After chasing Olympic gold for over a decade, Michelle Kwan announced today that she is withdrawing herself from the U.S. Olympic team for this Winter Games. Kwan has tallied five world titles, nine national championships and silver and bronze medals at previous Olympics (1998 and 2002, respectively) but has been unable to take it all home at the Olympics. In explaining a decision that Scott Hamilton described as "generous", Kwan said, "I respect the Olympics too much to compete... I don't want to be a distraction here." The doctor who examined her stated this new acute injury is not career-ending, but still, not a bad list of accomplishments for a 25 year old.
In other figure skating news, Rena Inoue and John Baldwin landed the first ever throw triple Axel in international competition. Like Kwan, this is Inoue's third Olympic Games (she competed for Japan in 1992 and 1994) and recently became a US Citizen last fall. This single trick probably won't bring them any medals (they are currently standing sixth and most bets for gold are on the Russian pair), but it's pretty cool anyway.
What's up with Apolo Ohno? Well, the 1500m men's short track is on today and it's time to see if the controversy between him and the South Korean team get cleared up as he faces off against current world champion Ahn Hyun-Soo.
What is it with Asians and the ice anyway?
Posted by Seng at February 12, 2006 12:46 AM
1 Comments
Leave a comment
It can't be an easy decision for her, since she's been trying for the gold for so long. But I respect her decision because a lot of people in her position would try to stay in the game anyway, while injured, and just get even more hurt.
It's not a career ender, so it's not the end of the world I guess.