An Olympian turnout at ‘Champion’ evening

This year’s “Evening With Champions” was an Olympian event. No, Zeus and Hera didn’t make it. But the yearly spectacular, which raises money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund, was again hosted by Olympic silver medalist Paul Wylie ’91, M.B.A. ’00. This 36th “Evening With Champions,” Wylie pointed, out was star-studded with past, present, and future Olympians, including gold medalists Ekaterina Gordeeva, Ilia Kulik, and Ludmilla and Oleg Protopopov. In addition to these demigods were other Olympic competitors and a number of skaters vying for spots in the 2006 international competition.The fabulous Haydenettes, as Degas might have portrayed them, array their graceful selves on the ice to appreciative applause.Loren Galler-Rabinowitz is one of the latter. When she was a girl and already an accomplished skater, Wylie asked her if she wanted to compete in the games. “No,” she’d said at the time, “I’d rather go to Harvard Medical School.” Now, she’s decided to do both. Galler-Rabinowitz deferred her admission to Harvard to try for an Olympic bid this coming year. “Academics are a priority. I had a chance to go to Harvard – or a chance to try for the Olympics, then go to Harvard.” During the show, Wylie interviewed John Misha Petkevich ’71, who created “An Evening With Champions” when he was an undergraduate and Eliot House resident. “It’s great to be of the same generation as Oleg and Ludmilla Protopopov, except they can skate,” he joked. He thanked everyone there for their contribution to the event, adding, “The greatest gift is to see cancer survivors thrive because of the ‘Evening With Champions’ supporters.” – Jessica BaumgartDaria Gordeeva Grinkov executes an exquisite spin during her program at ‘An Evening With Champions.’