Babilona biography

American pair skater

Tai Babilonia
Babilonia in 1979
Full name	Tai Reina Babilonia
Born	(1959-09-22) September 22, 1959 (age 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Height	1.59 m (5 ft 3 in)
Country	United States
Skating club	Los Angeles FSC
Retired	1980

Tai Reina Babilonia (born September 22, 1959) is an American former pair skater. Together with Randy Gardner, she won the 1979 World Figure Skating Championships and five U.S. Figure Skating Championships (1976–1980). The pair qualified for the 1976 and 1980 Winter Olympics.^[1]

Career

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Babilonia and Gardner began skating together at eight and ten years old when skating coach Mabel Fairbanks needed a young pair team for a skating show in Culver City, California.^[2] They began training with John Nicks in 1971. They won the gold medal as juniors at their first U.S. Nationals in 1973 and as seniors, they came in second place in 1974 and 1975. The pair became five-time U.S. National champions, between 1978 and 1980, and won the gold medal at the 1979 World Championships.^[3][4][5] They were medal favorites at the 1980 Winter Olympics but were forced to withdraw due to an injury to Gardner, which ended the

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