Michelle Kwan has admitted to Philip Hersh that she has started training and is doing triple jumps again. From the article:
``I want to get in good shape and see how far that takes me, because I don’t know. But I have made no decisions whatsoever.’’
I hope she decides to go for the 2010 U.S. Olympic team.
I don’t care if she falls short or if she makes the team and finishes 20th in the Olympics.
I don’t care if she refuses to submit to the ludicrous technical demands of the new judging system and simply decides to be the old Michelle Kwan, who won five world titles and two Olympic medals.
After all, the old Michelle Kwan might have been good enough to win the 2009 U.S. title, given Alissa Czisny did it with high scores for her overall skating quality but only three clean triple jumps in the free skate. Kwan, always known for high overall quality, never landed fewer than five triples in her nine title-winning free skates.
It is evident to me that the media (and perhaps much of the skating world?) will not be satisfied until Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen come back to save American skating in time for the Olympics, so I'm just going to hope that they both do come back so that people can stop begging them to.