COMMENTARY
By Filip Bondy
msnbc.com contributor
updated 5:32 p.m. ET Jan. 29, 2006
 | Filip Bondy |
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ST. LOUIS - So now the deed is done, sort of, and Michelle Kwan is a three-time Olympian. Our parent company, NBC, can go sell some ads in peace, at least until Jan. 27 when Kwan’s programs and health will be evaluated by judges from U.S. Figure Skating’s international committee.
But whether Kwan can stand on her triple lutzes by then, the near future of America’s figure skating team — which means Turin — is not looking particularly bright. For the first time in nearly 60 years, it is possible to imagine the U.S. men and women both finishing completely off the podium in singles at the Winter Games.
Not probable, but possible.
It hardly seems worthwhile anymore talking about the men, who were hopeless at U.S. nationals. Johnny Weir is a great quote, a wonderful troublemaker. But he and the other American men are light years behind Evgeny Plushenko. Evan Lysacek may have finished third at worlds last year, yet in St. Louis not one of the top finishers even bothered to attempt a quad.
They promise to work on that, but the American men have been struggling for what seems forever, since Brian Boitano captured gold in 1988. The women are supposed to be a different story, though. They have been our glory, our balletic champions, throughout the years. Just maybe not this time.
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Sasha Cohen, a titlist at last, did not land a clean triple-triple combination at nationals and was given a rather generous total score of 199.18, after stumbling a bit on two jumps and tiring badly. Even Cohen admitted the U.S. judges were “very supportive” with their scores for her and others.
Cohen bathed in her glory, inhaled her standing ovation for a full 30 seconds. Kimmie Meissner, fearless at 16, skated one of the most technically difficult long programs in memory, by U.S. standards, placing a well-earned second at 171.04.
Meissner means well, and may amount to something special in a year or two. But she is not a polished 16, not like Sarah Hughes was four years ago. Meissner was fourth at world juniors last year. The Winter Games are more than a small step up.
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So it is painfully clear that the U.S. still needs a spunky Kwan, that the crop of American teenagers has not outgrown her. One by one at nationals, the women skated onto the ice for their long programs, hoping for a clean routine and set on convincing U.S. officials that Kwan was now irrelevant.
But they couldn’t do it. They couldn’t make Kwan’s shadow or her old 6.0’s go away, even with all these triple-digit points flying around and this spanking-new scoring system. And so Kwan is on the team, after “a healthy discussion” and a one-sided, paper-ballot vote of 20-3. Emily Hughes of Great Neck, L.I., is an alternate, waiting on the sidelines for more news.
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“There aren’t numbers I can compare there, just relationships,” said Bob Horen, head of the USFS’s international committee. “The committee felt Michelle probably had a better chance of winning a medal. The mission of the international committee is to win medals.”
The international committee didn’t really have much of a choice with Kwan. The overall skating was not up to the women’s standards of four years ago, of eight years ago, of 12 years ago. Kwan, in absentia, was rescued from real controversy by the step-outs, stumbles and falls of competitors.
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