MK's Olympic pressure

[arsiojo]

How many of you think that Michelle will overcome her Olympic Fear? I believe Michelle will give us the time of her life in this up coming Winter Olympics. I hope that this will be our celebration season!!!! OGM for Michelle :TOS


*edited title to make subject more clear*

[Skate Sandee]

Is that what we're calling it now? "Olympic Fear"? Nagano was a masterpiece without any fear. The Monday-morning quarterbacks called it tentative. But those same people at the moment she finished said it was a golden performance. Someone just came along and did a bit more in the minds of 6 of the judges.

SLC, she made an error. She's made them before outside of the Olympics. But she didn't wilt, but instead roared back and fought for every second of that program. Again, someone came along and had the skate of their lives.

Olympic Pressure from being the favorite I'll buy. But Olympic Fear? There's no fear that she has to overcome. She has a proven track record with years of competing well under every kind of pressure.

My hope is that Michelle will have the time of her life in Turino.

[michelle02olympics]

i really hope she wins the gold. whenever i watch her win Nationals I always think, "If this were only the Olympics"

I dont know if it's the "Olympic fear" but more the "Olympic Pressure"

The media has really followed her because she has many competitions, but the Olys. And she has been the favorite at the 98 games and in 02 it was like, "Can she do it? Can she win the gold?"

I hope she doesnt go pro after the Olympics. I want her to stick around for 1 more year.

As much as I want to win the gold....no matter what medal she lights up the arena and she's always golden in my heart.

[Kabooke]

I personally don't think it's
any type of Olympic fear.

She skated very well and clean in Nagano
and had just a slight mistake in the LP
on a jump she musled through in the
short at SLC.

IMO, it's been nothing but being a little unfortunate
at the times but nothing of a mental block or fear.

It's so clear that she's gonna have a stellar Olympics.
Everything she's done and gone through in the sport
thus far is all pointing to culminating like a Disney movie.

She'll win it in a thriller!

[Eeyora]

I personally hope Michelle has the skate of her life that brings tears of joy and moves Michelle fans, skating fans and non skating fans.

[Flaviviriday16]

I couldn't have said it better myself, Eeyora.
I'm so excited for the upcoming season!
I went to italy last year for a small vacation... and because of that, i may just consider looking into going to Torino... just maybe...:)

[nymkfan51]

Excellent post Sandee!!!

[Krista]

Olympic Pressure from being the favorite I'll buy. But Olympic Fear? There's no fear that she has to overcome. She has a proven track record with years of competing well under every kind of pressure.

My hope is that Michelle will have the time of her life in Turino.

well said, ITA :D

[Beach Springer]

Well said, Kabooke and Sandee. I think she's handled Olympic pressure beautifully. Her competitors have had to deliver the skate of their lives, in each case, to beat her. And neither was a unanimous decision. She got 3 first place ordinals in Nagano, and in Salt Lake, it was close as well (not to have her win the free skate, but in the placements that would have given her the gold, despite not winning the free skate).

Here's hoping that everything will fall into place for her this time!:angel

[Sharon]

Yeah, fear isn't what comes to my mind either. Perhaps extra adrenaline and nervousness, but not fear. It is most probably (never say never) her last Olympics, so all I want, regardless of outcome, is for her to let go and have a great skate...be in the zone :D :D :D .

[centerstagequeen]

What made you think that she has Olympic fear? If she has, she won't choose to try it again.

IMO, what Michelle has is Olympic spirit, not fear.:SE

[dynoguy88]

I personally never worry about pressure being laid out on Michelle. She has handled it, I think, better than most athletes. Going into Nagano, she said she had no problem being the favorite. She most likely would have said the same thing if she was the underdog as well. She said herself that the Olympics is an open competition where everyone has the chance to grab the gold - everyone is welcome to the prize. Her comments were very similiar just before Salt Lake. In interviews, she said she was fine being one of the favorites - and her tone of voice really sounded as though, "Hey, favorite is just a word. It doesn't really mean anything." At least that's the impression I get. Many of you may feel different.

I just believe that the last two olympics were more about bad luck than pressure. We still have a chance to see Michelle have a "knock em out" performance in Turino. Like I mentioned before, I had a dream about Michelle a month ago. It was the 06 Olympics just before the free skate and she told a reporter that this time, she's going to just let go like she never has before. She went out and skated a PERFECT free skate, bringing down the house and flowers came down to the ice from every direction. We all know Michelle is fully capable of making my dream a reality it could very well happen. But I know for sure that pressure won't get in the way.

[belladella]

Centerstagequeen (hugs) that was well said - straight, succinct and to the point.

[arsiojo]

Pressure is exactly the right word I should have used from the beginning. Thank you for correcting my post. I will never let Michelle down..... I am so sorry

[michelle02olympics]

yay kwanluv and arsiojo looked at my first post in this thread!

[kwanette]

Skate Sandee, terrific post..

[iceangelic]

Pressure? What pressure? She's the underdog. Her competitors have left her in the dust with the new system. She needs to learn to skate like them - sloppy

[Dream Again]

I agree with iceangelic . . . Michelle just needs to add an illusion/headbanger in the middle of her 3Lutz combination, bail out in the middle of her combination spin, two-foot her 3flip, and nearly ram into the boards during her spiral sequence with a painful grimaceTM on her face and she'll be fine. If she does that, she'll be 1st or 2nd after the SP with no problem.:rolleyes

Yes, I'm still bitter about '05 Worlds . . . so sue me. :p

I have faith in MK but not in the judges. I hope it will be a fairly judged event but I'm not holding my breath on it.

[ImJustAWittleGuy]

It was definitely the pressure of being the favorite that got the best of her in SLC...

But, regardless, I will always love her. She has brought a newfound joy to skating that no one else can probably match in this lifetime.

In Turino, I just hope she skates with joy (with or without mistakes) because I feel it will be her "swan song."

:FL (just feel it!)

[darroux]

personally, i think that it was god's fate for her to not win the last 2 attempts at the olympics. she's the only reason that i watch skating anymore and i bet it's that way for alot of other people too. her being amateur is saving the sport...

[Krista]

darroux, ITA. I only get upgraded from basic to standard cable, during the winter so that I have ESPN and can watch Michelle. I wouldn't do that if Michelle had retired. Time Warner must like Michelle too :lol

[gldnkwan]

She may very well have won Nagano had she had a better spot in the skating order. That damn "saving the marks" is what did her in. And Lipinski knew it. Had the orders been switched, Michelle would have gotten those 6.0's and won the event.
Never, ever have I heard of something so ridiculous as "saving the marks" and penalizing the first skater.
( yes, I know she has skated first and won before, but this was teh Olympics).
I hope it's true that under COP, the skate order will nto matter anymore.

[JoBoKwanAddict]

I think Michelle would have won the gold in nagano as well if she skated after Tara. In a way I think two things happened. Michelle skated great, the next few skaters, were like BLAH...and then Tara was great...and she skated later...ALTHOUGH...I don't like it..Tara did perform well, and with the pressure of knowing Michelle laid down a biggen'....i was just glad to see such a solid showing for the american ladies..do you realize that had Nancy not been robbed.....

92' Yamaguchi
94.would have been Kerrigan
98 Lipinski
02 Hughes
06---Kwan or Cohen

The american ladies are dominating the sport.its no wonder they are trying to give it to Irina...I kind of like Irina..but I hope she makes mistakes in the short..so she's just out of it. God help the judging!

[taf]

Irina has already had her Olympic gift-the SLC silver. No need to reward her again.

[kwanette]

taf2002;)

[PeaceOfKwan]

Irina can make mistakes in the short, and the judges will STILL hold up her PCS marks.

ITA with Dream Again. Except that if Michelle does start to skate sloppy like so many others (as COP seems to encourage as "risk-taking"), SHE will get dinged for it and everyone else will be praised to the skies.

Just as an example, I think Sasha's spiral grimace may be seen as some show of "athletic tenacity" or some such bunk, when we all know it's clearly a failure to perform the move properly. This is not hockey, for goodness sake. I don't mean to slam Sasha for messing up (which happens to all skaters at times) - it's just I don't think someone should get points for a totally failed move like that (which is a failure of the COP IMO - again, not Sasha's fault). The viewing public understands that a fall is a failure to perform, but these other types of errors also need to be pointed out by the commentators in order for viewers to understand what skating is about (not just staying upright). These little sighs of "oh, that's unfortunate..." from the commentators do not cut it.

I also agree that Michelle does not fear. Nagano was great and SLC was also an extremely strong showing. She's more ready than ANYONE to deal with the pressure, as she's done so many times before. :TOS

[MKGrace]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Irina has already had her Olympic gift-the SLC silver. No need to reward her again. <hr></blockquote> <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/indifferent.gif" />

[Nathan]

Welll...therein lies the "flaw" of the old system.

How can you call Michelle a 6.0 if you haven't seen anyone else yet to compare it against.

Very rarely does a skater get 6.0's if they're the first.

If a lady goes out first and lands a triple axel and get's a 6.0 in the technical mark and another skater comes out after her and lands a quad-axel and get's a 6.0 how is that fair to her?

Dick Button said it best "The marks are about placing the skater based on the others" if they place the first skater to high then there will be only room underneath them. It almost assumes that no one else will be better, which isn't fair to the 5 other ladies who haven't skated.


My take:

Michelle has no Olympic fear. She's never had any...In 98 she was victim to circumstance. SHe was a little slow, and got outskated a little but that doesn't mean that she crmbled. How many other 7triple performances wouldn't win a Gold medal? IT was a rare night in ladies skating where someone laid down an amazing performance, and someone else came after and laid down a performance that slightly more "sparkle" and "effectiveness"

It reminded me of the 1996 Worlds.

And again on any other night that would have been Michelle's gold, but Tara skated her a** off that night.

2002 was a little different. Michelle was skating a little defensively in the beginning and that caught up to her on the triple-flip, but then she turned in on and finished strong.

But again on that night the judges had other plans, and they wanted to make it so that the girl they felt skated the best won...and they did...

It would have been interesting to see how Michelle and Irina's performances would have compared if Sarah was removed from the equation that night.

[Nathan]

I have to say. I just rewatched Michelle's LP and I really have to commend her.

To quote Dick Button she did what any "Actress worth her salt" would do. She took what she knew was probably a fatal mistake and used that fuel the rest of the program.

She remained commited to the performance. In spite of that mistake she still skated with passion, and fire which is what ANY good actress does.

[aaronts]

i haven't seen SLC LPs since that night but i don't remember Michelle crumbling either. the fall on the 3 flip in today's judging wouldn't even count as a full fall. she hung on w some ungodly willpower to skate the rest of the program. i would have died after the 1st 2-ftd jump~

[Krista]

How can you call Michelle a 6.0 if you haven't seen anyone else yet to compare it against.

Because you know when someone is near perfect. It isn't about what other people did, its about whether they deserve a 6.0 or not.

[MKGrace]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>It isn't about what other people did, its about whether they deserve a 6.0 or not. <hr></blockquote> Under the old system it was completely about what others skaters did compared to each other. That is why the ordinals (not the marks) decided the winner. Because it was an ordinal, ranking system, you have to leave some wiggle room for 5 more skaters in a free skate because you will have to compare them to each of the others in the group.

Frankly with Michelle's little wobble on the 3flip I don't think a 6.0 was justified, but certainly the 5.9's were. It was a graceful, elegant performance.

Now with COP there isn't this limited set of marks available to choose from so you can rank each skater on his or her own merit based on the point allocation for the different components of the program.

[i12gosk8]

i dont think michelle has ever had an olympic fear, in 1998 she had an injury to overcome and skated the performance that would be the one of any other skaters lifetime, except taras that night.
in 2002 I think she was disorganized, no coach, a lot of publicity, and the pressure of being heavily favored in her home country, and compared to the other performances she gave that season it was not a bad performance, it just wasnt a gold medal winning performance

[Lisa Seye]

SO, why not let all the skaters skate and then let the judges decide who is first then second etc. instead of giving scores after each individual skate. Of course judges would have to be honest hahahaha. They could still put whomever they want in first place.
Bottom line, the way to cut out cheating is definitely NOT anonymity of the judges. Letting them hide their marks allows them to hide their fear of being caught.

[i12gosk8]

amen to that!!!

[Dream Again]

"SO, why not let all the skaters skate and then let the judges decide who is first then second etc. instead of giving scores after each individual skate."

I really think that's a great idea for judging the technical aspects of the sport. I think the only potential problem that could come from that way of judging is on the scoring of the 2nd marks or the presentation/program component scoring. A judge could easily scribble notes based on technical supremacy or failure after seeing an entire group of skaters but it would be extremely difficult for them to score presentation since it is so subjective after seeing every skater in a group. Presentation and program components are not areas of skating that you can easily take notes on and I think that's why the judges have to give their scores after each individual skater because it is an individual impression that each skater makes on the judge. Perhaps it could be as easy as saying skater x appeared very stiff, rigid, disconnected from the music and audience, and I felt removed from their music and program as opposed to skater y who was light, airy, and related wonderfully with the audience and was in great unison with the music, which really drew me in. You could probably liken it to a wine tasting contest. By the time you reached your 6th glass of wine, you'd have no recollection at all of how your 1st glass tasted and therefore, your preference may not be fairly judged. I think no matter what judging system is used, you're probably always going to have someone who cries foul by feeling they were treated unfavorably. No matter what you do, you can't please EVERYONE.

[ovid101]

The marks under 6.0 were merely placeholders, and not meant to rate the quality of the performance. With that in mind, I don't think 6.0 should ever be given as a mark to any skater, unless it was needed to put the last skater into first place. Any competition where a 6.0 was given before the last skater took the ice was poorly judged. The idea of counting the career totals of 6.0s given to individual skaters is just media hype, and reflects how the media helped to corrupt the 6.0 system.

ovid