Circumstances of Bye or not Bye

With Nicole she did skate at Nats then withdrew. I think your prospects of bye are lessened when you show up at Nats and withdraw. If Michelle had gone to Nats and had to withdraw because she was too injured her odds of getting a bye would have lessened because everybody would have seen her condition. Knowing she's injured and seeing it are two differen't things. How many people were shocked when they saw Michelle at Marshalls? Yes we knew she was injured but until you actually saw her you didn't really know how bad it was. Not going to Nats and asking for a bye was her best move.

Based on what I found on the internet, she withdrew from Nationals in 1996, which was the year after she won bronze at Worlds and had been 1995 National champ.

She did not have the best reputation about about practicing and conditioning. It surprised me how out of shape she got between 1994 Nationals and 1994 Worlds. She stopped training when she didn't make the Olympic team and it showed visibly when she didn't pass the QR at World's and while she was on COI.

I'm guessing that Nicole might not have passed her 'test' or was not able to get a doctor's note citing the liklihood of recovery. I'm assuming that she should have healed instead of touring and that the overall injury may have required more recovery time. Michelle has already been recuperating for several weeks from the groin injury.

If anything, one should compare Nicole's request with Nancy's. Both were injured at Nationals with no significant recovery time before the World team was announced.

Nancy had a horrific 1993 season, which cost the US an additional World team spot. This has been perceived as her personal mental blocks and the added media attention just from her being the favorite in 1993. After the 1993 season, Nancy went to a sports psychologist and practiced full run throughs of her programs (note; during interviews, she said that she had not been doing full run throughs because of a fear of not being able to and was always more interested in practicing her exhibition routines) and arrived at Nationals in the best shape of her life - both physically and mentally. At Nationals, she is attacked and cannot compete. Based upon her skating test, she is put on the team.

Nicole had a great 1995 Season - 1st at Nationals and 3rd at World's. Her placement and Michelle's guaranteed 3 spots at the 1996 World's. She does Nutcracker on Ice, where she becomes injured. Instead of rehab'ing the injury, she continues to tour. She shows up at Nationals injured and in less than peak conditions aerobically. Nicole aggravates her injury further and has to withdraw from Nationals.

As you can see, there is a bigger argument for putting Nicole on the World team than there was for putting Nancy on the Oly team. So again, my best guess is that Nicole could not find a doctor who would certify that she could possibly recover in time and/or could not pass her skating test.

I didn't remember Jill Trenary requesting a 'by'. According to Wikepedia, she missed the 91 season due to a serious ankle injury and retired before the start of the 1992 season due to the elimination of figures (which gave her the 'edge' over her competition.)

heyang said:

Nicole had a great 1995 Season - 1st at Nationals and 3rd at World's. Her placement and Michelle's guaranteed 3 spots at the 1996 World's. She does Nutcracker on Ice, where she becomes injured. Instead of rehab'ing the injury, she continues to tour. She shows up at Nationals injured and in less than peak conditions aerobically. Nicole aggravates her injury further and has to withdraw from Nationals.

As you can see, there is a bigger argument for putting Nicole on the World team than there was for putting Nancy on the Oly team. So again, my best guess is that Nicole could not find a doctor who would certify that she could possibly recover in time and/or could not pass her skating test.

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Interesting that you jumped from her results at 1995 Worlds right to Nutcraker and then 1996 Nationals. What you're forgetting is that heading into 95-96 GP season, Nicole finished LAST at Skate America and 3rd at Nation's Cup (being beaten out by Tara Lipinski who won 2nd IIRC). I actually think that had more to do with her not getting a bye than anything else. She clearly had two dismal showings at her assigned GP events, but still did her Nutcracker obligation anyway (perhaps she couldn't get out of it, but I'm not sure she even tried). Tara on the other hand had a Alissa C. type GP season heading into 96 Nationals and medaled at each of her 3 GP assignements.

I think that if Nicole had had a great GP season up to the point that she got injured during the Nutcracker tour, we would have seen her at 96 Worlds. Kwan was on fire that season, Tara was performing respectablly, so dropping Bobek was not a huge gamble. However, dropping Kerrigan in favor of a 13 year old Kwan would have been a gamble.

opps

Nancy had a horrific 1993 season

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In results anyway it was a similar season to Kwan's 2005.

Nancy was attacked at nationals. There was no way in hell they were going to be able to deny her an Olympic test skate. This is a different issue all together.

I think Michelle should get a bye to a test skate. I think most people think she has learned that right.