VC Lashes Out

...and makes an 8 cent profit!

Since I've managed to totally ignore things of global importance ranging from bird flue, to Sharon, to the Paris riots, I figured I'd use my intellectual energy and spare time to send my thoughts (mostly negative) to the author of this editorial piece about Michelle Kwan's quest go to her third olympic games (read it -- it's really short).

This was the email I sent him:

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Just read your editorial on the Kwan petition, and while I like your sense of humour, I think the journalism is far from rigorous (and I'm not even a die-hard Kwan fan).

The vast majority of voters who recused themselves did so not because of personal relationships to Kwan (although you make it sound like this was exclusively the case in your article), but because they had personal relationships with competitor skaters (eg: as coaches), or were themselves competitor skaters who held spots on the "international committee." This is just basic research.

Regarding self-aggrandizing manipulation of the system, I hardly think that that's what this petition is about. As the committee has said, it's their job to get medals -- no one is going to be impressed with Kwan if she can't land a jump, least of all herself, and that's what this petition-vote-test skate process is about. If ANY skater (Kwan or not) cannot skate, then they petition -- it's not an aberration of the system, but the system at work.

It's not like some skating diva said "I don't feel like trying out" and expected people to bow to her will. It's written into to skating bylaws that this petition process exists, and it exists for a reason (namely: last-minute injuries that might make traditional skater comparisons difficult); in fact, you might recall that the last time it was invoked was to bump 13yo Kwan off the team when Nancy Keragan was attacked. What is not written into the bylaws is that the US Nationals is a definitive "olympic trails" (as you say in your article). In fact, it's explicitly stated that this is not the case -- the top performer from US Nationals is to be taken as an auto-admit to the Olympic team, and the next two spots are to be determined by vote (normally the vote follows the US trials, but it needn't necessarily do so).

That is part of what makes your PGA and NASCAR analogies so erroneous -- this was not an ad hoc system made for Kwan, but a system that allows for the selection of a medal-winning team that is flexible enough to take injuries into account.

I also don't really understand your revelation that this is about medals. Of course this is about medals -- it's the job of the national competition to provide PART of the criterion for the committee to decide who is most likely to earn medals. You seem to have a vision of a system that should serve itself (and not have medals as its secret agenda), arguing that it's unfair for the third place national finisher to be bumped as part of a greedy Olympic medals quest. This is inconsistent, though, with your desire to have US Nationals be the exclusive Olympic trials. If you think that Olympic selection should be based entirely on one system, then that system needs to serve the goal of the Olympics, and that is winning medals. It would be a waste of all the money (including tax payer money) being poured into the training of US athletes for it to serve anything else. Kwan didn't petition to be awarded third place at nationals -- Hughes has that and it stands alone; she petitioned to have her candidacy for the US Olympic team be considered, as has happened in the past and is part of US figure skating Olympic selection rules, considered outside the domain of the US national competition, the burden on any petitioner being to prove that (s)he is the most qualified to win the US medals at the Olympics.

I like your sarcastic (almost snotty, actually) style, but I think it was a bit misdirected, and, in the few instances I've described here (eg: your description of the judges who recused themselves, the "olympic trials," and the comparison to NASCAR and golf) is simply incorrect.

I do appreciate any article that includes a dig at the Abramoff scandal, though :)

Just my two cents,

Veiled Chunk

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Here is his reply (very prompt!)

mr. chunk,

thanks for taking the time to read and write back.

while i did not attend the nationals in st. louis, what i learned of the international committee and the reasons for the low number of votes was through the internet and from a bunch of news services and reporters that did cover the event.

from what i've heard and read, kwan is not some high-maintenance diva. she's simply using the system to her advantage.

maybe my golf and nascar analogies were off base. perhaps i should have mentioned other olympic sports trials. if maurice greene had been hurt going into the u.s. sprint trials or false-started his way out, did he have similar recourse? if swimmer michael phelps was rehabbing a torn shoulder muscle or dq'd at the trials for an illegal turn, would the usoc say: don't worry, you're coming anyway?

i also looked at the salt lake and nagano teams, where the top 3 finishers at the u.s. trials were the olympic skaters. as i told someone else, the kwan-kerrigan situation in '94 was justified. when you're essentially kneecapped by another competitor, that's about as extenuating as circumstances get.

i know the olympics are about medals. it would be more honest if those involved would just say so. say: 'these may look like trials, but they're not. the winner goes, and all of us suits then decide everybody else you cheer for.'

believe me, i appreciate your thoughts. they're worth at least a dime. take care.

dave fairbank

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I am tempted to point him towards Serena Williams's last selection to the Olympics over Lisa Raymond in doubles (keeping in mind that Lisa Raymond had been #1 in the world in doubles for a few YEARS), and the consistently opaque process through which the girl's (I use that language deliberately) gymnastics team is selected -- part trials, part behind-the-scenes training camp assessment, part smoke-filled-room debates. I would ALSO remind him that the sports in which we are most strict about trails (eg: track and field) are sports in which we are basically guaranteed a medal whether or not the trial accurately selects the top athlete (because usually our third or fourth best runner can get a medal).

Oh well :)

Feel a little bad that I lied about being a die-hard Kwan fan to gain credibility, but not that bad ;)

VC