Olympic bump: Bump for the Common Man!

err, the term "ice princess" doesn't automatically confer the implication of the word "bitch" without reason, ya know?

It goes back a ways. For instance, only months after the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan debacle, I wanted to club Kerrigan in the knee myself!

(Disclaimer to the Kerrigan family: I do not now, and never have, wished actual physical harm on Nancy or her family. But if you've filtered through the forums to find this lil' ol' blog, let me be the first to say that in my opinion, Nancy is an arrogant spoiled individual whose 15 minutes of fame are, thankfully, long put away in the vault).

She came to the commissary to sign autographs a while back (unless I'm confusing her with another Asian ice skater).

Meh. You can at least take some consolation in the fact that groin injuries...even female ones...are funny.

I still think she should apply for a medical waiver for the competition... and then she'd get an imaginary score like the one that helped her bypass Nationals.
The score might be good enough to medal, 'cause she's Michelle Kwan, BIATCH!

I've always LOVED the olympics. Always. I've always loved the figure skating, the freestyle skiing, the speed skating, the gymnastics, the relays, the footraces, all of it. When I was younger and a lot less fat I wanted to go to the olympics. I wanted to throw shot put and discus. I just wanted to go.

Okay. So that was from fat, silly, me.

Now...imagine you're a world competitor. And you are GOOD at what you do. You've won practically every award there is except for an Olympic gold medal. You're getting older, and this is going to be your last shot for that medal. You've been training for this for FOUR years. And you're going. You're determined you're going to make it.

God only knows, I'd bet on myself if I were Michele Kwan. I would have done it, too. I'm NOT saying that what she did was okay, but I probably would have hoped against hope that I'd be healthy enough to do it and I would have went for it. At least she DID bow out in enough time to let another skater in her place.

Have you ever seen her skate? I mean...in person? I have. From the second row. It's amazing. She's amazing.

Whoa!  Someone is really into the olympics!  Given I heard the end of the story, but not the whole story, yea, it sucks big time!

Now...imagine you're a world competitor. And you are GOOD at what you do. You've won practically every award there is except for an Olympic gold medal. You're getting older, and this is going to be your last shot for that medal. You've been training for this for FOUR years. And you're going. You're determined you're going to make it.

The thing that gets me is that she just assumed (maybe rightly) that she should be on the Olympic team, without an audition (the US Nationals is the audition for the Olympic team). So her selfishness and diva-ness caused a minor problem at the worst possible time for young skaters: two weeks before the Olympics.

Then the USOC caves and lets her bypass the Nationals in order to put her on the team, bumping Emily Hughes.

Now she steps aside due to injury and expects the Olympic team to get the actual third-place Nationals qualifier and US Olympian her chance?

Nice way to go into retirement. As a diva who thinks she is above the Olympics process.

Someone is really into the olympics!

I know Guy was talking about Marcie, but I am a big fan of the Olympics too. I never aspired to going, as I was never an athlete, but I do enjoy the human achievement of it all.

dave...

See...I see what you're saying. I don't know...I don't see it as being a diva though. She's a figure skating icon. She's the face of women's figure skating in the US. Think of the "outcry" there'd be if she *wasn't* allowed to skate for a silly groin injury.

I guess we're all entitled to our opinions.
Michelle Kwan has won, if I'm correct, more awards on ice than anyone else,
and that's because she not only is a fantastic skater, it's because when she skates
she "becomes the music".
Most skaters and dancers perform "to the music" or "with it", Michelle is the only
skater I've seen that can interpert the music and look like she's a part of it.

I'm glad she's taking care of her body, and sorry to see her heart breaking, for she
truly loves the skating. She's not a B----. not in my opinion

Michelle Kwan just didn't decide she would pass the U.S. Nationals then petition for a spot on the Olympic team. It's a process that has been part of skating for years.

When a skater is injured (and Kwan WAS injured) you can notify the Selection Committee of your injury and they will decide if the injury is severe enough to get a hearing. If the Committee decides the injury was significant enough for the skater to miss the Nationals then they recommend a hearing to see if that particular skater should be added to the team. The Committee decided Kwan should get a hearing, and at the hearing they decided to add Kwan to the Olympic team provided she could prove her injury was healed enough for her to skate by a date provided by the Committee. Kwan did skate well enough at the set date and the Committee then added her to the team.

I thought it was the correct decision. It's not like she's the newest media darling and she was picked without credentials. Kwan is a 5-time World Champ. She has done nothing to ever embarrass her sport, and her desire to win a Gold Medal was so strong she lost millions she could've made had she skated professionally.

All the names you called her she may well be, but NOT because of the things you are accusing her of such as being above the Olympic process. And if she was really 'selfish' why would she withdraw knowing she couldn't give her best? Wouldn't a selfish person still skate?

Believe me, the third-place finisher Emily Hughes never stopped training to compete at the Olympics even after Kwan was chosen. When you are an alternate you still go and you still have to be ready to skate in case there IS a injury to a skater. I bet you big money that Emily Hughes and her family don't think Michelle Kwan is a stupid, selfish cow.

I think it would have been more selfish of her to continue to compete with an injury if it meant her not doing well and taking away the chance that someone else could do better.

Injuries can be strange. If she could have competed, she would have been sure bet for a medal. And that go-ahead wasn't just given on her "i can skate" say so. I think it's too bad the injury got worse instead of better.

It is not unheard of for athletes to make it to major competitions in this way. But the timing of the whole thing... seems like she should have known sooner if her injury was that bad, but she had medical clearance all the way so...

Trudy:

I guess we're all entitled to our opinions.

I think that, upon reconsideration, I was wrong.

(I am being serious, not sarcastic, BTW...)

All the hoopla about Michelle Kwan and her bowing out of the Olympics, her nine national championships, and most importantly Peter Ueberroth himself saying that she is the greatest athlete and the finest person that he has ever had the pleasure of knowing... okay, maybe I was being a little harsh on her. Michelle Kwan deserves better, I have come to understand.

Besides, you should have seen the looks on people's faces when we'd be talking about the Olympics and I'd pipe in with "Michelle Kwan is a stupid, selfish cow!" Every eye in the room was on me, I tell you what...

Maybe first impressions are not always the right ones...

Maybe first impressions are not always the right ones...

I'll cut you a little slack on this ( ) AOL did a quick, early article on it and it was not flattering to her. Later articles were more balanced in the reporting. When I first read the "AOL" article, I thought, "They are going to massacre her in the media!?" It wasn't negative to her, but certainly, didn't stress anything other than her decision.

When you are an alternate you still go and you still have to be ready to skate in case there IS a injury to a skater. I

While I agree with most everything else you said, this isn't totally true. Emily Hughes was not in Torino--she was in Long Island and was snowed in.

ready to skate in case there IS a injury to a skater

Emily Hughes was not in Torino--she was in Long Island and was snowed in.

There was still a week and a half until the women's skating starts. It's no biggie that Emily was at home... it's nto as if she'd have had to rush onto the ice to help a fallen Kwan.