SkateFan4Life said:
Without being disrespectul to Sarah Hughes, I think she's living in a fantasy world if she thinks she will skate in the 2010 Olympics. Give me break. After she returned to the ice after completing one year at Yale, she was a different skater, competely. No triples, no crisp spins, nothing to qualify her as an Olympic contender. Your reputation as a past Olympic gold medalist will only take you so far. Sarah is kidding herself if she thinks the US judges will award her the marks she needs to make the 2010 US Olympic if she's not in top shape and skating brilliantly.
Besides, in 2010, Sarah will be 24 years old. Granted, that's not old, when you consider that Michelle Kwan is 25 and Irina Slutskaya is 27. However, both Kwan and Slutskaya remained as eligible skaters in the years following Salt Lake, and they have competed at their respective Nationals, Worlds, and other Grand Prix competitions. Hughes has done practically nothing since 2003, when she won the US national silver medal and had a poor performance at Worlds. She just isn't a competitive figure skater any longer.
And, there are a number of younger American skaters who are coming to the fore, and these girls have the triples and confidence to earn spots on the 2010 team.
I wish Sarah the best, but IMHO, she's better off finishing her studies at Yale.
Well said, SkateFan4Life. I wish Sarah the best, too, but ITA that she's better off finishing her studies at Yale.
However, I can understand Sarah's "fantasy." When I had to stop performing as a dancer due to an injury, I threw myself whole heartedly into my master's program in sports science. I'd go to dance concerts and be bored silly. I didn't think it was possible for me to lose my passion for dance after being
so passionate about every aspect of it--performing, choreographing, teaching--since as young as I could remember.
During this time, an old boyfriend who had also been a dancer but at a non-professional level for about 5-6 years came through town and visited. He had a PhD in physics and a few years previously had been offered a very good university teaching position.
I told him about how I'd completely lost interest in dance and was totally into my studies. He told me it wouldn't last, that the same thing had happened to him but that after a couple of years of immersing himself back into physics, he discovered he missed dance. He tried some classes but found that at his age, he'd lost too much to get any real enjoyment out of doing it and instead found that singing in the university chorus satisfied his need for a balance of science and art.
Sure enough, the same thing happened to me after about three years of total commitment to science. I went into studying and writing short fiction as well as visual art--if you could call it "art" LOL.
My point is that I can understand what Sarah is going through. She probably remembers all the good things about competitive skating and not the he!! of it. Also, physical activity on the level of elite sports, dance, or the like causes an large release of the body's endorphins. It really is a natural high. Although the excitement of starting a "new life," such as pre-med at Yale (or Harvard, I forget which one Sarah's at) can also can substitute as the impetus for the release of endorphins, it wears off a lot faster than physical training at something you're really good at.
I suspect Sarah is in that limbo. However, Sarah is a very intelligent girl and I would think she has the mental and hopefully the emotional resources to either make skating for herself a satisfying balance to her studies or else find some other way of expressing herself creatively that will work.
One last thing: Like dance, the skating world is kind of a fantasy world. Thousands of people cheer and transmit a kind of "love" to the skater after s/he skates. Remember when Michelle said after I believe '03 Worlds in Washington DC, while the crowds were still cheering and someone from the press asked her if she would continue competing, "Who would want to give up all this?"
But after a couple of years of the very difficult Ivy League pre-med grind and looking at the real life world of being a physician, especially these days with so many cuts in insurance reimbursements, nursing shortages, etc., I think Sarah has proved her intellectual abilities to herself and others, and the rose-colored glasses of being a doctor have turned all too clear.
Just my interpretation of the situation.
Rgirl
