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Skating Moments #7
May. 4th, 2012 11:03 pmPaul Wylie wins the Olympic silver in Albertville 1992
So to put this in its context, I was fourteen years old during the Albertville Olympics and this was way before the internet era. I didn't know too much about Paul Wylie; I certainly didn't know anything about the whole fact of Todd Eldredge (reigning two time US Champion and world bronze medallist in 91) not being able to compete at Nationals due to a wonky back, and Paul Wylie winning the silver at nationals but a lot of people thinking Mark Mitchell, who won bronze, deserved a shot at the Olympics with Todd and Christopher Bowman. (Ah, Christopher. You are a post unto yourself. Probably more than one.) I knew nothing of how one journalist had the audacity to ask Paul at an Olympics press conference, "Paul, what are you doing here?" and of how Paul was selected to go to Olympics but Mark would go to Worlds.
I knew nothing about any of that. I just knew about the skating.
In any Olympics, there is always a moment. A moment where the placement ceases to matter, where the reaction of the crowd, the reaction of the performer, the performance itself becomes almost a living entity. This is that moment.
In these four and a half minutes of skating, Paul Wylie moved from a journeyman into a legend, and forever cemented his place in my heart. There are those who will argue that Paul was robbed of the gold medal, that Viktor Petrenko, who won, should have been no worse than fourth in the long. I'm one of those people - I'm in good company. Brian Orser is quoted in Christine Brennan's Inside Edge as saying that, "The men's gold medallist had the worst performance since 1948. Paul Wylie should've won." Whatever you feel about that, you can't deny the magic of this.
So to put this in its context, I was fourteen years old during the Albertville Olympics and this was way before the internet era. I didn't know too much about Paul Wylie; I certainly didn't know anything about the whole fact of Todd Eldredge (reigning two time US Champion and world bronze medallist in 91) not being able to compete at Nationals due to a wonky back, and Paul Wylie winning the silver at nationals but a lot of people thinking Mark Mitchell, who won bronze, deserved a shot at the Olympics with Todd and Christopher Bowman. (Ah, Christopher. You are a post unto yourself. Probably more than one.) I knew nothing of how one journalist had the audacity to ask Paul at an Olympics press conference, "Paul, what are you doing here?" and of how Paul was selected to go to Olympics but Mark would go to Worlds.
I knew nothing about any of that. I just knew about the skating.
In any Olympics, there is always a moment. A moment where the placement ceases to matter, where the reaction of the crowd, the reaction of the performer, the performance itself becomes almost a living entity. This is that moment.
In these four and a half minutes of skating, Paul Wylie moved from a journeyman into a legend, and forever cemented his place in my heart. There are those who will argue that Paul was robbed of the gold medal, that Viktor Petrenko, who won, should have been no worse than fourth in the long. I'm one of those people - I'm in good company. Brian Orser is quoted in Christine Brennan's Inside Edge as saying that, "The men's gold medallist had the worst performance since 1948. Paul Wylie should've won." Whatever you feel about that, you can't deny the magic of this.
