Could Michelle Kwan Have Won?

[liberalpragmatist]

I'm no skating expert - I like to watch the Olympic figure skating, otherwise I don't really follow the sport.

Still, I remember before the games reading that Kwan wasn't expected to medal. When she withdrew, people were saying that it was probably a good thing; it would have saved her from humiliation.

But given that everybody except Arakawa fell and given that the performances weren't that incredible, could Kwan have won? Could she have beaten Arakawa for gold?

Of course, given that she was already injured, a good performance by her was no guarantee; and nerves got to her in 2002 like they did for Cohen and Slutskaya this year.

Still, makes you wonder. If she could have skated better than Arakawa, then she's probably kicking herself right now.

[Dave Reynolds]

1. I think Michelle had not recovered from injury enough,

at least enough to get back into the form she wished to be in.

[cynatnite]

2. With her injury...no, I don't believe so n/t

[AirmensMom]

3. I don't think so.

Not with the injury. But I'm sure she could have without the injury.

[LisaL]

4. How well exactly do you think she could have jumped with a

torn muscle in her hip? Geez. She withdraw due to the injury.
She was injured and didn't even compete almost the whole freaking year.

[liberalpragmatist]

5. Well, I only asked because she came in the first place

She said she was ready and the judges who saw her said she was ready (although that could well have been because of her popularity). Then she injured herself again during the practice and was out.

[LisaL]

6. I don't think she was ever ready.

The judges who saw her of course were going to say she was ready, but even when she skated for them she had fallen on the jump and didn't land that many jumps to begin with. I don't think she re-injured herself, I think she was always injured and thus wouldn't have won anything. Yes, in her best form, maybe she could have won, but other skaters could have won to if they gave their best performances, so that's neither here nor there.

[Benfea]

7. I think it's conceivable she would have psyched herself out.

Sorry if that sounds harsh. I like her and all, but I think that would have been a real possibility.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. If she, let's say, came to my room the night before, and I was a judge...

then yes, she could have won.

[JVS]

9. Wouldn't that exacerbate her groin injury?

:evilgrin:

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. I don't mind.

That's the kind of sacrifice I'm willing to make.

:evilgrin:

[JVS]

12. How noble of you!

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. I'm a self-sacrificer.

If Michelle must suffer a groin injury, then I'm willing to let it happen, no matter how painful it might be.

:patriot:

[flamingyouth]

11. I don't think so.

She was injured. Just seeing her practice, it didn't look like she could even make it through her long program, unfortunately.

[Lavender Brown]

13. Arakawa was pretty darn good

I'm not sure Kwan's chances would have been any better just because the others fell. :shrug:

[begin_within]

28. Yes, Arakawa was elegant, graceful, exquisite and fall-less. Deserved gold

[LostinVA]

33. Arakawa earned her medal, for sure.

[Squatch]

15. No way. She quit before she even got to the Olympics.

She said something to the effect of "I'm so tired from the flight over here" or some bullshit excuse. She had resigned and it was written all over her face that she didn't want to be there.

[nickinSTL]

16. had she been healthy, yes

without question.

As she was, though, I doubt it.

I think she very much wanted to compete for the gold, but when she got there, found she just couldn't hack it physically.

[CBHagman]

17. There are times when a skater just has to withdraw.

The same thing happened to Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner in a previous Olympics. Gardner was also skating with an injury, and he and his partner literally had to withdraw seconds before they were to perform. They had even done the warm-up, and Gardner fell. Competing might have put Babilonia at risk, too, due to the lifts.

It's heart-breaking, but it's reality for a skater.

[WolverineDG]

18. I remember that

He had a muscle pull or something. They gave him an anethetic to dull the pain, but it ended up killing any sensation in his leg at all. He couldn't feel it. He said later that they probably could have competed if he hadn't gotten the shot. :(

I remember that I was very sad they had to withdraw. :cry:

dg

[derby378]

19. Boy, I wish Tonya Harding withdrew from the '96 Winter Olympics...

She was just downright embarrasing out there on the ice.

I'm still convinced she at least knew of the plot to hobble Nancy Kerrigan and did nothing to stop it. Harding may have cost Kerrigan a gold medal.

[WolverineDG]

21. Kerrigan cost Kerrigan the gold medal

Tonya just added drama on top of it. I've seen Kerrigan & Baiul skate & it was very easy to see why she got a skad more points than Kerrigan. Kerrigan skated very "blah." She was rude to the audience, just giving us a small "fuck you" wave when we kept applauding & yelling for hours it seemed. She never came back out to skate. Baiul, otoh, was dynamite from the start. She was on fire & you could tell she was loving what she did. When we kept applauding & yelling, she came right back out & skated the same program AGAIN! She won over many people that day who were still angry that she won the gold. She earned it.

dg

[derby378]

24. True enough - Oksana was a little firecracker

She earned her gold medal. It was a shame that Kerrigan acted that way.

[Withywindle]

35. Oh, I remember that - what a soap opera.

That whole drama made a lot of people think Kerrigan was supposed to get the gold to make the Hollywood ending. Total American entitlement complex.

Baiul was incredible. The judges totally got that one right (not that it wasn't obvious!)

[Left Is Write]

23. She's going to be featured on GSN's "Anything To Win"

in a couple of weeks.

In a commercial preview of the interview with her she says, "I was the best female figure skater in the world!"

Uh huh. Right, Tonya. That's why you were so threatened by Nancy Kerrigan you had her clubbed.

[LostinVA]

I will say that she was the most athletic/powerful female skater

at that time, and is in the top three today. She would have thrived under the new scoring system.

And remember: a very young Kwan didn't get to skate because Harding was allowed to go to Lillehammer by the IOC.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. Yes, the whole "cripple Kerrigan" episode was so stupid

I saw the national championship at which Tonya Harding won first place. At the time, Michelle Kwan was an athletic but childish-looking 13-year-old who didn't yet have the grace that she later developed, and she came in second with Kerrigan still recuperating and not competing. However, with Michelle Kwan still a fledgling skater, Nancy and Tonya were so far above the rest of the field at the time that even if Kerrigan had competed, the two of them would have gotten the two Olympic places that were available to the U.S. that year.

By letting her friends pull off that stupid scheme, Tonya Harding became the focus of all that tabloid publicity, which threw off her practice schedule and rattled her psychologically. She also alienated the rest of the skaters so that they refused to work with her. This ruined her chances to get a contract with an ice show, which is how skaters typically earn their living after competing, and which pays national champions and Olympians up to $100,000 a year.

As one of my Portland friends said, "Tonya's future is, 'You want fries with that?'"

[begin_within]

37. I agree completely... Tonya Harding was the best female jumper...

... the USA has ever produced, and the only U.S. woman to land a triple axel in competition (until Kimmie Meissner recently landed one). It's too bad about all the unpleasantness in 1994, which ruined Harding's career and life. Her ex-husband Jeff (nee Gillooly, now Stone) says Tonya knew about it before the attack, while Tonya to this day denies that she knew. It's a he-says, she-says thing that they will both go to their graves sticking by what they say. Ultimately it's Tonya's fault anyway for marrying him in the first place and allowing him to intervene in her career, and not stopping him if she did know. So the blame does lie on her. Too bad for Tonya, it killed her career completely and nothing good has happened to her since, except a pathetic attempt at boxing. A real American tragedy. She did have some spectacular jumps and spins, although she didn't have much in the way of choreography or artistry, she was still a gifted athlete and a major asset to the U.S. field - until it all blew up in 1994. Although Nancy Kerrigan became wealthy and successful after her last Olympics, I don't think she has done anything worthwhile in skating - just going through the motions, mainly.

[begin_within]

29. That was actually 1994, but otherwise you're right.

[derby378]

34. Oy! Do I ever feel old now...

:blush:

[Radio_Guy]

20. If healthy, yes

Easily. Hands down. But not with her injury.

[LostinVA]

32. Gold or silver if healthy

[underpants]

22. This one time.... at skate camp...

[Deep13]

25. Without the injury and everyone else falling over,...

...she could have pulled it off.

She quit because she had no reasonable alternative, not because she wanted to do so.

[Orangepeel]

26. I'd say no.

In order to beat Arakawa, she would have had to been of at least bronze caliber in a year when competition was tough. And if she was okay enough to do that, I'm guessing she would have competed.

[begin_within]

27. Not while still injured. If healed completely she would have contended.

[LostinVA]

30. Anybody who competes in the Olympics has already won

I honestly wish they wouldn't even give medals.

[Shell Beau]

31. She could have had she not been injured.

When she is on, she is on. She has the grace, the elegance, and the experience. She looks beautiful on ice.