2/25/2006: One last Kwan
In the end, nobody much missed Michelle Kwan, who was last seen wiping a tear as she departed her final Torino press conference. Her excuses for her poor practice session that led to her bowing out of competition included an old injury flare-up, a new injury (allegedly sustained after her first fall), forgetting to bring her music to practice, having to fly across nine time zones, and sitting out in the cold during opening ceremonies. It all sounded pretty flimsy at the time, and even more so now compared to some of the against-all-odds stories that unfolded over the last couple of weeks.
All this after she failed to qualify for the team in the first place, and had a private judging session to appeal the decision, after which she was accepted. What did all that cost contributors to the US skating team and the Olympics?
Kwan was a good skater who had a good run. Her future's wide open with options and she's far more financially secure than most of us. It was time for her to go, but once she was gone NBC made as big a deal about her as they did for Princess Diana's and Pope John Paul II's deaths. Within a day or so a local reporter let slip the reason for the overblown eulogies: NBC had offered her a job, asking her to stay in Torino and report on the skating events. When she declined (Disney had already called her) NBC suddenly let it drop and the attempted bribery-by-adoration became clear.
Kwan has an online fan club who call themselves "Michelle Kwan's Guardian Angels" who go around defending her in chat rooms and deleting criticism from message boards. I figure it says a lot about Kwan that she doesn't ask them to stop, 
that criticism can be a healthy and constructive path to self-improvement.. but no, it doesn't work that way for this diva and her rabid fans who subscribe to the see-no-evil/hear-no-evil school of self awareness.
Meanwhile thanks to Kwan finally getting out while the getting was good, Emily Hughes got the opportunity of a lifetime and a big fat dose of priceless experience to help her future career, and she was a joy to watch.
