And Lest We Forget...

Not-so-great quality of the videos but oh, the memories!

Video of the great Michelle Kwan's breathtaking short program at the 1998 U.S. Nationals.  I've yet to see another skater do a better performance to this music by Rachmaniov. 

Video of Michelle Kwan's exquisite performance in the free-skate (back then they called it the long program) at the 1998 U.S. Nationals.

Look at what they now call the "transitions" between the elements, her presentation, timing, musicality, that electric connection with the audience that cannot be forced (not to mention her technical skills which at the time were among the best in the world).  The edges, the entries into and out of the jumps, her body lines.  Her speed, flow, and coverage of the ice.  All superb.  Kwan scored more perfect 6.0s than any skater in history for these two performances.  It gave me chills again to watch them.

Where Did the American Ice Queens Go?

Article from Newsweek online: A Lost Legacy For so many years American ladies ruled the skating world. Where did our ice queens go? Mar 26, 2009 Sasha Cohen was figure skating's great alchemist, always turning gold into silver or bronze. She retired three years ago, at 21, after two performances—first at the Turin Olympics and then at the world championships—that were quintessentially Sasha. They combined moments of breathtaking artistry—a ballerina's elegant, dazzling footwork and an ethereal quality—with those decidedly un-ethereal moments when Cohen crashed on her butt, a little-girl-lost expression on her face. She departed the sport with silver and bronze medals rather than the pair of golds that could have been hers had Cohen just stayed on her feet for four minutes. But this week, with the World Figure Skating Championships in her hometown of Los Angeles, Cohen has told The New York Times that she is flirting with a comeback aimed at next year's Olympics in Vancouver. "If I come back, I think I could be better than I ever was," she told the Times's Juliet Macur. Cohen has several excellent reasons to contemplate a return to the ice. Her dream of a Hollywood career hasn't materialized, and fame is fleeting. She is now less famous than that Sacha Cohen who is Borat. And while skating's Sasha Cohen still performs on tour, a figure skater is far more marketable if she can wrap fans in an Olympic dream. That's why an even more illustrious skater, the five-time world champion Michelle Kwan, is also talking comeback—even though she has been off the ice longer, has already undergone arthroscopic hip surgery and would be, by the sport's standards, a geriatric 28 years old in Vancouver. Rest of article.

*************************************************************

I have have nothing good to say about "come-backs" - remember the disastrous results of "come-backs" of the pros and retired pros figure skaters during the 1994 Winter Olympics? Ladies - please stay retired and spare us the agony of seeing you go down in flames. I love Michelle Kwan with all my heart, but she's made her way into the history books and should not attempt a come-back. It's time to move on, MK, and get with your real life. As for Sasha Cohen, I was never a fan. If she wants to come back, fine, let her fall on her butt once again in front of 50 million people watching on television. Geez!