Tales from Torino, Part 8
by Laura Fawcett |
(2/25/06) - I have been so looking forward to going home for a week now that I never thought I would get the post-Olympic blues.
But I got em anyway.
Strange, since I still have a full two and a half days left, including a night of Apolo at short track, maybe some shopping and sightseeing. That's the thing though the competition for me, at least, is over. A couple of skaters have already returned to the States, media requests are going through their agents when needed, we're writing sport wrap-ups for the USOC.
I wish I could come up with some profound statement on the Olympic spirit, but when you have the blues, or the major event let-down, it's tough to wax philosophical.
I can look back at the last two days, which has been the epitome of our Olympic experience. We went to a real restaurant before the ladies free skate, and I had the best gnocchi ever of course my arteries hardened in the process, but it was tasty (OK, eating at a real restaurant I guess isn't the epitome of my Olympic experience eating at Mickey D's would have been.). I had little sleep Thursday night. I spent eight hours with Kimmie Meissner on Friday going through the media rounds. I slept in this morning (yay!).
Due to the timing of our skaters and the mixed zone schedule, I had the privilege of watching the final flight of the ladies free skate sitting right behind Evgeny Plushenko no less. That's a big difference from Salt Lake City, where I actually only managed to see Sarah Hughes skate live (not too shabby!).
I admittedly was nervous when Sasha took the ice, and I think most of the media held their breaths, too. Her fall ended the anxiety early, but if you remembered to actually watch the rest of her program instead of madly scribbling in a notebook, you were able to see something special.
We do hold our athletes up to higher expectations. We expect that once they are at the Olympic level they will take the reins and ride into victory. It doesn't always happen that way, and I don't believe that makes an athlete any less of a champion. Sasha Cohen knew 10 seconds into her program that her dreams of gold were over. Just like that. In figure skating, you can't take that back. You can't make up for the fall not really.
In basketball you can miss your first eight shots and still score 20 points and the game-winner. You can go 0-4 at the plate in the World Series and then hit the game-winning home run and you're a hero.
Skaters often don't have that chance at redemption.
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But I did care. I had more chances to win. Sasha Cohen cared and she didn't have another chance.
What I saw was class. Sasha woke up the next morning and did a full round of media answering honestly and blaming no one but herself. She was friendly, outgoing and showed a realistic and optimistic outlook about winning the silver medal.
I didn't really intend for this to be a Sasha Cohen blog. I really wanted to think of some more anecdotes, or leave you with a parting laugh. But I've spent more time with these athletes this month than I have in my previous seven years with U.S. Figure Skating. I've seen their personalities, how they act in public and private. I don't claim to really know any one of them.
But I do know they deserve respect for pushing so hard for so long, whether the final outcome is a gold, a silver, or no medal at all.
Great job Team USA.
