Re: The "Favorite" Curse of the Olympics Ladies Championship


maf@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Rose napisal(a):


In 1992, Midori Ito or Tonya Harding was expected to win. Kristi
Yamaguchi won.

As I recall it was presented as a Yamaguchi / Ito duel (I thought
Yamaguchi was going to win as early as 91 worlds). After the SP
everyone expected Yamaguchi to win because the only skaters there that
could beat here were buried in lower positions.

I wasn't following skating so avidly then but I never heard of Kristi
Yamaguchi before Harding and Ito fell during their short programs.
What I recall is that it was the battle of the triple axels, which
turned out to fizzle due to the short program. At Worlds afterwards,
the interviewer said to Kristi that this was the first time she was
expected to win Worlds, whereas she wasn't expected to win Worlds or
the Olympics, and asked if that made it harder to skate well. My
commercial tape of the 1992 Olympics depicted the ladies skate as an
Ito-Harding battle until the short program.


In 1998 Michelle Kwan was expected to win. Tara
Lipinski won.

Again, as I recall it was presented as a Kwan / Lipinski skate off.
Everyone thought it would one of those two. Kwan might have been a
little more favored going into the LP but only a fool would have
counted Lipinski out.

That's not the way I remember it. I'm not talking about the educated
fan community, mind you, I'm talking about the media and the general
public, and that's where I think much of the pressure comes from. What
I recall is that the media crowned Michelle Kwan Olympic champion after
her multiple 6.0s at Nationals. Scott Hamilton in his commentary said
everyone else thought Michelle would win for sure but he felt that Tara
could win. I believe Tara herself said that it was expected that she
couldn't beat Michelle. I distinctly recall a radio commentator saying
that if Michelle Kwan made only one or two mistakes she would win.


In fact, Irina's
career has been remarkably similar to Michelle's: multiple world gold
medals, one Olympic silver and one Olympic bronze.

I'm starting to think of them as the Browning/Stojko of ladies skating,
best in their branches for a long time but no olympic gold. I'd say
that reflects worse on 'olympic gold medal' than on the skaters in
question though (though I'm very happy with Arakawa's win).

This doesn't seem to happen in the other skating disciplines. Is there
less pressure to be perfect?

I'd say one factor is that the other fields tend not to be so deep. Who
as Plushenko had to challenge him since Yagudin left competition?

I don't understand it. Several men are better than Plushenko in my
opinion. Why is it that when it comes to men only the jumps count,
although with the women they have to be great spinners and spiralists
too?

.

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