emma said:I'm getting these skaters all confused...was Matt in urban planning or was that Jeff Buttle??
MFarone said:I really like Michael's older programs. The programs I saw at 2004 and 2005 Nationals were just not as good as his previous programs. I know Brian Wright who did some of Michael's older programs passed away, but he needs to find a real choreographer. Michael has nice line and extension but at Nationals this year he was slow and tentative. I'm hoping he can come up with one last hurrah for the coming year and at least be really happy with his programs. I don't know if he can medal without a clean quad, but it would be great to see him do a good clean program with great footwork and maybe some interesting jump entrances.
Maureen
Mathman said:In a feature in the latest Spotlight on Skating, they make the point that Michael Weiss ticked off U.S Figure Skating by skating for SOI last year. As a punishment they did not invite him to compete in the Marshall's invitational in March, replacing him with Shaun Rogers.
I wonder if this will hurt Mike's chances to make the Olympic team.
Mathman
Both MacEnroe and Agassi had their Tennis go downhill after marriage.Linny said:Maybe his kids wore him down... speaking for myself, I can say I surely wore MY parents down.
Any other eligible skaters with kids? Alexander Abt, Tatiana Navka come to mind. They have one child, right?What about top athletes in other sports? Think it affects their "fire"?Linny
attyfan said:Several pairs teams competed when one, or both, partners had kids. I recall reading somewhere that, when G & G were practicing for '94 Olys, Artur Dmitriev watched both little Daria and Artur Jr. -- and Katia and Sergei watched both kids when Artur Sr. and Oksana were practicing.
attyfan said:I read the article in one of the sports magazines at my dentist's office. It had a lot of stories about different skaters before Nagano. Among other cute stories was the one with Kwan and Lipinski going to an amusement park in a bad part of town while touring with COI. It started getting dark, and the two ran all the way back to the hotel -- holding hands.