The Olympics, Tai Babilonia, and the Cartoon That Helped Build TRON
The emotional intensity of the Olympics can be viewed through two very different lenses: the real-life story of Tai Babilonia and the animated fever dream that is Animalympics. One is a story of devastating loss at the height of ambition. The other is an animal parody of the Olympics that quietly helped finance TRON... (AP Photo, Tai Babilonia & Randy Gardner) On Thin Ice : The Tai Babilonia Story In the heart of Black History month, we remember that at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, Tai Babilonia and her skating partner Randy Gardner were favorites for gold. They were charismatic, technically strong, and widely expected to win. The pressure was huge, but they were ready for it. Then, just before the competition, Gardner suffered a groin injury. They had to withdraw from the 1980 Winter Olympics. After years of training for that exact moment, it was over before it even began. The TV film On Thin Ice tells the story of what happened next. It focuses not just on the injury b...