The Long Goodbye
http://www.atomicsportsmedia.com/articles/146/1/The-Long-Goodbye.html
Jake Duhaime
Jake Duhaime covered the 2006 Olympic Winter Games and 2006 Women's Final Four for Atomic Sports Media. His work has been featured on Boston Dirt Dogs, The Sporting News Online and U.S. Figure Skating Online. Born in Massachusetts, Jake spends most of his free time and money traveling to major sporting events across the country. If you want to reach Jake, email him: jake.duhaime@
atomicsportsmedia.com.
atomicsportsmedia.com.
By Jake Duhaime
Published on 02/25/2006
Atomic Sports columnist Jake Duhaime is finally ready to leave Torino. But before he gets in line at airport security, he has a few final thoughts about Sasha Cohen and the rest of the U.S. women's figure skaters.
TORINO, Italy -- Seventy-two hours….
That’s the amount of time before I finally get to sleep in my own bed.
Between that, there are two more days of competition, including short-track and a gold-medal hockey game. But at this juncture, it’s a pretty light load to deal with, especially with the U.S. hockey team completely out of the picture.
The real adventure comes on Monday. For the last few weeks, tens of thousands of Olympic athletes, reporters, officials, sponsors and fans have called Torino home. And now they’re all leaving… at the same time.
It’s the ultimate logistical nightmare.
Some have chosen to stay in Italy for a while. A friend of mine is headed to Florence, another to Rome. Some will visit friends in Europe and others, like myself, are so desperate to get back that they’ll go through hell to do so. In this case hell involves lots of waiting and ten hours of flying cramped in the middle seat.
Luckily, I’m so exhausted that I’m hopefully going to get some major-league sleep on that long connecting flight from Paris to New York.
Though I think I’ll spend some of that time trying to figure out how I’m going to get to Beijing.
* * * * * * *
I’d rather not rehash Thursday’s Ladies Free Skate for obvious reasons. The event did have the “big -event buzz” that had been severely lacking at these Olympics, which was nice. It’s just too bad Sasha Cohen was, well… Sasha Cohen. Of course, the other favorite, Irina Slutskaya of Russia, didn’t fare well either.
But it should be noted that Sasha was quite gracious in defeat. The label on Cohen is that she’s “moody”, “difficult” and “hard to deal with”. I can’t speak for others but in my dealings with Cohen, including yesterday, I’ve found her to be exactly the opposite.
It was hard to watch her struggle as she did on Thursday evening. Especially given the buildup and anticipation that preceded the moment. That being said, I’d love to see her stick around and try for that elusive gold medal in Vancouver. I don’t know what the chances of that happening are, especially in a sport like competitive figure skating where so much stress is placed on the body. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next four years with her, but I, for one, would love to see her skate in Vancouver.
* * * * * * *
It would also be nice to see Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes in Vancouver as well. Both impressed in their Olympic debuts, both on and off the ice.
The way both Meissner and Hughes handled the pressure of the Olympic stage was remarkable. Finishing sixth and seventh, respectively, at the Olympic Games is a major accomplishment for two skaters that didn’t skate at last year’s World Championship in Moscow. When you consider that neither seems to have hit their skating peak yet, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about the future of U.S. Figure Skating, even if Michelle Kwan isn’t in the picture.
As for off the ice, Hughes handled her situations -- both with Kwan and being the sister of Sarah Hughes -- with maturity and class. And numerous people have told me what a joy Kimmie Meissner has been all season. It’s amazing to think that Kimmie’s only 16 and Emily just turned 17 a few weeks ago. Both have the maturity and motivation of individuals nearly twice their age. They also will serve as great ambassadors and role models for young girls and the sport of figure skating in general.
Jake Duhaime is a regular contributor to Atomic Sports Meida and is currently covering the Winter Olympics from Torino, Italy. Since 1972, he has spent more time with Lord Stanley's Cup than have his beloved Bruins. When he isn't convincing people the NHL Playoffs are riveting television, he can be found going sober for months at a time, saving up petty cash to go to the Super Bowl, Final Four, World Series or any other major sporting event out there. He can be reached at jake.duhaime@atomicsportsmedia.com.
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Atomic Sports columnist Jake Duhaime is finally ready to leave Torino. But before he gets in line at airport security, he has a few final thoughts about Sasha Cohen and the rest of the U.S. women's figure skaters.
|
TORINO, Italy -- Seventy-two hours….
That’s the amount of time before I finally get to sleep in my own bed.
Between that, there are two more days of competition, including short-track and a gold-medal hockey game. But at this juncture, it’s a pretty light load to deal with, especially with the U.S. hockey team completely out of the picture.
The real adventure comes on Monday. For the last few weeks, tens of thousands of Olympic athletes, reporters, officials, sponsors and fans have called Torino home. And now they’re all leaving… at the same time.
It’s the ultimate logistical nightmare.
Some have chosen to stay in Italy for a while. A friend of mine is headed to Florence, another to Rome. Some will visit friends in Europe and others, like myself, are so desperate to get back that they’ll go through hell to do so. In this case hell involves lots of waiting and ten hours of flying cramped in the middle seat.
Luckily, I’m so exhausted that I’m hopefully going to get some major-league sleep on that long connecting flight from Paris to New York.
Though I think I’ll spend some of that time trying to figure out how I’m going to get to Beijing.
* * * * * * *
I’d rather not rehash Thursday’s Ladies Free Skate for obvious reasons. The event did have the “big -event buzz” that had been severely lacking at these Olympics, which was nice. It’s just too bad Sasha Cohen was, well… Sasha Cohen. Of course, the other favorite, Irina Slutskaya of Russia, didn’t fare well either.
But it should be noted that Sasha was quite gracious in defeat. The label on Cohen is that she’s “moody”, “difficult” and “hard to deal with”. I can’t speak for others but in my dealings with Cohen, including yesterday, I’ve found her to be exactly the opposite.
It was hard to watch her struggle as she did on Thursday evening. Especially given the buildup and anticipation that preceded the moment. That being said, I’d love to see her stick around and try for that elusive gold medal in Vancouver. I don’t know what the chances of that happening are, especially in a sport like competitive figure skating where so much stress is placed on the body. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next four years with her, but I, for one, would love to see her skate in Vancouver.
* * * * * * *
It would also be nice to see Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes in Vancouver as well. Both impressed in their Olympic debuts, both on and off the ice.
The way both Meissner and Hughes handled the pressure of the Olympic stage was remarkable. Finishing sixth and seventh, respectively, at the Olympic Games is a major accomplishment for two skaters that didn’t skate at last year’s World Championship in Moscow. When you consider that neither seems to have hit their skating peak yet, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about the future of U.S. Figure Skating, even if Michelle Kwan isn’t in the picture.
As for off the ice, Hughes handled her situations -- both with Kwan and being the sister of Sarah Hughes -- with maturity and class. And numerous people have told me what a joy Kimmie Meissner has been all season. It’s amazing to think that Kimmie’s only 16 and Emily just turned 17 a few weeks ago. Both have the maturity and motivation of individuals nearly twice their age. They also will serve as great ambassadors and role models for young girls and the sport of figure skating in general.
Jake Duhaime is a regular contributor to Atomic Sports Meida and is currently covering the Winter Olympics from Torino, Italy. Since 1972, he has spent more time with Lord Stanley's Cup than have his beloved Bruins. When he isn't convincing people the NHL Playoffs are riveting television, he can be found going sober for months at a time, saving up petty cash to go to the Super Bowl, Final Four, World Series or any other major sporting event out there. He can be reached at jake.duhaime@atomicsportsmedia.com.