On Top of Her Game
http://www.atomicsportsmedia.com/articles/544/1/On-Top-of-Her-Game.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 08/10/2006
Fresh off an impressive performance at the Torino Olympics and a world championship, Kimmie Meissner is poised to become the next big thing in American figure skating, according to Atomic Sports columnist Jake Duhaime.
Her eyes fixated to those Stars and Stripes as they rose to the Saddledome rafters above. That radiant smile, the same one that hadn’t left her face since she had made the Olympic team two months earlier, threatening to melt the ice below. As Kimmie Meissner stood atop the medals podium as a World Champion, trying to soak up the decade of hard work and determination that landed her there, she had but one small little detail on her mind:
Just don’t cry…
“I usually don’t get so excited that I cry,” Meissner admitted to ABC this past April. “I didn’t do it, but I was on the verge.”
As she entered her final spin and a finishing pose, the crowd was already well immersed in a standing ovation. Meissner quickly covered her face in
disbelief, saluted the crowd and threw her fists in the air like a heavyweight champion. All that was missing was for her to tell Peter Carruthers that she “shocked the world.”
This past March, in the very same building that brought the world both the “Battle of the Brians” and the “Battle of the Carmens,” Kimmie Meissner pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the World Figure Skating Championships, beating Fumie Suguri of Japan by nearly nine points. Sasha Cohen, who led after the short program, just as she did in Torino settled for bronze after a frustrating performance in the free skate.
In a sport looking for a new blood, Meissner’s performance couldn’t have come at a better time. Shuzuka Arakawa retired from the competitive ranks immediately after winning gold in Torino. Both Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya are bound to join her in the near future. And with Hollywood seemingly calling Sasha Cohen’s name; It will be interesting to see if she’s going to stick around over these next few years.
With a drastic change in star power set to take place. There’s seemingly one gigantic spot next to Evgeni Plushenko up for grabs atop the skating world. Meissner seems determined to fill that role.
Peggy Fleming, a gold medalist in her own right, believes the 16 year-old from Bel Air, Maryland is the future of the sport. During the broadcast of Meissner’s title-winning performance, Fleming called her, “the new face of figure skating.” She later told the Baltimore Sun that, “Right now, she’s just starting to make the world notice her.”
If Meissner is indeed the new face, she’s a new face that’s nearly impossible not to like. Both humble and charming, she’s an impeccably hard worker who brings a childlike passion to a sport that thrives on precision and emotion.
“She has this incredible work ethic,” said her coach Pam Gregory at a Pre-Olympic press conference in Delaware last January. “Her attitude on the ice is always positive. She truly enjoys the process.”
Muhammad Ali once said that the “the will (of a champion) must be stronger than the skill (of a champion).” Meissner’s work ethic, that emphasis on the process instead of the end result, has helped pave her path to greatness. When she was named to the Olympic team after a second place finish at the 2006 U.S. Championships, she had to overcome both illness and a fourth-place short program to do so. When she finished a very respectable sixth place in her first Olympic Games. She wasn’t satisfied with her free skate, something she most certainly made up for with her performance in Calgary.
She’s also a perfectionist off the ice as well.
In April, when asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day at Citizens Bank Park, Meissner wasn’t thrilled when she ended up overthrowing the catcher, making him leap to prevent a wild pitch.
Convinced she could do better, Meissner went back and practiced with her father and three older brothers at home. A week later, she had another shot, this time at Camden Yards. On her second attempt, Meissner took the mound confidently, if not a tad cocky. With the cap on backwards ala Ken Griffey Jr., Meissner stared down an imaginary batter, went into the windup and threw a perfect first-pitch strike to her catcher John Halama.
“I’m much better than I was when I first started,” she told the AP.
If Peter Angelos doesn't offer Meissner a contract -- and given the Orioles' bullpen woes, it wouldn’t hurt -- she’ll continue to be the perfect fit for a sport looking for its new poster child. She won’t be the only one trying to fill Michelle Kwan’s skates, getting help from Olympic teammate Emily Hughes, Four Continents Champion Katy Taylor and Grand Prix Champion Mao Asada, but she’s the most established of the bunch at this point.
Still, filling the gaping hole left by Michelle Kwan is easier said than done. Meissner, who was in first grade when Kwan won her first of nine U.S. titles in 1996, is only starting to realize how big those skates really are.
When a young girl asked Meissner for her autograph after a recent Champions on Ice show, she told the new World Champion that she wanted to grow up to be just like… Michelle Kwan.
“Oh! That‘s awesome,” Meissner said to the girl trying to hold back the laughter. “Because I do too.”
Jake Duhaime is a regular contributor to Atomic Sports Media and covered the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. He can be reached at jake.duhaime@atomicsportsmedia.com.
 |
Fresh off an impressive performance at the Torino Olympics and a world championship, Kimmie Meissner is poised to become the next big thing in American figure skating, according to Atomic Sports columnist Jake Duhaime.
|
Her eyes fixated to those Stars and Stripes as they rose to the Saddledome rafters above. That radiant smile, the same one that hadn’t left her face since she had made the Olympic team two months earlier, threatening to melt the ice below. As Kimmie Meissner stood atop the medals podium as a World Champion, trying to soak up the decade of hard work and determination that landed her there, she had but one small little detail on her mind:
Just don’t cry…
“I usually don’t get so excited that I cry,” Meissner admitted to ABC this past April. “I didn’t do it, but I was on the verge.”
As she entered her final spin and a finishing pose, the crowd was already well immersed in a standing ovation. Meissner quickly covered her face in
disbelief, saluted the crowd and threw her fists in the air like a heavyweight champion. All that was missing was for her to tell Peter Carruthers that she “shocked the world.”
This past March, in the very same building that brought the world both the “Battle of the Brians” and the “Battle of the Carmens,” Kimmie Meissner pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the World Figure Skating Championships, beating Fumie Suguri of Japan by nearly nine points. Sasha Cohen, who led after the short program, just as she did in Torino settled for bronze after a frustrating performance in the free skate.
In a sport looking for a new blood, Meissner’s performance couldn’t have come at a better time. Shuzuka Arakawa retired from the competitive ranks immediately after winning gold in Torino. Both Michelle Kwan and Irina Slutskaya are bound to join her in the near future. And with Hollywood seemingly calling Sasha Cohen’s name; It will be interesting to see if she’s going to stick around over these next few years.
With a drastic change in star power set to take place. There’s seemingly one gigantic spot next to Evgeni Plushenko up for grabs atop the skating world. Meissner seems determined to fill that role.
Peggy Fleming, a gold medalist in her own right, believes the 16 year-old from Bel Air, Maryland is the future of the sport. During the broadcast of Meissner’s title-winning performance, Fleming called her, “the new face of figure skating.” She later told the Baltimore Sun that, “Right now, she’s just starting to make the world notice her.”
If Meissner is indeed the new face, she’s a new face that’s nearly impossible not to like. Both humble and charming, she’s an impeccably hard worker who brings a childlike passion to a sport that thrives on precision and emotion.
“She has this incredible work ethic,” said her coach Pam Gregory at a Pre-Olympic press conference in Delaware last January. “Her attitude on the ice is always positive. She truly enjoys the process.”
Muhammad Ali once said that the “the will (of a champion) must be stronger than the skill (of a champion).” Meissner’s work ethic, that emphasis on the process instead of the end result, has helped pave her path to greatness. When she was named to the Olympic team after a second place finish at the 2006 U.S. Championships, she had to overcome both illness and a fourth-place short program to do so. When she finished a very respectable sixth place in her first Olympic Games. She wasn’t satisfied with her free skate, something she most certainly made up for with her performance in Calgary.
She’s also a perfectionist off the ice as well.
In April, when asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day at Citizens Bank Park, Meissner wasn’t thrilled when she ended up overthrowing the catcher, making him leap to prevent a wild pitch.
Convinced she could do better, Meissner went back and practiced with her father and three older brothers at home. A week later, she had another shot, this time at Camden Yards. On her second attempt, Meissner took the mound confidently, if not a tad cocky. With the cap on backwards ala Ken Griffey Jr., Meissner stared down an imaginary batter, went into the windup and threw a perfect first-pitch strike to her catcher John Halama.
“I’m much better than I was when I first started,” she told the AP.
If Peter Angelos doesn't offer Meissner a contract -- and given the Orioles' bullpen woes, it wouldn’t hurt -- she’ll continue to be the perfect fit for a sport looking for its new poster child. She won’t be the only one trying to fill Michelle Kwan’s skates, getting help from Olympic teammate Emily Hughes, Four Continents Champion Katy Taylor and Grand Prix Champion Mao Asada, but she’s the most established of the bunch at this point.
Still, filling the gaping hole left by Michelle Kwan is easier said than done. Meissner, who was in first grade when Kwan won her first of nine U.S. titles in 1996, is only starting to realize how big those skates really are.
When a young girl asked Meissner for her autograph after a recent Champions on Ice show, she told the new World Champion that she wanted to grow up to be just like… Michelle Kwan.
“Oh! That‘s awesome,” Meissner said to the girl trying to hold back the laughter. “Because I do too.”
Jake Duhaime is a regular contributor to Atomic Sports Media and covered the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. He can be reached at jake.duhaime@atomicsportsmedia.com.