Letters to the Editor
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How skaters qualify...
As a longtime skating viewer let me correct a few things re the perception of some kind of conspiracy of special treatment for Kwan.
1. The nationals serve as trials for the Olympics, World Championships. The WINNER of nationals automatically qualifies. (Sasha Cohen this year, Tonya Harding in 2004 after Nancy got whacked by her amusingly named ex. Had the attack not happend, Tonya would have placed a strong second given the same performance and would have likely been on the team anyway.) A USFSA committee selects the other team members, but it's customary that the team members are chosen in order of their finish at nationals, but not always done. In 1992 Paul Wylie was named to the Olympic team OVER Scott Davis even though Davis beat him at nationals. This was based on Wylie's lifetime record and while it was so contraversial that they'll likely never do this again, Wylie won the Olympic silver medal in a very close decision. Davis was named to the world champs team instead (as Emily Hughes was this year.
The job of the committee is not to reward skaters, it's to build the best team they can. Because how the skaters do at world championships determines how many spots you get the following year. The US currently has 3 women's spots (the maximum) in part based on Kwan's "disappointing" 4th-place finish at worlds last year. But again, the Wylie decision was so ill-received (until he got silver) that only a medical situation is likely to bump some one in the future.
2. ANY skater, not just someone famous like Kwan, may petition for a medical waiver to miss nationals. Nancy Kerrigan got this waiver after her attack, which nobody in their right mind would argue with -- but that's the precedent. I think but am not sure that Todd Eldredge once received a similar waiver. If named to the Olympic or World team you must prove your fitness by a certain date, and Michelle did so on January 27. She likely reinjured herself this week.
3. The rumors about special treatment because her brother-in-law is on the committee are ridiculous. He recused himself and was one of a 30-member committee.
4. Just my opinion but if Michelle Kwan were feeling OK she would probably have done better than Emily Hughes is likely to do, having never competed in a major international meet before.
5. Lipinski and Hughes are not one-shot wonders. Kwan was the 1996 US and world champion, then had a bad season in 1997. Lipinski stole both titles out from under her and went into the 1998 Olympic season as the defending national and world champion (at 14). Kwan recaptured the 98 US title on a broken toe and skated well enough at the Olympics that most viewers thought she'd won until Tara skated. Loser, indeed.
In 1999 Sarah Hughes (at 13) won a silver junior world medal to qualify for the senior nationals, and then was invited to substitute for someone else at the senior worlds, placing seventh. By 2002 she had extensive international experience and had occasionally beaten Kwan, Cohen and Slutskaya.
Emily Hughes has not progressed as quickly, though she may in the end be as talented.
In my opinion the committee was right to send Michelle, but she was right to bow out once it was clear she could not do well.