I was scared for Michelle's safety

Kwanisqueen81 · Mar 27, 2004

BOOOOO TO th ISU/Organizers

All security FAILED, they all should be FIRED.

I was so scared for Michelle's safety when that weirdo came out on the ice. I am soo angry I can't even comment on the great skating we saw tonite. What if that guy was a terrorist and was planning to attack Michelle as a "policical statement" I was so frightnted. I didn't even care about the results or anything like that. I was taken back to when I first heard Nancy was attacked in 1994 Nationals and when Monica Sellas was stabed.

I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED, I say.

Head should roll!!!!!!!

Antilles · Mar 27, 2004

The lack of security was shocking. If I were her, I'd have been worried about my safety.

The guy turned out to be a Canadian. One of our Cdn papers here commented that he was the only Cdn in a final flight during these Worlds.

Grgranny · Mar 27, 2004

And here I thought wofice hired him. :laugh:

Piel · Mar 28, 2004

He didn't want to be recognized but it was Mathman.

heyang · Mar 28, 2004

THank God, the guy wasn't trying to attack her. He just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Well, I guess the German organizers won't be put in charge of security at the next Oly's!!! 1st Munich - now this.

dorispulaski · Mar 28, 2004

Weirder and weirder. He was painted all over with www.goldenpalace.com advertisements like boxers and wrestlers are. Do you supposed goldenpalace paid him to do it?

dpp

JonnyCoop · Mar 28, 2004

Michelle was amazingly gracious about the whole incident (well, maybe amazingly is the wrong word as she is a very gracious lady by nature anyway); I would have been SOUNDING OFF BIG TIME. That was absolutely positively UNACCEPTABLE. And what makes it even worse as far as I am concerned, is the fact that THIS IS THE SAME COUNTRY WHERE MONICA SELES GOT STABBED IN THE BACK RIGHT ON THE TENNIS COURT. Did they learn absolutely positively NOTHING from THAT??? No wonder Seles said she'd never set foot in Germany ever again; she may well be on to something!!

LadyM76 · Mar 28, 2004

I to was worried....

When I heard about this incident I was quite shocked. I'm glad he didn't hurt any of the skaters. When they got Michelle off the ice, I was very glad to see Rafael get to her so quickly. He seemed to push past the security people. I was glad to see his quick reaction. I'm glad she was able to put it aside and skate a dang good program. It was a very nice night of skating. Congrats to Shuzuka, Sasha and Michelle.
LadyM76

IDLERACER · Mar 28, 2004

[COLOR=C000FF]At first glance, I thought it was Laurent Tobel (who frequently skates in attire that looks somewhat like what that guy was/wasn't wearing). Since the whole event was pre-recorded, someone in post-production obviously thought that it would be a good idea to not edit it out entirely. An interesting concept. The melding of two television programs into one..."ABC's Wide World Of Sports" and "Jackass."

[/COLOR]

shanilia · Mar 28, 2004

I was kind of scared too. He could've easily done something to her and she probably wouldn't have noticed because she wasn't paying attention.

After this incident, this probably means security will be tighter in figure skating now. It always takes something weird happening before change is made. You can bet security will be wearing ice skates at future competitons from now on.

Jaana · Mar 28, 2004

It did not look at all like Kwan was in any danger. That man who came on the ice did not pay any attention to her at all, in my opinion.

It is though very scary that something like this can happen! How can a man IN SKATES be able to be in arena among the audience and go onto the ice without anyone noticing and stopping him??? And it looked so pitiful as they tried to chase him, took way too long to get him off the ice...

Chele615 · Mar 28, 2004

I personally liked how Terry Gannon is in the middle of commentating and you just hear Dick Button say over and over again "Oh wow...look!! Look! Look!" LOL

Panther2000 · Mar 28, 2004

Thank God, She was in no danger

Jaana said:
It did not look at all like Kwan was in any danger. That man who came on the ice did not pay any attention to her at all, in my opinion.

It is though very scary that something like this can happen! How can a man IN SKATES be able to be in arena among the audience and go onto the ice without anyone noticing and stopping him??? And it looked so pitiful as they tried to chase him, took way too long to get him off the ice...

HOWEVER, that is not the point. He could have been anyone with an agenda. With what is going on in the world today, you can't just blah blah it. Take a look at Monica Seles. No one would have thought that would happen to her either. Serena (sp) Willimas has to have Body gaurd & An order of Protection from a German Stalker( there has to be something wrong with men out there). You don't want to take those chances. You never now what someones plan is until after the fact. But, you never wait for that.

I am just happy that he ment no harm at all. In an interview Michelle gave she said she thought at first that he was an flowergirl & then he started to take off his clothes. & she said that she was trying to refocus & it was her coach who told her to get off the ice.

I can laugh about it now because nothing happen, but at that moment you know security & the FS big wigs were freaking out. Terror strikes going off just about every week. You never know. That is the point.

TRAxel · Mar 28, 2004

Antilles said:
The lack of security was shocking. If I were her, I'd have been worried about my safety.

The guy turned out to be a Canadian. One of our Cdn papers here commented that he was the only Cdn in a final flight during these Worlds.

He's from Montreal.

:laugh:

@ being in the final flight.

Johar · Mar 28, 2004

What is it with sports figures and stalking/wackos? Even jockey Julie Krone had a nasty stalker following her from track to track. Ugh

I felt concerned for Kwan's safety but she handled it with grace and dignity.

Antilles · Mar 28, 2004

I'm glad ABC was smart enough to blank out the ad written on the guy's chest. This way he didn't get the publicity he was seeking. CBC didn't seem to think of that.

JonnyCoop · Mar 28, 2004

I don't know, seems rather ironic they would blank out the ad on the guy's chest given how much advertising was slapped on the rink barriers. What I actually thought was they blanked it out just because it was a bare torso and since the Super Bowl paranoia is running rampant in broadcasting. However, if that was the reason, that was inconsistently applied as well given that they could have also digitized Arakawa's butt.

clairecloutier · Mar 28, 2004

The whole thing is kind of funny in retrospect. But honestly, my first thought was for Michelle's safety. As soon as I saw the guy, my mind instantly went to Monica Seles and I was just thinking, "Michelle, get off the ice, quick!"

I give her a lot of credit for being able to come back out there and skate well! If I were her, I would have been afraid there were more crazies lurking around, ready to jump right on the ice during her program!

Joesitz (RIP) · Mar 28, 2004

For me, sitting there, I just thought the guy was an idiot. Sorta like the idiot who streaked at the academy awards some xeaars ago.

Joe

Doggygirl · Mar 28, 2004

Rinkside Banners...

JonnyCoop said:
I don't know, seems rather ironic they would blank out the ad on the guy's chest given how much advertising was slapped on the rink barriers. What I actually thought was they blanked it out just because it was a bare torso and since the Super Bowl paranoia is running rampant in broadcasting. However, if that was the reason, that was inconsistently applied as well given that they could have also digitized Arakawa's butt.

Assuming you are talking about the official company advertisements, I am sure those companies paid (as sponsors or whatever they call it in FS) for that exposure in the rink and on TV. It's a way of advertising that is common at events with large audiences, and/or even more televised events, and help offset costs and contribute to profits for the event. While this sort of advertising might be irritating at times, ticket prices would be higher if that type of advertising didn't exist.

I had a strange range of emotions about this. In this day and age of stalkers and terrorism, it was scary in terms of how it happened (security breach).

It also would have been a shame had Michelle given a sub-par perfomance, whether the guy had truly been the reason or not, and how would anyone ever know including Michelle.

I felt guilty for laughing about it for the reasons mentioned above (I knew about it long before I saw it), but since nothing bad happened to Michelle or in her performance I still laughed. It was definitely a guilty laugh though.

Very stange.

DG

I was scared for Michelle's safety

Kwanisqueen81

Antilles

Grgranny

Da' Spellin' Homegirl

Piel

On Edge

heyang

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl

JonnyCoop

LadyM76

IDLERACER

shanilia

Jaana

Chele615

Panther2000

TRAxel

Johar

Antilles

JonnyCoop

clairecloutier

Joesitz (RIP)

Doggygirl

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