It all started with Peggy Fleming

Peggy Fleming
Originally uploaded by MzOuiser.

I wrote this seven page long article about Figure Skating, and how I've loved watching skaters since I was in elementary school, and how I saw sides of myself in various skaters. Some were role models, some were reflections of my own inner struggles, etc.

I'm still not happy with it, so I took it down. But I posted some of the skaters I wrote about on the flickr site. I'll get back to that piece.

I'm actually very happy for Shuzuka. It's nice to see someone do their job and get rewarded for it, and as much as I'm loathe to see that stereotypically asian hyper-work-ethic rewarded, I think that gal deserves that gold medal. She is, after all, the only one that didn't fall. She didn't over-extend herself. She skated conservatively, almost without passion. Something about that seems to reflect a mood of the times. But, underneath it all, a mature woman who has been working for years, who didn't let her Olympian status go to her head, went out on the ice, did as she was expected, and brought home a gold medal. Man, if only the rest of us had that kind of professional reward for our day's work.

And, as one of the announcers said, that's a lady skating out there. The grace, the gentility, the quiet power, the child-like smile, the comparatively demure skating dress. I'm so sick of seeing kids handed gold medals by default, like teenagers in a drunken eurphoria after having snuck into a bar with a fake ID. And I admit, I'm sick of seeing seasoned professionals underperform. So thank the goddess for Shizuka - a grown woman of 24 who didn't get overconfident and who didn't choke. A professional. A role model.

Yeah, I really love skating. I wrote that essay starting with the divine Miss Peggy Fleming, and went through to last Thursday night. I don't have much time to work on big writing pieces these days, but I'll come back to it.