Was Michelle lucky to win all those World Championships? | Golden Skate

Was Michelle lucky to win all those World Championships?

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
When you are at the top of the heap for a decade, it stands to reason that sometimes you win when you should have lost, sometimes you lose when you should have won, and sometimes you find yourself in a close contest that is decided by a judge's whim.

Overall, do you think that the skate gods have smiled or frowned upon MK?

Here's my opinion :D

1995 – Bad Luck :\ Michelle skates a podium-worthy performance. The judging panel is not prepared to give such a young skater her just desserts.

1996 – Good Luck :) Michelle and Lulu skate to a dead heat, with two of the most spell-binding performances of all time. The judges give Michelle the nod.

1997 – Bad Luck :\ Michelle is for sure a better all-around skater than 14-year-old Tara. But uncharacteristic mistakes in the short program leave her with no chance for gold, despite wining the long.

1998 – Good Luck :) Tara doesn’t show up. Michelle comes first with a so-so skate. Irina could have won.

1999 – Bad Luck :\ Michelle, now at her peak, is way better than Maria B. or anyone else. But she comes down with the flu and Maria skates the championship of her life.

2000 – Good Luck :) Michelle does her part by winning the LP, but she still needs help. Slutskaya beats Butyrskaya to hand Michelle the title.

2001 – Bad Luck :\ The heel of her boot breaks just minutes before the qualifying begins. Her dad sticks it back on with a 6-inch nail. Michelle throws bad luck back into Fortune’s teeth and skates to victory with one boot higher than the other.:)

2002 – Neutral. Michelle takes second with an OK skate.

2003 – Good Luck :) Early in the season, Michelle does not even want to compete. But then Sarah Hughes is injured, and Michelle is coerced into doing Skate America. She wins brilliantly, decides: Nationals? Why not? Delivers her all-time dazzling performance.

Another bit of luck – Worlds is in the U.S. that year. Michelle performs before an adoring home crowd and tears the roof off. :love:

2004 – Bad Luck :\ Murphy’s Law: whatever can go wrong, will. A bad start on hard ice, an unusual time deduction, a streaker. Despite all that Michelle took her best shot, and lost only because of three straight brilliancies by Shizuka.

2005 – Good Luck. Michelle decides to sit this one out. Everyone else falls down and breaks their leg. The ISU calls Michelle in California. Michelle plays her music over the phone. She wins!

What do you all think?

Mathman:);)
 
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mk06gold

Match Penalty
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Bad and Good Luck!

You should do the future as well like the 2006 games

Michelle :) good luck, as my user name says mk06gold. She wins the gold at the nationals, grand prix final, worlds, and the most important, the olympics. Then she turns pro and beats every pro- skater in her first year. And she get's married to Brad Ferance, a hockey player. Heard they are dating.
 

show 42

Arm Chair Skate Fan
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Good luck.........Michelle having a fan like Mathman..... :) 42
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
show 42 said:
Good luck.........Michelle having a fan like Mathman..... :) 42

I like that one best


I think any skater who is able to be a skater, investing the millions of hours and $$s to become a world class skater is lucky... even if I HAD wanted to become a skater after the age of 3 I would not have been fortunate to live in a state where there are decent facilities or coaches... and my parents couldn't have afforded it anyway (maybe Duane will get better results... if he wants to skate this winter... *cross fingers*)
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
I'm no natural on the ice as an adult skater by any means, but sometimes I wonder "what if???" I didn't get skating lessons as a child because my nearly 8 years older brother didn't do well at them and hated them when he was pushed into them by my parents when I was a baby. Is there luck invovolved? Yes, but Michelle has mainly succeeded on sheer talent and hard work.
 

BronzeisGolden

Medalist
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I agree, Yazmeen. Luck has played a part in Michelle's career just as it has with any other athlete. But, I think she's given every World competition her all....it was just that sometimes her all at that particular moment and time wasn't always enough. Everybody has emotional, mental and physical ups and downs and finding a way to stabilize all three in order to deliver consistently on a demanding world stage would have to be the part of competing that would really hold me back. I think Michelle has done very well with this and has found a way to reach that "place" or "zone" on a consistent basis. But, like anyone, she's had years where the balance wasn't quite right (98 & 99 Worlds especially). She's getting older now and juggling more responsibilities and concerns....I think it will be very interesting to see if she can work to regain this balance and produce it for the times when it matters most. I say she will.
 

gezando

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Mathman said:
When you are at the top of the heap for a decade, it stands to reason that sometimes you win when you should have lost, sometimes you lose when you should have won, and sometimes you find yourself in a close contest that is decided by a judge's whim.

I don't believe in luck.

Overall, do you think that the skate gods have smiled or frowned upon MK?

I think skategods have been neutral and just overall and did not smiled or frowned upon MK or other skaters.

1994 - first world placed 8th totally reasonable

1995 = the only lady who received standing O and landed 7 triples, but she lacked power in her basic skating skills

1996 - the judges called it right.

1997 - outskated by Tara

1998 - deserved the world gold, how are you so sure that Tara would win even if she showed up. In the 97 - 98 season Mk and Tara were trading wins, MK won nationals, Tara won the olys, maybe if Tara showed up in worlds she would be beat by MK

1999 - outskated by Maria

2000 - convincing win

2001 - won fair and square

2002 - deserved the silver, behind Irina

2003 - she rocked the house, luck has nothing to do with it

2004 = the judges called it right including the time deduction.
 

Ladskater

~ Figure Skating Is My Passion ~
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Was Michelle lucky to win all those world championships?

I think hard work and determination has to do more with winning a world championship than luck. It would be interesting to know the outcome had Michelle or any skater from her generation had to lay down figures as well at a world championship. The outcomes might be different.
 

berthes ghost

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Ladskater said:
Was Michelle lucky to win all those world championships?

I think hard work and determination has to do more with winning a world championship than luck. It would be interesting to know the outcome had Michelle or any skater from her generation had to lay down figures as well at a world championship. The outcomes might be different.
This Oly event must have been something to see: http://www.aya.or.jp/~polaris/winter_olympic/index.htm go to 1908 men's special figures.
I wonder why they discontinued it?
 
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Toffee

Rinkside
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
2005 – Good Luck. Michelle decides to sit this one out. Everyone else falls down and breaks their leg. The ISU calls Michelle in California. Michelle plays her music over the phone. She wins!
Loved this one! :laugh:

I believe that there is a bit of luck element in sports. On the other hand, only the strongest ones are usually lucky. Michelle Kwan fairly deserved her titles, other skaters who won over her deserved theirs.
 

BravesSkateFan

Medalist
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
well maybe you could win 1 World championship based solely on luck, but you can't win 5 Worlds because you're lucky :)
 

Linny

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 13, 2003
Luck?

Another poster mentioned that hard work and determination has to do more with winning a world championship than luck.

ROTFL! At the top of the heap, ALL the skaters work rilly rilly hard and have heaps of determination. What determines final placement on a particular day?

Linny
 

lavender

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
The luckiest skater in the world is Sarah. There are a few others but she's top pick imo. Michelle is just the best or one of the best. She works hard, born with the skills and presentation to win on her own merit. I do think things are meant to be so whatever happens is suppose to happen.
 
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dizzydi

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Luck

In my opinion, luck always plays a role with any sport. Has Kwan been lucky? Well, sure...and sometimes unlucky. To be honest, luck or fate, plays a role in every life.

Dizzy
 

Ogre Mage

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
I think almost more than any other ladies skater, Michelle has seen it all: up, down, good luck and bad throughout her 10 years at the WC. Some years the stars aligned and she gave a winning performance, other years it was one unfortunate thing after another. She soldiers on regardless.
 

VIETgrlTerifa

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Ogre Mage said:
I think almost more than any other ladies skater, Michelle has seen it all: up, down, good luck and bad throughout her 10 years at the WC. Some years the stars aligned and she gave a winning performance, other years it was one unfortunate thing after another. She soldiers on regardless.

I agree. We've seen Kwan have to give the skate of her life to beat another skate of a life (1996), we've seen Kwan fall behind and have to catch up (2000), we've seen Kwan just have a dream competition and rose smoothly along(1998, 2003), and we've seen Kwan get one misfortune after another (2001)....and those are just the times she won.

I think 2004 Worlds proved that Kwan could skate under any circumstance.
 

toutestgrace

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Michelle and luck

Call it luck...call it fate. Michelle has had no greater share of it than any other skater. It's all part of the game and she is one tough gamer. Heck, her talent shines through even when she comes in 2nd or 3rd (no lower than that in the past 9 championships!).

Luck. Yeah right.
 

apache88

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
In my opinion, it's luck when:

1) Michelle beats a skater who screws up. This skater has to be able to beat a clean Michelle more than 50% of the time.

2) The judges call it wrong in favour of Michelle when the majority call it the other way around, example SA 2001 (Sarah, in the opinion of many should have won).

Applying the above criteria to the past worlds:

1994: Never watched it, no opinion here.

1995: If the judges called it wrong (meaning the majority of the skating community disagreed), then it was bad luck for her.

1996: Close, could have gone either way. It was luck for either party.

1997: Fair win for Tara. Tara had never shown she could beat a clean Michelle BUT because Michelle managed to screw up consistently almost the entire season, it was no longer luck for Tara to beat an unclean Michelle. This season reminds me of Michelle-Sasha in 2003. Because Sasha managed to make mistakes consistently in major competitions, Michelle wasn't lucky to win Nats and Worlds.

1998 (Olys): For those ppeople who thought Tara's win was justified, there was almost if not equal no. of people who would think otherwise. Since it could have gone either way, it would be luck for either party.

1998: A lot of ifs. What if Tara had shown up. But then again what if she had but couldn't have duplicated another 7 triples with 3l/3l (remember her hips were beginning to give way). Remember also upto Olys 98, Michelle had proven she could beat a clean Tara despite her 7 triples iuncluding a 3/3. So, it was a fair win for Michelle.

1999: Bad luck. Maria had never proven she could beat a clean Michelle.

2000: If anyone thinks Michelle was lucky because Maria helped her by losing to Irina in frereskate, by the same token Michelle was unlucky to have screwed up her qualifying round and short program and ended up in 3rd behind Maria. That sort of canceled out each other wouldn't it? So, Michelle won it fair and square.

2001: Totally fair. In fact she defied bad luck that threatened to throw her out of contention for the gold. That boot problem would have consumed and shaken other skaters.

2002: Fair win for Irina. I don't think it's bad luck for Michelle to have screwed up her short program because she didn't skate consistently well in that season.

2003: Won fair and square. It's silly to talk about her winning by skating a safe program with others falling because to begin with others hadn't proven they could skate clean consistently. Furthermore, none had proven they could beat a clean Michelle.

2004: Fair placement.

Last but not least, if a skater's succesful career is short, one may talk about luck. For any athlete who can stay at the top of the game for a decade, luck is minimum. This applies to any sport.
 
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