, Jim McKay, Chris Schenkel was part of that family.

Ran-- Tai!

I'm so excited myself.

What do you think?

I'm so happy we got our first 6.0 today.

That was my dream.

It came true.

DICK: And now, what's going to happen?

Well, we have to look forward to Olympics next year.

-Lots more hard, hard work.

-I think this competition will help us.

Lots of hard work.

TAI: We were so lucky to have ABC and that team of commentators in our corner, always.

JIM: Was that a marvelous scene of pure joy?

Look at them, smiling and grinning.

[cheering and applause] Could it be a forecast of the Olympic Games in Lake Placid New York less than a year from now?

Well, their job will be even tougher then, because one would presume that Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev will be back in business.

But now they're the world champions, and somebody's gonna have to take that reputation away from them.

DICK: Let me say one thing, Jim.

This was a great performance.

It was better in many instances than Rodnina and, uh, Alexander Zaitsev.

Better in the sense that they were more elegant, more mature, and more artistic.

In that sense, they were better than Rodnina and Zaitsev.

Rodnina and Zaitsev have great energy and great power, but they are not complete in the sense that Randy and Tai are.

I don't think that next year's championship is by any means decided yet.

TAI: No one has touched our record yet.

Our record still stands.

I'm proud of that.

And I know Randy is, too.

[cheering and applause] After winning those world championships, we were allowed to step on the rarified ice known as the International Skating Tour, where the newly crowned champions are introduced to the world.

We toured all over Europe, and of course, in the Soviet Union.

While we were in Moscow, two of the finest pair skaters ever were there-- Oleg and Ludmila Protopopov.

So we're in Moscow and the Protopopovs are showering us with praise.

And I'm standing back there with my dad in the hallway.

And Oleg's with us.

And he looks over his shoulders and he takes out an envelope.

And he leans down to me and says, "Please take to Dick Button.

I am unable to put in Soviet mail."

And I don't really understand his broken English, but my dad got it.

He took the envelope.

It was sealed.

He put it in his pocket.

And when we got home, we went ahead and mailed it on to Dick.

And then I just kinda forgot about it.

Dick Button had invited the Protopopovs to skate in an exhibition in the U.S. Dick had staged and funded the entire event just to make it possible for the Protopopovs to defect.

[marching drums playing] ♪ ♪ RANDY: The 1980 Olympics was kind of at one of the peaks and pinnacles of the Cold War.

And there was the boycott coming up and there was a lot of political stuff going on.

Tai and Randy in Lake Placid against Rodnina and Zaitsev.

Whoa, uh-oh.

And we were coming in as world champions.

They had been out a year, she was having a baby, and we were gonna come head on for the first time at that point in two years.

Any skater, any athlete, we just wanna go out and do our best, and the rest is created from networks.

President Carter won a major victory today in his bid to boycott the Moscow Olympic Games.

["Kalinka" playing] ♪ TAI: Pressure?

Yeah.

♪ An added pressure you don't need at that time?

Absolutely.

♪ And they build you up to here.

♪ All we wanna do is go out and give it our best shot.

♪ [cheering and applause] But there's that added pressure of a gold medal.

Silver and bronze, or even making the Olympic team doesn't count.

Unless you're in it on that ice or on that field or wherever, you can't understand that kind of pressure.

This is the outfit that I wore for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

Tai and I were warming up and we were excited because we were favored to win the gold medal, which no other American pair had ever done.

Ten days earlier, I suffered a minor groin pull.

I snapped an abductor while doing a jump.

Injury happened ten days before we left for Lake Placid.

And it was skateable, doable, and then, uh, kept training.

When we got there, I'll never forget.

It was the opening ceremonies outside in the cold, then we had a practice at night about 6:00 or 7:00 at night.

And we went to train and do all that, and I snapped it again and I reinjured it.

And that's what did it.

The team doctor gave me a shot of Xylocaine.

The Xylocaine took the pain away.

But it had this annoying side effect.

I couldn't feel my legs.

JIM: And there is Randy Gardner, making his way out to the ice.

RANDY: I was hemorrhaging internally from my stomach and down to my knee, all that.

I was shaky and off-balance during the warm-up, and I went to lift Tai for the star lift, and I knew I was in trouble.

Then, ten minutes before we were to compete, I tried one more final jump.

I fell for the first time in memory, sprawled across the ice like a marionette without the strings.

DICK: I just hope that they are able to pull this off and give themselves another day and a half.

-DICK: There he goes again.

-JIM: Oh, goodness, goodness.

I wonder if they'll even be able to give it a try.

DICK: He just can't support the leg.

This is-- what a moment, what a time for this to happen.

I gotta tell you, my heart is in my mouth.

Heartbreaking.

So I said, "I want to keep going.

I want to keep going."

But our coach called it.

We had to withdraw.

DICK: They have withdrawn.

This couple have worked so many years to get to this point.

They have strained, they have-- they've gone on with it forever, and now, at this moment, at the threshold of giving them the opportunity to win or lose and stand on their own level, they've had to withdraw.

What a luck of the draw.

Oh... RANDY: Right after the injury happened, immediately afterwards, I went into the locker room, took my skates off.

My dad came down.

And I was bruised all up and down from my-- pretty much my knee to my stomach and-- from the hemorrhage-- and then I took off my skates.

Was very quiet.

I was devastated.

Tai went to the girls' locker room.

I lost track of her because people were trying to get at me for a quote or to see what's going on.

And then the security had to block all that 'cause I had to get out.

And then we met-- Tai and I met with John Nicks and the U.S.

Figure Skating officials, and we were taken away to the U.S.

Figure Skating home.

We watched the rest of the skating that night, the pairs event, on TV.

I was watching it and it was like, I didn't wanna see it, I did wanna see it.

We saw our friends skating, you know.

And I was just like, "Is this real?"

It was like a moment of...

It was a really, really bad dream.

That same evening, I went to my parents' hotel room.

Phones are ringing.

There was banging on the doors.

There was people, press trying to get us, get at us.

It happened that there was-- we didn't speak.

There was no interview or anything then.

The next morning, or the morning after that, we held the press conference.

The pain was... very high.

Um, I was doing and they were doing last-ditch efforts in terms of icing, jacuzzi baths, massage, even, you know, pills that we could take, anti-inflammatories and all that.

I said to John, I said, "I can't do this."

So that's when the shot was administered.

The shot happened in the arena right before the event.

DIRECTOR: And so the doctors didn't realize at that point that it would cause that side effect?

RANDY: Well, they didn't-- they thought that it would numb it and it would-- you know, it was Xylocaine, so they didn't know it was gonna be and anti-inflammatory effect or numb it or both, you know.

Either way, it didn't matter because I was gonna either do it or not.

A shot was gonna do what it was gonna do.

There was a risk.

I wasn't gonna compete without it though, I know that.

And to be honest...

I was great at shutting things out.

DICK: What happened I think is, is that Randy Gardner is such a superb athlete.

He has moves like liquid lightning.

And probably he maybe has not had to have as much warm-up periods over the years as maybe he should've taken.

And maybe he came out here and came into a skating program without a full warm-up, and as a result, could've pulled that muscle.

It happened to me once, when I thought I was warmed up, but I wasn't thoroughly warmed up, and as a result, I pulled the worst kind of muscle strip that I'd ever done, and I thought when I was warmed up.

Maybe I think the case was that he had not thoroughly warmed up fully before one of the moves that he had done in one of the practice periods, and that's why the muscle ripped.

Strangely enough, Tai is a girl who needs more warm-up, and a pulled muscle did not happen to her.

JIM: Well, it certainly did.

And we saw her crying under the stands, Dick, and it drains a great deal out of this competition, the pairs competition we had all been waiting for.

Yes, I'm sorry that they-- that they withdrew.

I would've rather have seen them skate and have the problems and not do the jumps and get marked down and remain in the competition with the hope that they could at least pull off with a free skating performance in the finals because they're beautiful to watch.

To her credit, Tai never made me feel like I let her down.

Not to this day.

She was more loving and supportive than I ever could've imagined.

In fact, we've never once spoken about that moment.

Not once.

I did not... think to bring it up to her because I didn't want her... ...you know, to get up-- to get upset.

I wanted her to stay focused.

I knew she was focused.

This was a big thing for her, too.

Tai followed me because she was a little shy.

And she's not really a follower by nature really, but in that case, I think she depended on me a lot.

The physical.

[sighs] You told me I'd do this.

Um... You know...

I was kind of a rock... for her.

And in skating and in life later on as we had to do that, you know.

But I think she depended upon me a lot on the ice.

TAI: After Lake Placid, when it didn't happen for us, there was a little confusion.

What are we gonna do?

And the main thing was, what we're gonna do is let Randy heal to see if he can skate.

That was the question.

Can he skate again?

Will we skate again?

And we had our commitment with Ice Capades coming up.

We had actually knew we were gonna sign with them and tour with them.

So was that gonna happen?

Was it a professional defeat as well?

I had to get well.

I did.

I did everything the doctors told me.

I was doing physical therapy.

And I was pretty much focused on that.

Getting better, the physical, and trying to have the emotional come along with that.

We received 4,000 telegrams by the next morning.

Now, this is before email and tweets.

[laughter] Even President Carter called the Olympic Village to express his sympathy, and then invited us to the White House.

The Russians won the Olympics that year, and Tai and I thought we would just disappear into relative obscurity.

I know that, that whole disappointment in '80 took a huge toll on her emotionally.

Um, you know, I don't know, um...

But I also think that just being able to skate again helped get her through it as well.

We became more popular because of the injury than had we competed.

The "L.A. Times" had branded us America's sweethearts, which I secretly love.

There's so much going on in terms of press, media.

My current one-on-one doctor, he had to kinda speak for me sometimes 'cause I didn't know all the medical terms and, you know, "How you gonna get him through?

What's the next plan?

"What's his condition?

"Are they going to the world championships?

Are they turning pro?"

You know, he had to sort of answer those for me.

Sarajevo was not even in our time line.

One thing that was, was maybe the world championships -after the Olympics, maybe.

-Right.

TAI: The brother and sister team of the Carruthers were right on our heels and ready to rock.

So you know when you've peaked and you know when to get out.

And that was-- we did the right thing.

RANDY: As amateurs, we couldn't take more than $75.

Even gift value.

That was amateur.

If you took more, you were a professional.

So we couldn't teach, we couldn't do any professional work.

We could do certain things if U.S.

Figure Skating approved it.

That's the way it was.

So you're amateur all of a sudden.

It was quick.

We were turning pro.

It was from February to April that we had that transition.

And I couldn't wait to get into an ice show as a professional skater.

With a few months of physical therapy, Tai and I were able to debut with the Ice Capades.

I wasn't expecting much.

We hadn't won the Olympics.

We hadn't even competed because of the injury.

But that first night that we went out there, and the announcer said, "Please welcome, "for their debut with the Ice Capades, "America's sweethearts, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner," the crowd went wild in a way that really made no sense to me.

They were up on their feet and they were screaming and cheering.

And Tai and I went on to do ten performances with the Ice Capades that month, and sold out every one.

[camera shutter clicking] We were like a caravan coming in, you know, the buses and the trucks and "Ice Capades" on the thing.

We'd come-- especially in smaller towns, there'd be like parades coming, you know.

"Ice Capades is coming in," and there'd be all this big brouhaha.

[upbeat music] ♪ And there were a lot of parties.

We all got real creative on the road.

There were the show-- the showgirls that were, you know, 5'10", all they did was smoke and pose and wear costumes and they were great at it.

It was kind of fun to watch.

[upbeat music] [cheering and applause] Then Tai started to isolate.

In her room alone.

Didn't wanna rehearse that much.

So, on the road, we would-- we'd go in every day at Ice, for us, so we could warm up.

And for the life of me, I couldn't understand why she wasn't enjoying our time with Ice Capades.

I was having a ball.

You know, we were making money, and we were doing this, and you know, all kinds of really good things were happening in my mind.

And it was tough for her.

The pressure, I think, the physical and, you know, trying to stay thin.

And it all happened with Dorothy and other women, too.

They'd go in.

This is a whole-- You gotta be strong to be on the road.

[somber music] ♪ This past year and a half has been a lot-- has been a learning experience for both of us.

And we've just been expanding, I guess you could say, artistically more than ever before.

MAN: Is it that type of thing that helps you maintain your enthusiasm at this point in your careers?

I love skating now more than I have for a long time.

I don't know what has happened, but I've just, uh...

I don't know, revitalized with my skating and I just enjoy it every second, whereas there was one point where I didn't enjoy it at all.

MAN: When was that?

Uh, after the Olympics in 1980.

♪ RANDY: We've had these great highs, and then we've had these interesting lows.

This long stretch of Tai and I being together from kids until senior citizens, literally, practically.

Um, it's been a very positive, interesting, different, bumpy relationship.

TAI: The great thing was, you're skating with your best friend.

And there's so much respect that goes along with that.

RANDY: For a while there, people thought Tai and I were a couple.

We weren't.

[laughter] We weren't.

Tai and I were never a couple.

Partly because we were like brother and sister.

We spent every waking moment together.

We knew each other like siblings know each other.

That was a part of it.

[laughter] When I was a young man, a closeted athlete, and then trying to come out, kind of out maybe with friends and stuff, and then not out-- I didn't know what I was.

I didn't start talking about my sexuality until a few years ago, which would put me in my early 50s.

I like to consider myself a late bloomer.

I wish I had that-- had the guts or had the opportunity to sort of be myself.

I felt I wasn't myself.

And we did this piece for "Us" Magazine.

-Right.

-And they had Tai and I on a double date with two, literally, strangers.

-TAI: We had dinner.

-RANDY: We did have dinner.

-TAI: And they got the shot.

-RANDY: Yeah.

We had to do like old Hollywood.

-You know, I was set up, and-- -And it was fun.

RANDY: It actually was fine.

It was fine, fun, and everything else.

But it was one of those old Hollywood tabloid setup things.

TAI: To show that we were-- we were normal.

We didn't have time to date.

[sweeping dramatic music] ♪ RANDY: Now, you may remember the Olympic champion, Robin Cousins.

He won in 1980.

He and I were a couple.

Robin Cousins was my first boyfriend.

Well, we skated together for years.

You know, he was from Great Britain, Tai and I were from the U.S., and there was a lot of international championships until the Worlds, where we met Robin, and we had a great time.

He was our age.

You know, he was funny.

We just couldn't wait to see him.

He was smart and quick and talented.

And I liked that... a lot.

And so, we finally sort of got together at a World Championships.

I forget what year.

Probably '77, '78.

My mom found out about Robin 'cause she found a letter.

I had left a letter in my car and she opened it.

And it was a letter to Robin, so it was like a love letter.

I'm sure my mom and dad probably suspected that I was gay or something was different.

You know, I always say, I even say now, moms know.

When my parents found out, in a sincere effort to help me, they arranged for an intervention.

They took me to something called reparative therapy.

Now, that's a program where a team of psychiatrists try to make you straight.

Their techniques include a field trip to a Nevada brothel.

My parents had to sign off on the trip authorization, which they did.

I had to pretend to be more masculine around women at least three times a week.

[laughter] I was told to stop looking at pictures of Greg Louganis in his Speedo.

[laughter] [cheering and applause] That was tough.

And then I had to practice something called ... reconditioning.

Okay, use your imagination.

On a more sober note, more people committed suicide while going through reparative than were ever made straight.

It never happened.

I got through it by telling a therapist one day... that I was repaired!

[laughter] And he believed me.

[laughter] Tai and I were going on tour.

I ran out of that place so fast and I never went back.

[cheering and applause] [soft dramatic music] ♪ Even though I said I was repaired, I really couldn't come out, really, because at that time, you know, there was that example of John Curry, who, when he won in 1976 at the Olympics, there was that headline "Gay Gay Gold" all over England, and that was devastating to his career.

But it just wasn't accepted in society, and especially in sports, and especially as being a national personality.

You know, thinking back, it was kind of cruel in a way to people, and-- but it started a lot of this revolution and movement.

We fought so hard in those days to have equal rights and to be-- at least just to be accepted, not sit in the back table, or to have two people in the same sex in a relationship or be together at a party or, you know, and not be underground with it anymore.

And LGBTQ, dot-dot-dot, that's gonna keep going and going and going.

In all those little letters, we lost people to the AIDS crisis.

The performance in West Hollywood, you know, I donated the shows to the AIDS Memorial.

It memorializes people and the people that fought for it, too, not just athletes, not just actors, not just dancers.

It crosses all the broad spectrum in life.

Rudy Galindo was a great person in the '90s, actually, just to be who he was.

It was accepted, it was nice, and it was okay.

There have been other athletes, too.

Greg Louganis, HIV-positive.

How many Olympic gold medals has he had?

He's free, he's open, he's good, and I think he's such a great spokesperson.

How wonderful is it that Adam Rippon can be who he is, skate the way he does, take on the political issues?

It's still a fight, but he's... he's been embraced.

And boy, we never would've been embraced back in my time.

♪ Once upon a time, in Long Beach, California, there was a man named Joe who owned a bakery.

Joe was 60, and his wife, Nancy, taught Sunday school while Joe made cupcakes and doughnuts and ten kinds of bread.

Nancy had many kids in her Sunday school.

Dottie Albright was one of those kids.

Dottie was 16.

It was her first job and she was adored by all the customers.

One night, she locked the front door, turned the "open" sign to "closed," and was about to leave... when Joe ... grabbed her, took her into the back room, and raped her.

That pattern continued several times a week until Dottie became pregnant.

When her mom found out about the pregnancy, she took her to a church maternity home to have the baby in secret.

That church arranged for an adoption.

Jack and Jan were a happily married couple with an eight-year-old son and wanted to have another child, but were unable to conceive.

So they adopted Dottie's baby.

Never revealing to anyone about the adoption.

Never even telling that kid.

They named that boy Lawrence.

Lawrence Randolph Gardner.

When I was a young kid, I felt different.

My mom was, I'm gonna... a skating mom.

There was neurosis there.

There was, like, fear.

She was just more nervous than anything that it wasn't gonna go well for me.

And that put pressure on me.

I was able to block that out in a way where I just did my job and did the best that I could, you know, in focus, physicality, and just in emotion.

When I found out I was adopted, I was age 40.

I found out because I had had suspicion.

I was in denial about it.

I didn't look like anybody in my family, didn't act like anybody, but I thought, you know, that happens.

I knew other families where not everybody looked alike or acted alike and everything.

But then there was something in my mind that made me think, I've got to confirm this, if I was adopted or not.

And then, I remember years ago, I was an adult, we were sitting at a dinner table at our dinner at a restaurant, and don't know how it came up, but an old family friend, Frank Ivanovich, said, "Oh, my God, Randy, I've known you "for so many years.

You were like this big when they brought you home."

And I didn't know what "this big," "brought you home" meant, and I went...

But then the table went quiet 'cause it was my mom and dad and my brother and most everybody there knew I was adopted except for me.

And so, the reaction in that sort of odd pause made me think, "Hmm, there's something up with this."

That just sort of added to the layers of different things.

In the end, when I turned 40, I decided just to find out.

So I wrote her the following letter.

"Dear Dorothea, I, at one time, was named Lawrence Albright.

"I was born December 2, 1957.

I think we're related."

Well, I got a letter back within three days with a phone number and three words.

It said, "Call.

Please call."

And I thought, "Holy crap!

This is all becoming real."

Wait.

You mean to tell me you were raped while you were pregnant with me?

"No.

"Lawrence, honey... you were the product of a rape."

Oh... Take it from me.

That will send you straight to therapy.

So when I got off that call, my first... reaction and my first emotion was, "My God.

I'm kind of alone in this world," 'cause I didn't know who my parents were.

There was a big family secret.

There was lying.

And there was like, my God, why would my adoptive parents do this?

I didn't feel like a victim but it was like, I kinda...

I kinda wondered who they were.

'Cause apparently I didn't know who they really were to hide this and what that was all about.

I think, as a person, I think we all want to know where we come from.

And we all wanna know kinda who our parents are or were.

I think that's just a natural thing.

And then... then came the time to meet her.

Did I want to or not want to?

And I did.

So, then the rest is... that we met.

Several months later, we met on neutral ground out in San Jose, California.

She drove from Idaho and I rented a car, which would enable me to begin the final leg of my journey to meet my biological mother.

Now, I'm still expecting Lauren Bacall.

But that squeaky little voice came from a woman that stood 4'10".

And she looked up at me and her eyes were filled with tears.

And she said, "Oh, my God.

You're Randy Gardner, the ice skater."

[laughter] "You're the 'Randy' part of 'Tai and Randy.'"

[laughter] "I've been a fan of yours for 25 years."

AUDIENCE: Aww!

RANDY: I didn't know who I was for a minute.

Once I found her and talked to her and got the story, I actually felt better.

'Cause I knew my roots and I knew the truth.

DIRECTOR: And did that shift you into being "Randy"?

RANDY: It shifted me into more independence.

DIRECTOR: 'Cause do you feel a dependence on Tai?

-RANDY: Absolutely.

-WOMAN: Yeah.

RANDY: There was nothing else going on in my life but skating with Tai in terms of professional... a professional person.

DIRECTOR: Is she your family?

RANDY: Tai's definitely in my family.

Tai is in the family.

I think that's the first time she's ever had her makeup done.

DIRECTOR: Jay is your family.

RANDY: Jay is my family.

DIRECTOR: How do they blend?

RANDY: See, family to me, and I so...

I heard someone the other day saying, "There's your biological family and then there's your logical family."

And your logical family, I think, is the people you choose to have in your life, and we can create a family even if they're not... blood.

[applause] TAI: Randy's influence to my son, Scout, is Uncle Randy.

And Randy is supportive.

You know, that's family.

RANDY: There was that small window in time in 2008 before the courts put a ban on same-sex marriage.

And Jay Gendron, the man I had been with for ten years, and I got married as soon as we could.

[cheering and applause] ["Best Friend" by The Guest and the Host] ♪ I said, "Why don't we get married?"

Just casually one day.

He said, "Well, you know, what if it doesn't pass and we can't do it?"

and yadda-yadda.

I go, "So what?!

What are they gonna do?"

All these marriages are gonna take-- they're not gonna go in on all the marriage licenses in the state of California with, you know, two gender-neutral names, and call everybody, "Are you a male-female couple or are you a same-sex couple?"

They're not gonna do that.

It's gonna be okay.

♪ And in the end ♪ I would love to be your long lost friend ♪ ♪ I went away and then you found again ♪ ♪ And then I'd never be alone again ♪ ♪ RANDY: Skating, going to an ice rink, or doing a performance makes me feel like me.

It makes me like I'm Randy Gardner again.

And there's no persona about that other than...

I happen to be a good figure skater and someone that could make a living at it.

That's what it means to me.

And how lucky I am to be able to make a living at something I've always loved doing.

I spend a lot of my time these days teaching kids how to skate.

And that's where I find the most joy in life.

That's good.

[soft piano music] ♪ [applause] It was over a half a century ago that I laced up that first pair of skates, floated away from my dad, and felt the magic.

♪ But I wasn't alone long.

♪ For the past 50 years, Tai Babilonia has been by my side.

We don't perform that much anymore, so we don't hang out that often, but it's odd for me to be up here without the woman that's been by my side for my entire professional career.

[camera shutter clicks] ♪ When I think about our lives for the past 50 years... ♪ ...I've come to realize that this is, by any measure... a true American love story.

♪ We haven't been side-by-side in the public arena for a very long time.

I say we put an end to that tonight.

What do you think?

[cheering and applause] [indistinct chatter] [cheering and applause] ♪ [applause stops] Sit.

[laughter] Hi, I'm Tai.

[laughter] From Babylonia.

[laughter] A number of years ago, I found myself trying to understand the whole Tai and Randy experience, and why I'm so protective of our unique friendship that just happens to be the best roller coaster ride ever.

RANDY: 50 years of skating together, and there's a professional aspect to it, there's a sibling aspect to it.

And there's a lot of trust, understanding, compromise.

And we had to develop all those aspects.

TAI: That's when you're in the center?

Forced to hold his hand at a very early age.

Still today side-by-side atop the frozen stage.

Good times, bad times.

We've survived them as a team.

To sustain this hidden love we share, every night I dream.

Misfortune in '80.

Maybe meant to be.

Trust and understanding will always be the key.

♪ Memories shared as shadows.

The majority of them fun.

When the glow has gone, we depart still friends.

BOTH: Forever two as one.

[cheering and applause] WOMAN: Tai and Randy proved that grace and humility under pressure matters.

Their skating transcended everything.

Please welcome Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner.

[applause] Thank you, Randy.

That's my soul mate.

♪ We're so close, sometimes too close.

But it worked.

It worked.

And I just, you know, I'm very protective of this relationship.

♪ That's our story.

And next year, we celebrate 50 years, so that's-- that's five decades.

That's a five-decade friendship.

And we still have a little glitter up our sleeves.

So, stay tuned.

♪ ♪ ♪ RANDY: I kinda love skating, the sport of it, and the history of it.

I like what skates do, the physics of it.

The blade hits the ice, it makes a carve in the ice, it warms the ice, and it glides.

Water is the only thing that, when it freezes, it floats.

And without that little bit of knowledge, we wouldn't have ice skating.

Baboom!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ TAI: Wow!

ANNOUNCER: The Human Rights Campaign envisions a world where all LGBTQ+ people live freely and with full equality.

live freely and with full equality.