Olympic Champion Peggy Fleming Gives Michelle Kwan a Replica of her Gold Ice Skating Medal

MSNBC ^ | February 22, 2002 | Lester Holt

[codebreaker]

MSNBC showed footage of a press conference and Michelle had two medals on her neck the bronze and the one given to her by Peggy Fleming.

She looked liked she was about to lose it..

[GussiedUp]

I thought Michelle last night was gracious in showing Sarah how to get up on the stand. Sarah didn't have any idea how to get up there on the highest part of the platform. Was Michelle just supposed to stand there and let Sarah figure it out?

roflmao. Sarah knew how to get up on that stand.

[It's me]

Compare Michelle Kwan's attitude and demeanor with Sarah Hughes' . I wanted Sarah to win for her smile, happiness, and overall demeanor. Kwan acted as if she was a snob. Kwan was behind closed doors, and inaccessible.She deserved the gold. She was better than the rest. I think not!

The best skater won last night. Hughes was skating for the fun of it and loving every minute of it. And you could tell. I'm one of the ones who is very glad she won.

[dougherty]

That's funny. I was just wondering if some on Free Republic would be showing so much animosity towards her is she weren't Asian.

Ditto.

[jimt]

Kwan became a big media darling right after she did not win the GOLD at Nagano. She handled it with a lot of class and grace. She is one athlete who turned silver into gold! Kwan is a huge role-model for young ladies and she has my support as well as millions of fans all over the world, all the way, medals or no medals.

We seem to have diametrically opposed impressions of her class and grace. Interesting. Either you didn't hear and see what I heard saw, or vice versa. My impressions are based on the joint interviews she and Tara Lipinski gave, right after the competition. I liked Kwan before that, but I've disliked her ever since.

[GussiedUp]

Stop the Kwan bashing. What is it with this damned population? Have each and everyone of you bought into this, "kick anyone who succeeds" crap? What are you, DNC robots?

No one is "bashing" Kwan. I was pulling for Kwan when the events kicked off but Kwan did some self-bashing with a less than gracious series of attitude. Hughes was the underdog who pulled off a beautiful performance as well. BTW DNC robots support someone in a perceived position of importance - whether they deseve it or not - you might wish to glance in the mirror.

[Boxsford]

The media doesn't help. Their constant talking about Kwan leaves people thinking this gal is some sort of primadonna. At times, because of the media, she looked this way too with them showing the door she was behind and capturing her every move on camera. They build up this image of her that may not even be her at all.

[skeeter]

Bottom line - its about charisma. It has nothing to do with race, or being a 'nice' person.

Lipinski, Yamaguchi, Witt, Hughes, etc. all have it. Kwan does not.

It may not be fair, its just the way it is.

[Osprey]

"But I still think that Kristi Yamaguchi is the most beautiful and talented skater of all time."

You can't be serious. Yamaguchi and Kwan are very nice ladies; but, they barley leave the ice when they Jump.

I like to see a little air between the skates.

[codebreaker]

I would put Yamaguchi in the class of Sonjia Hennie, Dorthy Hamill, Peggy Flemming, and Katarina-she is that good.

[codebreaker]

Kristie's forte is an absolute unwillingness to choke in the clutch..there is a short list of those people

Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Joe Montana, Micheal Jordan and Dimaggio come to mind.

[codebreaker]

Kwan was gracious after Nagano, I would have liked to see her come out instead of hiding behind the door.

People wouldn't have minded the tears.

[Utah Girl]

Yeah, I heard about Michelle's 'stalking' Sasha at the end of that warmup. Lots of gamesmanship goes on. Katerina Witt used to stare down her competitors during their practice time, or worse, imitate them when it was Witt's turn to practice.

[Clemenza]

All I am going to say is that I hope that Ms. Hughes gets better endorsement deals than Michelle "I choke" Kwan.

[Redleg Duke]

Aren't you falling behind in your 'Harry Browne' readings? He won't like that.

[TracyPA]

When Kwan made the remark she wanted to be a skating legend and have people remember her 100 years from now that really turned me off! How arrogant can you get? Someone said she plans to stay eligible till 2010? That is just pathetic. Another Todd Eldredge still trying for gold at thirty. It would be laughable, if it wasn't so sad.

[LaDivaLoca]

I'm sure she knew at that point, her mistakes cost her the top prize. I'm sure she was not happy with the way she skated and she needed some time to be by herself to compose herself before facing the media. I would have done the same too. Some people deal with different situations in different ways, I guess.

[codebreaker]

Michelle was employing a good strategy there, these best way to get someone off guard is to skate right in their eye corner sight line.

A proper coach would have stopped the gesturing at the judges.

[GussiedUp]

which one was in the car commercial that kept playing during the skating? Was that Kwan?

[Slyfox]

What I think she WILL do is get a degree from UCLA then come back in two years.

Maybe, but she doesn't have the technical skills that the younger girls have been showing for the last four years. Sarah did I think two triple-triple combinations that had never been done in competition by a woman. It's too bad that so much is riding on the jumping, but Sarah won because she was strong across the board. Michele was weak in technical and did not skate her presentation flawlessly. The next Olympics will feature more skaters like Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes. Michele has peaked in her amateur abilities. She'll find the professional area of skating to be more satisfying.