Who’s missing from this picture of the just-named American figure skating team for the 2006 Winter Olympics?
Two people, actually. The first is Emily Hughes, who won the bronze medal at the National Championships (which is where this picture was taken).
The second is Michelle Kwan, who is taking Emily’s place on the Olympic team. Not because Emily dropped out or sustained an injury, but because apparently we can’t go to the Olympics without Michelle friggin’ Kwan in tow.
Kwan Decision Shrouded in Mystery
Never mind that Michelle hasn’t won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in the two previous times she’s been there (she placed second in ’98 and third in ’02). Never mind that in her last significant competition (the 2005 World Championships) she placed fourth—behind inspirational-sports-story-in-3-D Irina Slutskaya, perennial underdog Sasha Cohen, and so-so Italian Carolina Kostner—to illustrate just how little she is prepared for the new scoring system in place for international figure skating. Never mind that she didn’t even show up at the U.S. Championships (because of a groin injury) and had to formally petition the international skating association to consider her for the Olympic team.
The point is that Michelle has been to the Olympics twice already—whether she won or not (and her track record at those two events could be used as an argument either way regarding the merits of a third try for her). On the other hand, this may be Emily Hughes’s only shot at the Olympics. And sure, she may not be much of a threat to the competition (which should, of course, be the deciding factor in who gets to compete), but then that’s what everyone said about her sister Sarah, who went on to skate one of the most amazing long programs I’ve ever seen in order to win the gold at the 2002 Olympics.
It’s not like Kwan has been cheated out of her Olympic dreams. She already had two chances and they just didn’t work out for her. No one can say she was robbed. Yet here she is basically destroying the Olympic dreams of a 16-year-old girl (who, by winning the bronze, earned a place on the Olympic team as far as I'm concerned) just so she can have a third shot at the gold. No one gets that many chances at the Olympics, do they? Ugh. I wish she’d just retire already....
Of course, what really bothers me is that this was my girl Sasha Cohen’s first U.S. National Championship gold medal, but all anyone could talk about after the competition was Kwan’s inclusion on the Olympic team. As if Sasha doesn’t get overshadowed enough by Kwan’s legacy, now Kwan is upstaging her when they aren’t even in the same building. Bah!
P.S. If Michelle Kwan skates to “Fields of Gold” during her Olympic exhibition again, I’m going to vomit. Right after I yell at her (via the TV screen) for being simultaneously arrogant and tacky.
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