Brian Boitano Reveals the Reality Show He'd Compete On and the Song Liza Minnelli Once Serenaded Him With (Exclusive)
- - Brian Boitano Reveals the Reality Show He'd Compete On and the Song Liza Minnelli Once Serenaded Him With (Exclusive)
Alexandra HurtadoFebruary 4, 2026 at 12:30 AM
0
Brian Boitano has no plans of gliding across the ballroom floor on Dancing with the Stars, but he'd be game for The Amazing Race.
"That would be fun," the former figure skater told Parade in an exclusive interview. "But I wouldn't want to eat gross things. I'm not really scared of stuff... I don't know how long it goes for, two weeks or whatever? It sounds like it's really stressful."
🎬 SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬
While Dancing with the Stars is a "no" for Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi has tried to get the fellow Olympian on the reality dance competition, which she won in Season 6. "I just don't think that I would be as good of a dancer as people expected me to be," Boitano admitted. "And they'd be like, 'What the heck is wrong with him? He's an ice skater. It's like he should be able to dance.' I'm like, 'No, I don't think that they go hand in hand.'"
But, if he had "to choose any show to do, it would probably be The Amazing Race." Although Boitano remarked that he doesn't think he could handle the pressure of the reality show, he is no stranger to high-intensity pressure, having competed in three Olympic Winter Games: Sarajevo 1984, Calgary 1988 and Lillehammer 1994.
For young competitors heading to the Olympics, Boitano would tell them, "You imagine what the pressure is going to be like when you're standing center ice and you're waiting for your music to start. Well, it's not that. It's four or five times that amount of pressure, and it surprises you. It takes you by surprise because you gear up your whole life."
"Going for a gold medal, or a medal at the Olympics is going to be the highest pressure with everyone watching, it's your moment," he added. "You only have four minutes to do this, and you expect what the pressure is going to be like. It's four fold. And that's what a lot of people don't really realize, and it takes them by surprise. And sometimes it can go in a positive direction and sometimes it can go in a negative direction."
Related: 17 Athletes to Watch at the 2026 Winter Olympics—Including Lindsey Vonn’s Historic Return
The three-time Olympian won a gold medal at the 1988 Games with a routine that unfolded exactly how he had visualized it. "It never goes away, the surprise and the feeling of accomplishment," he said of winning an Olympic gold medal.
Boitano will be in Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which officially kick off on Feb. 6. He and USA TODAY Sports columnist Christine Brennan launched their podcast Milan Magic, following Team USA athletes through the Games, just last month.
View this post on Instagram
Reflecting on his days as a competitor, Boitano shared, "What I miss most about skating in the Olympics is that feeling when you have finished and you have skated really well and there's no feeling that compares with it. It's like such a sense of accomplishment. And that's like too light of a word to explain it. But the feeling of, like when you have just laid it all out there, all your training has come to fruition."
"All your mental training has helped you through it with all the pressure and to just stand there in the center of the ice and just know that you did the best that you could. It's like a feeling that is inexplicable," he continued.
Because staying focused is so important, Boitano is happy social media wasn't around during his competitive years. "If I were a coach or [if] I were mentoring a skater, I would be like have your social manager take care of everything for months going in. They can comment, post, whatever, just don't look at what people say because I think that every bit of focus needs to be on the job at hand," he said. "Whatever takes you away from that focus and that job at hand is going to be distracting and could be dangerous for your performance because you just have to be so laser-focused."
Brian won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics David Madison/Getty Images" data-src=https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/hR7LBuak3aWIq2tZx8eo6Q--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEzNjQ-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_parade_744/4a24b6cdb63fa941272a945fa5312b56>Brian won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics David Madison/Getty Images" src=https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/hR7LBuak3aWIq2tZx8eo6Q--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEzNjQ-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/aol_parade_744/4a24b6cdb63fa941272a945fa5312b56 class=caas-img>Brian won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics David Madison/Getty Images (David Madison/Getty Images)
Though, had there been social media back then, there is one particular moment that Boitano thinks would have gone viral during the 1988 Games: the audience chanting "Boitano" and "Orser," for his rival Brian Orser. He recalled, "The funny thing is that as I was tying my skates and that chant started, I realized that it was my brother who started that chant."
He added with a laugh, "And I thought, for that moment, I'm like 'I am going to kill my brother.'"
Related: Why Are Two Different Cities Hosting the Olympics for the First Time?
As a competitor, Boitano always found it "fascinating" when someone would enter the Olympic Village and leave a different person. He said, "It's like literally in one day, like you go in and then come out and your life has changed forever in that literally small span of time."
Boitano himself went on to become a household name, and part of pop culture, inspiring the South Park song "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" He even once had Liza Minnelli serenade him.
"It was right after the Olympics and I was being inducted into the Italian American Hall of Fame, and, it was on my birthday, it was my 25th birthday, and also being inducted that day was Liza Minnelli, and we were being held in the green room," Boitano remembered. "She actually came over to me and she's like, 'Oh my gosh' and she's like, 'I always wanted to be an ice skater.' So I didn't know that Liza Minnelli wanted to be an ice skater."
Boitano described the actress as "probably the nicest celebrity" he's ever met, and that night, she sang "Happy Birthday" to him.
"Liza Minnelli is like 'It's Brian's birthday. Let's sing him happy birthday,' so Liza Minnelli sang me 'Happy Birthday' on my 25th birthday," Boitano recounted, calling the moment "really cool."
Related: Know for the Gold! Brush Up on Your Olympic History Ahead of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games
This story was originally published by Parade on Feb 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
