No Michelle Kwan

Today, the world mourns as Michelle Kwan, the face of American figure skating, withdraws from the Winter Olympics. I love Michelle Kwan. I have been watching her since she first entered the national figure skating circuit. As a child, I fell in love with figure skating. It looked so graceful and glamorous, that I wanted to do it myself. But we lived in the south where it's too warn for ice skating rinks...and my parents would have never had the money to put me in something like that. So, I watched. I remember when Nancy Kerrigan went to the Olympic games...and had to overcome an injury to her knee to win the silver. And then I remember when Michelle Kwan entered center stage. I have watched her ever since. Kwan is reaching retirement age for skating. She's 25-years-old, and this was to be her final Olympics. She has never won gold...she won silver and bronze. But because of an injury, she decided to pull out of the games. She says she respects the olympics too much to try and skate when she knows she cannot do her best. I was looking forward to watching her come home with a gold, but now that will not happen. One journalist wrote that today is Black Sunday in the Olympics. I have to agree.