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.

Many believe that Kwan's petitioning of the committee is the sneaky way to get on the team. But seriously, how much more does she have to prove to belong on the team one final time? She has won the World Title five times in these last twelve years and the US Championships nine of those twelve. She settled for Olympic silver and bronze (twice), having endured the international disappointment of coming so close. But she has never stolen the moment from those who took the Gold that she seemed poised, even favored, to win, preferring to step back and wait for her moment.

But the big question is, can Michelle Kwan take the gold or will she end her career much like Katarina Witt did, with a disappointing, and some say embarrassing last moment in the Olympic sun? The difference, however, is that Witt had already won Olympic Gold, whereas, Michelle Kwan has everything to prove.

But Sasha Cohen isn't about to make it easy on her. Sasha wants it as bad as Michelle does. And has constantly battled with Kwan ever since she stepped on the world stage back in 2002, where she just missed the medal stand to Kwan, who took the Bronze. Cohen took the US Nationals this year and is the U.S.'s best hope for Gold, along with Kimmie Meissner.

But everyone will be watching Kwan. The stage is set. It is her last opportunity and the requital for the down payment she made twelve years ago when she had to watch from the sidelines, much like Emily Hughes will this time around. Though dissapointed, to be sure, Emily must understands. She's may not be as young as a precocious thirteen year old was way back at Albertville, but her pedigree as the sister of 2002 Olympic Gold medal winner Sarah Hughes, along with the fact that she took the US National Bronze in her own right is the down payment she's paid to insure it for a berth to 2010 in Vancouver. One thing is certain, when she does get her moment, one way or another, along with her sister Sarah, Michelle Kwan will cheer her on.