You knew she was in trouble when you saw her bodyguard
When you saw those two together, you knew it wasn't hard
To see that she was different, not just one of the girls
With their gliding and their sliding and their pirouettes and twirls

Then it turned out that she smoked and drank and posed practically n***
And she didn't smile all of the time, she got angry, and was crude
No, she wasn't goody-two-skates, like all the other girls
With their grinning and their spinning and their winning little twirls

And her childhood was unhappy, and her mom was really weird
Her husband liked to hit her but it was poverty she feared
'Cos she grew up in the trailer parks not like most other girls
With their gliding and their sliding and their whirling little twirls, yeah

Yes, they all look like princesses, little Barbies to the core
But she was your parents worst nightmare: the slut who moved next door
From the wrong side of the track, she liked the boys more than the girls
With their gliding and their sliding and their girlish dainty twirls

And it seemed like she was lying, about what she didn't know
And then she started crying in the media sideshow
And in practice she kept falling down more than the other girls
With their gliding and their sliding and their picture perfect twirls

And they almost towed her truck way, oh, the whole thing was a drag
Forget about Campbell Soup and Reebok, Wheaties or the flag
Huh, there'll be books, she'll make some money, that's what they're after, all these girls
With their selling, kiss-and-telling, and their twisted little twirls
So play the National Anthem, stand up proud and tall
Ooh, we hope that ours don't stumble and that theirs slip and fall
And remember Olga Korbut - what happens to these girls?
With their triple-flips and axels, and their somersaults and twirls

Ice used to be a nice thing, when you laced up figure skates
Now it's a thing to win a medal on, for the United States
But once there were no lutzes, axels, pirouettes or twirls
Just giddy, slipping, sliding, laughing, happy little girls