What was interesting about Kwan after retirement. She never mentioned wanting to be an Actor. So many skaters (champions at least) think that Hollywood is beckoning them. But that was 70 years ago. Beauty isn't enough; Talent isn't enough. Hard work studying acting while noticing how all people around you are behaving or misbehaving from day to day is the method.
Well, I think she also tested the waters too. I remember she had roles in Ice Princess and a minor role in Mulan II before deciding school was the way to go.Originally Posted by Joesitz
Reading the article, and her interest in possibly pursuing a career in politics, I can't help but think of all the "Kwan for President!" stuff from a few years ago.
Kwan should start from home, how about running for ISU member and even president!! She should get strong backing from at least 3 major federations, US, Canada and China (?) plus she totally earned her way in and knows the needs of the skaters+ 1
AND she is MUCH more beautiful than Cinquanta..Can you imagine him in the gold dress?I just hope when Math sees the pic, he'll be OK.
I should have been more precise. I meant international diplomacy and relations, not international skating. I think that after she's been to luncheons with heads of state and has worked so hard on a Master's degree (though granted it seems to have been about the Olympics), Michelle is not going to be satisfied with a career of wrangling over whether a triple axel should be worth more than a quad toe in the CoP system. I think she's implied that she's put in her time in skating, and she's closed that door. But she could still surprise us!
Olympia, what was Michelle´s master thesis? Maybe i ll get ideas if I want to be a diplomat in the very far future.
According to the Hersh article, Michelle's master's thesis centered on "how the Beijing Olympics became a vehicle for a form of international relations." (I searched the Fletcher School site for further information, but could not find anything more that is accessible to the public.Olympia, what was Michelle´s master thesis? Maybe i ll get ideas if I want to be a diplomat in the very far future.)
If Michelle had the boldness to really get into the nitty-gritty, she certainly had a front row seat. There was a world-wide backlash against the selection of Beijing as the site of the 2008 Olympic games, with several European counties threatening an outright boycott over human rights issues (in particular free press issues), on China's support for totalitarian regimes (especially at that time Sudan), and about it's treatment of the people of Tibet. In the end, the chancellor of Germany went to the opening ceremonies -- with reluctance -- the prime minister of England boycotted the opening ceremonies but agreed to show up at the close to receive the torch for the London Games in 2012, and China flat out told the French President that he was not welcome.
U.S. President Bush was caught in the middle. He could not refuse to go, because the U.S. owes China $US 1,000,000,000,000,000 and counting. So after hemming and hawing Bush decided to go to the opening ceremonies but to boycott the closing ceremonies -- that'll teach 'em! He then scheduled a very public meeting with the Delai Lama to further poke China in the eye.
He also halfway-but-not-really insulted the President of China by only providing him lunch on his official visit, whereas when the Prime Minster of Japan visited the next month he not only got a state dinner but a trip to Bush's ranch in Texas. At the state luncheon for President Hu, Michelle was the "lovely and accomplished Chinese-American success story" to charm the visitor with, while Kristi Yamaguchi filled that role when the Japanese PM came to town. (Figure skating rules! Too bad the old Prussian-Polish empire is gone -- I believe Alissa Czisny (Czisnecki?) is available).
Anyway, Bush did not attend the closing ceremonies, and the official U.S. delegation was led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Michelle was part of that delegation, along with the Ambassador to China and assorted big-wigs (but not too big -- that would send the wrong message). Then Russia picked that week to invade Georgia, so Secretary Rice had to skip the closing ceremones anyway to hurry home and issue "stern warnings" and statements about "viewing with alarm" on behalf of the U.S. State Department, leaving Michelle and the others to wave the stars and stripes on their own in Beijing.
As an aside, Michelle had to get permission from her professors at the University of Denver to skip classes for the trip. One of her professors had taught Condoleezza Rice thirty years before, back when Ms. Rice was a student (and ice skater) at the University, and her father the Dean. (Dean Rice was an outspoken critic of the Viet Nam War, by the way. His daughter was much more hawkish.)
I hope Michelle's paper gave a candid bird's-eye view of all that, rather than just platitudes about how sport can bring people together, blah, blah, blah.
Last edited by Mathman; 06-05-2011 at 08:36 PM.
well about the boycotage of various presidents, we were brainwashed daily also too. The greek one went anyway.
But too many new info, Alisa has a poland root?
Mrs Rice was a skater? competitively?
and how much money IS THIS?> $US 1,000,000,000,000,000 ,more than our depth?
I didnt know Bush has a ranch but if i come as a President to US I want a visit to the big Disneyland Toni went, not a ranch.
Condoleezza Rice skating.
http://0.tqn.com/d/figureskating/1/G...kating1967.jpg
In this article (scroll down for excepts from a book in her own words) she says that she started skating when he parents used the skating rink as a babysitter. They would drop her off at the rink and pick her up later in the day when they finished their graduate classes at the University.
She says she had a difficult time because she was very tall with long legs and her knees would get stiff when she got nervous in competition.
http://figureskating.about.com/od/af...ers/f/rice.htm
About Alissa Czisny's name, I have never heard of the name Czisny before,. I think it is very unusual. Here is what Alissa herself said about it in a question and answer with children (first question).
http://www.usfsa.org/Magazine.asp?id=57&issue=32361
thanx
I can be a Condoleezza Rice then from my failed gymnastics career“I believe I may have learnt more from my failed figure-skating career than I did from anything else. Athletics gives you a kind of toughness and discipline that nothing else really does."
Condoleeza Rice was perhaps the worst Sec of State and least qualified Natl Security Advisor in the history of American govt.thanx
I can be a Condoleezza Rice then from my failed gymnastics career
She was hired by Bush Sr because someone needed to teach junior how to pronounce the names of the capitol cities of foreign countries.
She did well at this and never let on how little jr knew about the world.
The rest led to some of the worst and most failed foreign policy in the history of the USA.
^ok then I ll tell my dad to hire you as my assistant.
See, you are a grownup with a good education. You don't need me or Condi Rice to teach you basic things most students learn by the time they are 15.^ok then I ll tell my dad to hire you as my assistant.
But what does your father have t do with it, unless he is Bush Sr
Math, I think you have one fact that's a little off. The dean of the School of International Studies was Josef Korbel, who was the father of Madeleine Korbel, later Madeleine Albright, Rice's predecessor as Secretary of State. Korbel indeed taught and mentored Rice, though both Korbel and his daughter were Democrats (the other political party, for you non-U.S. folk), while Rice is a Republican.
Alas, yes, Rice helped preside over the foreign policy disaster of the Iraq War.
^ But I am pretty sure that Rice's dad, the Rev. John Wesley Rice, was assistant dean of the college of liberal arts at that time.
About Republicans and Democrats, when the Reverend Rice took an interest in politics in his native Birmingham, Alabama, he was forced to become a Republican because African-Americans were not allowed to join the state Democratic party.
This was challenged, with partial success, at the 1964 national Democratic convention in Atlantuc City. (I was there as a Fanny Lou Hamer delegate.
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