2-21-98What an injustice! Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinsky, and Nicole Bobek went to the Olympics as medal hopefuls and the world thought it may become an American sweep. They weren't far off. When Nicole Bobek had a disastrous short program, her dreams of winning any medal at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano Japan were shattered. However, Kwan and Lipinsky had excellent programs and landed in the first and second place spots after the short program. Bobek was in seventeenth.

For the long program, Bobek was one of the first to skate and her performance did not improve much. She only landed two of her jumps; the others, she either fell, made them doubles, or put a hand down. She ended the Olympics with a final seventeenth place finish. Michelle Kwan was the first to skate from the medal contention group. She had a flawless performance and came off the ice, after her program, crying with excitement and relief. For her technical marks, she received 5.7-5.9's---NO SIXES. According to figure skater and commentator Scott Hamilton, the judges leave room for the other skaters. In other words, they don't want to hand out two or more gold. What a ridiculous idea! If the first skater has a perfect performance and she is deserving of straight sixes, give them to her! If you have to award two, three or 17 gold medals, do it! (I'm calming down now...) Tara Lipinsky also skated a flawless performance. Her jumps were clean and she had a great program, but it was nothing better than Kwan's. But the judges gave her the higher marks she deserved because she was the second-to-last skater. The judges had no one to "leave room" for. The gold medal dreams of Michelle Kwan were whisked away by a panal of horrible judges.

The whole point of this article is this: why must the judges leave room for the next skaters? Why can't they give the skaters the marks they deserve? If they have to hand out two golds, fine! What is the problem with that? It wouldn't be a first for the Olympics. Scott Hamilton said she didn't win the gold, because she skated first...

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