Kwan Has Withdrawn

[millie]

I'm very sad for Michele but I can't help feeling that she probably felt that she would not (should not) compete at Olys since her December groin muscle injury.

I've said it before & I'll say it again: I wonder if the Olympic sponsors had anything to do with her having to go through this entire ordeal -- post-Nationals through the first practice in Torino? Maybe many years from now we'll hear a very interesting story from Michelle abut the pressures of Madison Avenue marketers.

For now, though, my heart aches for Michelle.

I agree with you. I don't think that she was healed from her previous injury. Everything has been kept secret with regards to her training and practice. She went there without her coach and practiced. I think that her first practice at the Olympics should have been kept private like her practices before she went there. Where was her coach? Shouldn't he have been there with her. There are a lot of unanswered questions. Did he know that she wasn't ready and didn't want her to go and that's why she went there without him. You would think that he would have been at her side from the time she arrived at the Olympics. I thought that was unusual. Was she forced to go because of the sponsors and USFA. We will probably never know.

Let's hope that she is feeling better soon and get on with her life whatever it maybe.

[IDLERACER]

[CENTER]HERE is the hometown paper's take on it (the Los Angeles Times).[/CENTER]

[NanSinger2]

[QUOTE=Frau Muller]I wonder if the Olympic sponsors had anything to do with her having to go through this entire ordeal -- post-Nationals through the first practice in Torino? Maybe many years from now we'll hear a very interesting story from Michelle abut the pressures of Madison Avenue marketers.
QUOTE]

I wondered if this occured to anyone else. You have to think that Michelle has had all kinds of pressure from different groups in her world. As far as what her chances would have been, I prefer to believe she would have had a good showing...maybe not gold, but I think she would have left Turino with a medal. I'm really sad about this turn of events, but I understand.