Antilles said:It is sad that Paul Wylie doesn't skate anymore.
ballerinagrl said:I have been hugely disppointed when people have turned pro, but I read their reasons in the skating press, and I respect them. The problem is, if you live in Europe, the only skating you see are the European and World championships. Thus when a skater turns pro you completely lose them (other than reports in magazines), and I guess it is the lack of pro skating accessible to Europeans through the various TV channels that disappoints me rather than the skater's decisions.
To name but a few I miss Oksana, Tara, Ilia, B&S, Katia G ...
I also fear I am soon to miss Alexei ...
Best, Lilia
lavender said:Paul's showing in the pro world made me forget all about the eligible world for him but I was totally sad when he gave it all up so early. I still don't understand why.
Except for the silver medal at the Olympics Paul never really had any success in the eligible ranks. I think it was a smart move to turn pro, because he probably knew it was his only shot at a medal. He was not that young either and I guess the money he earned was also needed to finance his studies. In the early nineties there was not much money to earn for amateurs and only the higher ranked pros got lots of it. And with this more than unexpected medal, he finally was in that postion. Another thing is that he, just like i.e. Yuka Sato and Bechke & Petrov became so much better as a pro, because he finally could show more of his artistic side.