I agree with both of you. It was what the media were marketing and potraying, that created these "Cinderella" stories of accomplished World Championship calibre skaters, who just happened to be very young and new.
In reality Baiul was nothing less then the favorite for the 94 Olympic Gold. Kerrigan and Bonaly were also strong contenders for the gold, Baiul was not the runaway favorite but she was definitely the favorite. There is no basis for a 24-year old women who had failed to ever win an Olympic or World title to that point, Nancy Kerrigan, to be the favorite over the reigning World Champion. Kerrigan probably would have been the favorite for the 94 Olympic Gold had she come through, as expected, at the 93 Worlds but she didnt and that changed that. Of course like Kwanford Wife said the hype around America's so called "golden girl" being attacked now suddenly made the media position her as if she were the favorite.
Even more ridiculous though is Tonya Harding, whose career had been going downhill ever since early 92, and had almost no chance of an Olympic medal that year, you would think was her chief rival for the gold medal based on alot of the media hype. Where Tonya really stood among the contenders was reflected in the short program. Two of the medal contenders, Yuka Sato and Josee Chouinaurd, completey blew the combination. Sato turned a planned triple lutz-double toe into an airy single lutz-turn-double toe. Chouinaurd fell on the triple lutz of her planned triple lutz-double toe, and did not even attempt the 2nd jump. Harding's mistake was landing the triple lutz of her triple lutz-double toe combination, but doing a step in between then doing the double toe. Who had the more minor mistake of the 3 is quite obvious. However Sato ended up 7th, Chouinaurd 8th, Harding 10th.
Lipinski was obviously the underdog to Kwan after Kwan's breathtaking U.S Nationals outing. However she was still Kwan's closest (and only at the time) rival for the gold medal. She still had won all of the U.S Nationals, GP final, and Worlds the year before, upsetting Kwan to win each of the 3 events. She had still skated very impressively to defend her GP final title, in Kwan's absence. She still had showed her metal at U.S Nationals by fighting back from a fall in the short program, to land all her jumps in a very difficult free skate, and come back and take 2nd place over an in-form Bobek. She still had the toughest jump content in the World, and was very consistent with it when it counted. Her win over Kwan was a huge victory, but she was no Cinderella. However that cliche of teenage Cinderella Champions appeals to the general public, so that is what they sell.
The aforementioned inflated beliefs over the chances of Meissner, and to an even greater extent mini Hughes, when those 2 came in with credentials and status that even vastly paled in comparision to Sarah Hughes, who herself is much closer to Cinderella then Baiul or Lipinski, is people buying into that whole popular cliche.
