New Weir article

http://www.freep.com/sports/othersports/oly8e_20041208.htm

Jo-ann Barnas writes in the Detroit free Press about Johnny's injury and about the GP finals.

"Don't be surprised if the most exciting event in Beijing turns out to be in ice dancing. Facing off will be three teams that finished in a three-way tie for first in the Grand Prix standings: U.S. champs Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto of the Arctic Edge Figure Skating Club in Canton; world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia; and world silver medalists Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria."

Barnas mentions a "Dick Button moment" for home town girl Alissa Czisny:

"Button ... approached the shy Czisny and gently chided her for sending him a thank-you note after he said some nice things about her skating on the air during Skate America in October.

"What I said about you was not a gift -- it was a statement of fact," Button said.

He then told Czisny that he tucked her letter in his memory book, filing it under the heading: "Future Olympic Champion."

The look on Czisny's face was priceless."

At the Marshalls event they put some animated games up on the Jumbo-tron, for the audience to play along with while the skaters were waiting for their scores. Ms. Barnas is asking for readers to email her with their opinions about this, and whether they should have features like that at U.S. Nationals.

BTW, the Detroit Free Press is giving great coverage to figure skating this year, and even the Detoit News has a sentence or two once in a while.

Mathman

Thanks for posting this...

I hope Johnny heals quickly and is back to regular training soon.

The music / interactive games sound interesting. Was this the sort of thing where audience members have a device to vote with or something? I recently attending an otherwise boring business meeting where they incorporated audience feedback through little voting gizmos. I'm sure there was far less napping going on in the room than would otherwise happen.

DG

I'm still hoping it is a sprain which will clear up with rest and foot baths. As long as it is not a heel spur which takes forever to clear up if it does at all.

Joe