I was going to post this in the "Injury" thread, but decided to create a new thread for it. Over at FSU, there's a thread that translates an interview Rafael gave:
http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/showthread.php?t=45661
These parts broke my heart:
http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/showthread.php?t=45661
These parts broke my heart:
Kwan is an era. She’s a massive phenomenon. Michelle started working with me when her career was nearing the end, when everyone understood her star is beginning to set down. Kwan knew that as well.
...We don’t know whether figure skating will have a star of that magnitude in our lifetime.
...You could like her style or not, but you could not NOT agree that there is simply no more skaters of that caliber around. And it is not at all about the skating skills
...Michelle was in such pain when she came back from Torino to the U.S. that she couldn’t sit or walk normally. I was shocked myself. When we just started working together, Kwan often complained that her pelvic bones are “moving inside.” I couldn’t quite understand how that could be. But when she was examined, they found that the right side of her pelvis was coming loose from her sacrum, and was a long time in the making. That was Michelle’s pain for two years coming to the Olympics.
...Sometimes she would come to practice and begin making laps around the rink. The only thing I was watching was her face. If she would pass me and shake her head very slightly, I would understand that they would be no practice today. That her hip is in so much pain that she can’t take it any more. When it flared up beyond her ability to tolerate it, she would go to LA to see a Chinese manual therapist and he would put her bones back in position.
...There was also an added complication – Michelle opened her own skating rink, had to skate there, where the ice is much harder than in Lake Arrowhead. Her pelvic joints became even more worn out from constant landings on the hard ice. I saw it, got stressed, got angry…but what could I do? And how could I leave her in a situation like that?
... She’s an athlete to her bones, she is after the top result. This is why she was never fond of show skating. She wants only to compete.