It figures for Kim, Lysacek to take golden parachute
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Ten things I know, and you should:
1. I hope I’m wrong, but my gut feeling is 2010 Olympic figure skating singles champions Kim Yuna of South Korea and Evan Lysacek of the United States are done with competitive skating.
2. Both Kim, 20, and Lysacek, 25, always will be remembered for having given a career-defining performance to win the gold medal. Not a bad way to go out, if that’s what either decides.
3. Helene Elliott‘s column about Michelle Kwan in Wednesday’s Times reinforced my conviction that while Kwan never won an Olympic gold medal, she rapidly is becoming one of the greatest Olympians ever -- a person of so many more dimensions than she showed us in her extraordinary skating career.
4. The U.S. Olympic Committee should step in if USA Track & Field’s board decides to dump CEO Doug Logan after this weekend’s meeting in Las Vegas. Logan deserves to get through at least the 2012 Olympics. Blaming him for a poor showing in Beijing two years ago is ridiculous. The guy was on the job about 12 minutes before the 2008 Summer Games.
5. Ice Wars: Kim Yuna (Pyeongchang) vs. Katarina Witt (Munich). The two Olympic champions are big names on their country’s bid team rosters in the effort to bring home the 2018 Winter Games. The winner of the International Olympic Committee’s vote next year? Kim and South Korea.
6. U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay has laid down some serious heat since his disappointing, injury-ridled 2008 Olympic season. He had the No. 2-3-4 fastest 100-meter times of 2009 (behind you-know-who from Jamaica). This season, Gay ended Usain Bolt‘s 2-year win streak, went undefeated and had the No. 1 and No. 3 times in the world. I’m picking Gay -- barring another injury to upset Bolt for the 2011 world title.
7. The Feds may be involved this time, but somehow, some way, Lance Armstrong will skate with his reputation intact from the latest investigation into his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs -- spurred by Floyd Landis’ claims he knew Armstrong was on the juice.
8. Are the first Youth Olympic Games over yet?
9. The next realistic chance for a Summer OIympics in the United States is 2028. But why do I keep thinking there will be an opportunity for a U.S. bidder in 2020 if Pyeongchang gives Asia an Olympics in 2018, and Paris decides to go after the 2024 Summer Games to celebrate the centenary of its only time as Olympic host?
10. Chicago should bid for the 2018 World Basketball Championships. The next worlds, in 2014, were awarded to Spain at a meeting last year in. . .Chicago.
-- Philip Hersh
Top photo: Michelle Kwan (left) and Kim Yuna at a Tuesday press conference for an Oct. 2-3 ice show at the Staples Center in which both will perform. Credit: Associated Press / Reed Saxon. Below, Tyson Gay (left) beating Usain Bolt in the Aug. 6 DN Gala meet at Stockholm. Credit: Associated Press / Niklas Larsson.
