Is Michelle Ready to go Professional??

[NicoleMarie]

Ok I've been a daily visitor to Many of the Michelle Pages and I've been an avid fan for years now I've just never actually POSTED anything...by the time I'm done talking to my mom about everything I read I'm all Michelle'd out (Is that even Possible??) But I just read alot of the postings on the forum.....from the Japan Opens and about the triple triples and so on and so forth blah blah......and I just don't know what to THINK anymore...this season with Michelle has left me with my mouth hanging wide open....for so many years we watched her show off one amazing thing after another...the charlotte....the 6.0's at Nationals....maybe people ARE getting bored with her?? I mean...when Michelle first previewed her Red Violon program after worlds last year I was in love with it. I must have watched it 30 times in a row...and I was so excited about her using it this season as a long..but it just seems like it doesn't have the *spark* that it did before being put into a long program. I'd like to think that Michelle is just tired and had a few bad competitions...but thats just NOT LIKE her!! One or two is ok...but all season I've watched her...and she's a great skater like always...but she's not the "OhmygodthatwassomovingI'veneverseenanythingsoartis ticandtechnicallychallenging" skater that she was even 6 months ago.......My mother seems to think that it's time for her to go Professional. I agree to some point..she has nothing left to prove...I think that she is do date the most amazing female skater that I have EVER seen. But I also live for Skating Season and to watch Michelle skate..and...if she goes professional the only thing to look forward to competition wise is her Skating against Tara. I don't know..I'm just rambling...but my whole theory is that maybe she IS taking it easy this year and maybe next...maybe she's WORKING on something fantastic and will bring it out 2002?? and she'll be doing triple axles into charlottes into fast spins BOTH ways...If she does all these amazing things now..come 2002 the judges will be bored with them again.... Either way I still think that she doesn't get NEARLY as much regonition as she deserves for her complicated footwork....her Amazing artistic ability..her text book perfect jumps with the straight back, no leaning in the air...the way she puts her whole heart into the program.. I could rant and rave for hours I was just curious if anyone else has these same feelings as me?? Or am I just a raving lunatic in desperate need to get over my Michelle Kwan obsession......

[dreamr]

Michelle is in NO way ready to go professional! AHHH knock on WOOD!!!!!!! :) She still has so much to do for this sport IMHO and should not go pro. She should leave that to someone else. She still has all her jumps and apparently plans to add more technical difficulty.

[lindy3]

I definitley think that she should NOT go pro. She has so much to offer as an amateur. And I don't want to see her take the path of all the other once eligible-now pro skaters of lowering her difficulty and raising the cheese. There will be a time for that, it's just not now. And she does get better a little bit each time, even if it isn't in large amounts. She hasn't reached her peak yet.

[NicoleMarie]

Ohhhhh thank you thank you THANK YOU for saying that she's not ready to go professional....I think I honestly didn't talk to my mom for about 2 days becase I didn't want to think that she WOULD go professional yet...it makes me feel way better to know that someone agrees with me on that... I know that my first post may have seemed like I was putting Michelle down a bit?? but I wasn't...I was just throwing out alot of whats been seen and not really heard much to see if others agree....of course deep down I still think that she has something up her sleeve and just isn't quite ready to show it to us yet....just a thought...

[skatingfan]

Nicole Bobek is not pro yet, why should MK. I too worry about her this season, I think Michelle and Frank will do proper adjustment for nationals and worlds and definitely for next season.

[mano]

Michelle has said that she's even thinking about 2006 Olys. I know I've read an article that says she hopes never to go pro. I'm serious I read that somewhere. I, for one, can't even picture her without an SP/LP (with 7 triples) plus 2 exhibition programs each year. Figure Skating would be extremely boring for me without Michelle. Guys, she said this is an experimental year. She's got a full plate right now and she's done wonderful for someone who's schedule is absolutely crazy. It's hard to be magical when you compete at Skate America then Skate Canada within a week of each other during midterms. H*ck, I suffer brain freeze after my first midterm. Then she crossed 26 time zones to compete at Japan Open as well as Grand Prix within 2 weeks of each other AND she just started College again. I wasn't expecting magic then, I was just hoping she would be alright, not burnt out or anything. Anywho, I hope Michelle is well and fully rested, I hope she wont be thinking about a B she got in quiz or upcoming midterms etc when she competes in Nationals. I hope she is just relaxed out there and have fun.

[SJB]

"OhmygodthatwassomovingI'veneverseenanythingsoartis ticandtechnicallychallenging" is all I've been saying about Michelle's programs this year. I think that she's really at a peak. So, I think she will definitely stay eligible

[Karin]

YES MK is ready to turn pro...BUT not that she should or will... MK is probably one of the few amateur skaters who have the artistic ability to be one of the greatest pro skaters...(well...IMO she already is one of the best skaters in history)...BUT again...I doubt MK feels she should turn pro...IMHO MK is ready...BUT MK is ALSO ready to skate to an Olympic gold medal in front of her home country in 2002... :-)

[Googoo]

NO WAY! Why on earth should she go pro? She has won SA and SC and that means it's time to hang it up? I totally disagree! How can one measure "spark"? Personally I LOVE the RV and think it's just fabulous. I really enjoy ADITL as well AND her two new exhibition numbers!

[GinnySmith]

No... Michelle has had, and is having a long amateur career. Good for her. As others have pointed out, this is a year of transition and experimentation and I don't expect her to take home the gold at all of the competitions. Michelle and her team are extremely good at "pacing". Michelle has the ability to take her skating to even greater levels than she already has. I know this. There were glimpses of it in the TRV at Skate America. However, there is no rush here. Why risk burning herself out or injuring herself now? I would rather she take her time and gradually build to a really explosive level for 2002. There is plenty of time for her to do that. GO MICHELLE!!!!! ; ) !!!

[Deetlebug]

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo........... Why? 1. She's VERY competitive and the fire hasn't BEGUN to burn out. 2. SHE doesn't feel she's reached HER peak yet and I reckon she won't quit until she does. 3. ITA about the glimpses (sp) of magic yet to come in her Red Violin long program. Believe me, if you watch carefully you can already see the choreographic wheels spinning in Lori, Frank and Michelle's heads for her 2002 Olympic season programs. 4. Michelle's "experiemental" year with full-time-live-away-from-home-in-the-college-dorms-being-a-real-normal-19-year-old-college-student is exactly what that young lady's HIGHLY intellectual/introspective/creative mind needs to move her life and her skating to a level never before thought possible in the amature/eligible ranks of the sport. 5. And achieving THAT type of skating in the amature/eligible ranks of figure skating is a much greater challenge than it would be in pro ranks where everyone expects skaters to come out and entertain them. And Michelle THRIVES on that very kind of challenge.

[Beth2000]

NO WAY HOSEA! As MK said before "it isn't over until I say it is over". I love watching her compete, and as someone else said why should she turn pro and let her jumps go to the side. Every single one of the pros have let their jumps get away from them, even Tara isn't doing all the triples she use to do. Roz quit her triples a long time ago and she isn't even touring anymore let alone competing. MK needs to stay right where she is at until she is ready to turn pro (which I hope is never).

[XPEG]

Everytime I see Tara skate now, I think "she threw away her eligible career to do this stuff?" Because she was so young, who knows what level she could have taken the tech part of skating, while developing her artistic side. We'll never know because of the dinky little stuff she does now. However, Tara, I think, from hearing her interviews, did not want competition anymore. Where was she recently, Dave L?, where she said she's glad she doesn't have to face those judges anymore. In my opinion, she was ready to become an entertainer,and stop being a competitive athlete. Michelle still wants competition, still wants to be an athlete. I don't think she'll leave the challenge of the eligible ranks for the ineligible anytime soon. (I try to stay away from the terms "Pro" and "Amateur" because, Lord knows, "amateurs" like Michelle make millions.)

[NicoleMarie]

Ok since I posted first asking if Michelle should go professional I want to thank everyone for easing my fears of her going professional. While listening to Michelle talk in her interview (the one they showed at Skate American and again at the GPF) I got the impression that she was only going to go to college for this year? Although she didn't come right out and say it it was just that when she DID Mention school she never said anything about getting a degree and staying in for 4 years or what not. I DO agree that Michelle has so much more to show us, and I DO think that she's going to end up in the next 2 years amazing judges and fans by taking her skating further than skating has ever been taken. I've heard her say more than once that she's been practicing her triple axle? And Tanya Harding is the only female to ever sucessfully land one in the us. (didn't Midori Ito land one?) I think just getting that will set her so far above the rest of the female skaters technically. I admire her for being able to do what she's done this year with school and skating...I know I'd be burnt out within a week and she just keeps going...so i look forward to seeing her skate...in fact i can't wait untill Nationals...I have to work when they show the short programs and I've seriously thought of calling off so I could watch it. But seriously...Thank you for calming my fears. I know that in my first posting it may have sounded like I was saying her skating wasn't as great as it was before....but I myself am still amazed by each program and I understand that she can't always put out the 6.0 performances that she has in the past. And if she choses to stay amature for another 6 years thats fine with me because my winters would be incredibly boring if she didn't. Now I think I'll go downstairs and tell my mom that she can stop worrying about Michelle going professional AND to stop calling me at work everynight to say "I read this about Michelle...omg what if she doesn't want to skate amature anymore??" hehe thank you guys for showing me the sillyness of my worries