2006 - The Year a Teenager Will Not Win Olympic Gold

[millie]

By whom? The American general public has probably long forgotten Tenley,
Carol, and all non-US OGMs except Sonia Henie, Kat Witt, and (possibly) Oksana Baiul. Essentially, they divide skaters into "those we have heard of" and "those we have not", and, any skater they have heard of (except Tonya Harding) is assumed to be an OGM. Debi Thomas, for example, repeatedly stated how people she has recently met will congratulate her on her OGM -- even though she didn't win one, and, many people think Michelle also has an OGM.

I don't think that the public in general has forgotten Tenley, Carol and all the other OGM winners inside the U.S. and outside. They remember some that they thought won the OGM, but fact will be that the historians of figure skating will remember the ones that won the OGM. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with not winning the OGM, there are a lot of good skaters down through history that never won a gold medal but skated their best and that's all that matters. But don't knock the ones that did win. There are a lot of other skaters besides Michelle that has not won a gold medal, that would like to have one.

 

[cianni]

May I ADD

OGM winners are NOT always remembered. The names only come up at times when the OLYS come around again. The athletes that are remembered are the ones who have been around a long time and not considered a Flash in the Pan or One Hit Wonder. I can say from personal experience that most people who I speak to about my sport and I speak to many have in fact forgotten both Hughes and esp. Lapinskis names. They remember they were young thats it. Most remember that Russian girl Irina and Kwan. Not everyone is hung up on the OGM as the only thing that matters in the sport. It can be a great skate as in Flash in the pan or a flawed skate but best of a bad lot but both can win the BIG OGM. Dare we forget the speed skater who walked off with OGM Because he was the LAST skater so far behind that he avoided being knocked down. Now isnt he to be revered as the OGM winner. In life people arnt remembered for ONE thing but the body of what they do over time. Look at the great athletes and their careers.

 

[Tonichelle]

However, I think that the average man or woman on the street, who doesn't happen to be a figure skating fan, may not necessarily know who Michelle Kwan is (hard as that is to believe!) but he/she may know who Tara and Sarah are, just because they won gold at the Olympics.

I disagree.... Michelle has been around a whole lot longer and has had media hype from day one... she's in hundreds of commercials, especially around Olympics time, and in every paper across the nation she's heralded as the best chance for Gold. After 2 podium lands at the olys, and going for her third, she will be remembered.

Tara and Sarah will only be remembered as footnotes in MK's history by the average fan as "that girl who beat her"

 

[attyfan]

... fact will be that the historians of figure skating will remember the ones that won the OGM.....

I agree wholeheartedly that the historians of figure skating will remember the ones that won, but for ninety five percent of the American public who are not historians of skating, the rule will be different. As cianni pointed out, all OGMs are not remembered -- and they are certainly not all remembered equally. For example, how many non-skating fans even know who Alexei Urmanov is?

I think a big factor is the extent to which skaters have remained in the public eye, in some capacity or another. Kristi is remembered; she has been in the public eye as a pro for over ten years. Sarah, OTOH, is not remembered as well; she has been outside of the public eye at Yale.

 

[mzheng]

OGM winners are NOT always remembered. The names only come up at times when the OLYS come around again. The athletes that are remembered are the ones who have been around a long time and not considered a Flash in the Pan or One Hit Wonder. I can say from personal experience that most people who I speak to about my sport and I speak to many have in fact forgotten both Hughes and esp. Lapinskis names. They remember they were young thats it. Most remember that Russian girl Irina and Kwan. Not everyone is hung up on the OGM as the only thing that matters in the sport. It can be a great skate as in Flash in the pan or a flawed skate but best of a bad lot but both can win the BIG OGM. Dare we forget the speed skater who walked off with OGM Because he was the LAST skater so far behind that he avoided being knocked down. Now isnt he to be revered as the OGM winner. In life people arnt remembered for ONE thing but the body of what they do over time. Look at the great athletes and their careers.

It's so true. I had a personal experience couple of years ago, when last Olympic was still fresh in memory. I had couple of guys to my house install a pool table. We were talking about what sports we like. When I mentioned Figure Skating, one of them, who company his girl friend watch FS sometimes, could only name Michelle and another Russian girl (he was forgivable not knowing Irina's name since he is an American after all.) who are on podium. But he couldn't name the girl who won Olympics at SLC, mentioned Sarah as "Another American girl." I had to tell him "It's Sarah Hughes who live in Long Iland." (he was not forgivable not knowing Sarah's name though. Because he lives in tri-states area. lol)....The other guy, who originate from Canada came up with name of Elvis S.

Yes, I still remember that speed skater (totally forgot his name and nationality) who won the gold because everyone before him were crashed at finish line. . This was about it what I remembered happened in speed skating last Olympics. -- a GP to speedy skating.

See this topic as no side can convince the other side, might as well refridge this thread, untill after 20 years....we all come back. See who is still remembered?

 

[flutterby1145]

Personally, I'm glad someone older than 16 will finally win the Olympics. I agree that not every Olympic gold medalists are remembered. Most of the general American public has already forgotten about Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes, because they had no longevity. There have been plenty of great skaters that have never won the Olympic gold medal, just like the Olympic gold medalists, some have been remembered and some have not.

That speed skater that won the Olympic gold medal because he was so far behind everyone else that he avoided being knocked down was Steven Bradburry from Australia. I think he's retired now, he's wrote an autobiography called "Last Man Standing".

 

[Mathman]

I agree wholeheartedly that the historians of figure skating will remember the ones that won...

I agree, too. After all, remembering things like this -- that's the job of figure skating historians (all three of them, LOL).

But figure skating historians will also retain an interest in a skater like Kurt Browning, who won four World Championships and took the concept of professional and show skating to a whole new level. This is "figure skating history," too.

Mathman

 

[JonnyCoop]

and it is not as if Sasha is just some jumping bean with nothing but jumps. Still I agree with you to some extent, she had too much basic stroking through some sections, and not enough intricate steps and choreographic detail. It was mostly jumps, some great spins and spirals, and alot of stroking.

I know she isn't, and that's part of my point. Sasha, IMHO, more than any other lady out there, when she's on, and even often when she really isn't, has a tendency to USE HER MUSIC, and almost every note of it. I thought "Carmen", as it was done during the GP and at Nats, was absolutely terrific and had a lot of great stuff in there, aside from the jumps. However, in SLC, it seemed to me that she left most of that stuff out and she was just "connecting the dots", going from jump to jump. She did skate pretty well overall, I suppose, but when I compare how she skated that program in SLC compared to how she'd skated it in all the competitions leading up to it, it didn't even seem like the same program and it wasn't nearly as good, IMO, as it had been earlier in the year.

 

[SkateFan4Life]

We should remember that at least, at the time of their OGM wins, Baiul at least was World champion, as was Lipinski, and Hughes was at least a Worlds medalist on top of having beaten Kwan and Slutskaya at Skate Canada a few months earlier. Czisny, Meissner, Phaneuf, Leung, and some of the other names that have been tossed around on this thread certainly don't have that type of resume, or even close, except for Kostner. IMO, there is a difference between the issue of "a teenager" winning and the issue of "a teenager from out of nowhere" winning.

Good point. Indeed, Oksana Baiul and Tara Lipinski were the reigning World Champions when she competed in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Sarah Hughes was the reigning World bronze medalist, the reigning Grand Prix bronze medalist, and she had won several medals at US Nationals prior to 2002. All three of these young teenagers had impressive resumes. None of them was a teenager who had burst into the scene and won the Olympic gold medal as an unknown skater.

Still, with this being said, I believe 2006 will break the chain of the teenage Olympic ladies champion. I think Irina Slutskaya still has the advantage at this point, but the competition might be closer than I had originally expected it to be. There are so many wonderful talented skaters in their 20s!