End of the Olympic Gold Medal Line

As she heads to Torino, Italy for her last shot at Olympic Gold, one way or another Michelle Kwan will make history. She will either come home with the gold medal that has eluded her entire career, or she will join the pantheon of great athletes like Marino, Ripkin, and Malone who have had hall of fame careers, only to have the crown jewel of their sport slip through their fingers. Does it make Kwan any less great or her career any less stellar? Not at all. But it does leave a hole that she is driven to get filled.

In spite of dropping out of the Nationals due to a groin injury, Michelle Kwan skates as graceful as ever. She took the ice this week to prove to the US Olympic Committee that she deserves a spot on the team one final time. Although she took one fall on the double axel she's done thousands of times, she bounced right back up and nailed two more after her short program. Skating is a game for the young, and at twenty-five, Kwan has to summon up triple axels and toe loops that are harder now than for girls her junior. But that's the beauty of Olympic moment. A dramatic world wide stage set for those who want the Gold badly enough to go outside themselves in order to get it.

Not many give her a chance. But then again, back at Lake Placid in 1980, not many thought a young group of college students could skate for a few months and beat a professionally-seasoned Russian Hockey team that had been skating together for years and had won Olympic gold after Olympic gold. But those students, Erusione, Schneider, Craig, and others, believed in miracles and skated the games of their lives to take the Gold that seemed guaranteed to go to the Russians, who settled with the Silver.

So perhaps it's fitting she goes out much like she came in. Twelve years ago, at the age of thirteen year she went to Albertville France as an alternate, having lost her spot on the team to Nancy Kerrigan, who had petitioned the committee in a similar fashion after the infamous attack on her at the US Nationals that caused her to drop out with an injury. Kerrigan's skill, the drama of her plight, and a little help from Lady Luck got her a silver medal.