King said that Kwan is attractive, but not "intimidatingly so".

Hey King, care to tell us what the hell that means? I suppose you find her cute and approachable if she were standing at the ice rink snack bar drinking a coke? As opposed to someone so hot you'd be scared to approach her because you assume you'll get shot down?

Pretty funny use of the English language there, KK. Maybe some of the single fellows here on the board can try it as a pick up line and let us know how they fare?

It's funny you thought of that, because while I was watching the opening ceremonies, it occured to me that they remind me a lot of the Cremaster movies (especially the bit where the racecar was doing donuts!), which were created by Matthew Barney, Bjork's husband. Personally, I look forward to the opening ceremonies every Olympics. They provide the kind of glorious, pompous absurdity that you used to get with the Super Bowl halftime show before they turned it into the Grammies.

"Just once, I'd like to get a closer look at an athlete who's anathema to the Olympic spirit. "Up next, a profile of a guy who's all about the Benjamins, hates foreigners and thinks the Olympics are a big joke. But he's really fast."

I think that paragraph more than adequately describes the overwhelmingly annoying Bodie Miller, who ought to quit whatever it is he thinks he's doing in Europe to cement the idea that Americans are idiots, and come home to NA$CAR where attitudes like his not only live, but thrive. And he could get to punch photographers and throw his helmet at opponents, and jump up and down on the hoods of their cars, to boot!

Just once, I'd like to get a closer look at an athlete who's anathema to the Olympic spirit. "Up next, a profile of a guy who's all about the Benjamins, hates foreigners and thinks the Olympics are a big joke. But he's really fast."

Well it wasn't in the winter Olympics, but I nominate Charles "We're just here to promote the NBA" Barkley.

...is that a luger "slides down the run next to his sled instead of on top of it"???

>Yahoo news: Samantha Retrosi was injured following a frightening crash

Mmmm...Ferrari Donuts...

I don't really watch sports. I get too bugged by how much money is being pumped into them when we have other problems needing attention. But I've still heard of Michelle Kwan. I've still managed to catch a glimpse of a performance or two of hers. Your article makes the point that the only athletes (in certain sports) who will be remembered are the gold medalists, but I have the opposite intuition: who even remembers them? Unless they're a hometown hero, or they are associated with some scandal (I know who Tanya Harding is), they're pretty much forgotten. (I could go on about how many of us who are good at what we do are soon forgotten, so I don't think it's any worse for an athlete than anyone else.) But Michelle Kwan? She been around. She's been a real diplomat for the sport, so much so that those of us who don't give a rat's ass about sports have a great deal of respect for her and her career. That's the real irony here--she will be remembered long after other gold medal winners are forgotten, because she brought more than just her game.

You didn't "answer the bell" on your Michelle Kwan column. Her Olympic record is what it is - one silver and a bronze. She skated very well in 1998, not very well in 2002. Even if she were healthy, she would have been fortunate to get a bronze this time. But to compare her to a boxer who never won a world title - are you ignoring her six world titles because "the public only cares about the Olympics." She is an all-time great in her sport, and to argue otherwise shows you're either (a) trying to get a reaction; or (b) oblivious to the facts. The length of her career alone qualifies her as one of the best.

I fall somewhere in the middle on Kwan. She's an all-time great in the sport of figure skating as evidenced by a bunch of world titles, but she's also an Olympic choker. When the white hot glare of the Olympic spotlight shone on Kwan, she wilted under the pressure. It doesn't mean she's a bad person or even a bad skater, but in the big pressure game, Kwan came up short. She's like the Dutch soccer team.

But she wasn't really screwing Hughes. Figure skating, like all judged sports, is inherently corrupt and the third-ranked skater from any country has about zero chance of winning a medal. The competitors are already ranked in the judges minds in advance, and it takes a truly outstanding performance to break out of your assigned tier. And Kwan had won eight straight national titles, if anyone had earned the right for a free pass on the US team, it was her.

As for Bode, he just is another example that athletes can't win for losing. The guy seems fairly genuine, and he even gives quotes about how winning isn't everything, it's just trying to be your best. And of course he gets ripped for it. Because we may pay lip service to sportsmanship and trying your best, but at the end of the day, we want winners. If Bode wins (he still has a few more races), all will be forgiven.

Pete Sampras, he never won the French Open.

Tyler: King said that Kwan is attractive, but not "intimidatingly so".

Hey King, care to tell us what the hell that means?

Sure. Maybe off-puttingly would have been a better word than intimidatingly. What I mean is she's an attractive enough person, but she's not so drop-dead gorgeous that you find yourself rooting against her, in the sense that, in Wilt Chamberlain's famous words, you root against Goliath. There's not that Schadenfreude of seeing the talented AND awesomely pretty girl get hers. I was talking about how it's easy to root for her. She's more of an everywoman than a too-pretty ice queen. I think the widespread, though not unanimous, dislike for Katarina Witt two decades ago was complicated -- there were elements of Cold War rivalries there, and also a perception that she wasn't as talented a skater as the American girl, Debi Thomas, but just knew how to push the judges' buttons -- but part of it was that she was just kind of a stunner. There's such a thing, in certain contexts -- not many, I'll admit -- as being too good-looking.

And: What Stepbaker said. Kwan was a great skater who, when the sport's biggest spotlight was on, choked. That has to be taken into account as you assess her. World titles and national titles are nice, but the Olympics are where it's at for most of the sports at the Olympics. The exceptions are those sports whose top participants look at the Olympics as just another event, or even an exhibition. Off the top of my head, basketball, hockey, soccer, tennis, baseball when there was baseball. Boxing is somewhat in this category.

I believe the boxing analogy is right on. Kwan is the equivalent of a boxer who won the Olympic gold medal, say, lots of amateur titles, and beat everyone around as a pro, but lost every pro championship fight. Yeah, all those other things are nice, and that person can look back it his career and be proud of it and call it a success, and his fans can admire and love him, and they can even put him in a video game. But when it comes down to making that short list of the all-time greats, he's not going to be on it, because part of being an all-time great is winning on the biggest stage, and Kwan had two shots, in her prime, at the biggest stage, and she lost twice.