Denver Post Article

[Laura (Lori)]

This thread will not be available for posting until later this afternoon (Pacific Time), so keep checking back - and I would like to request that all discussion of the subject be limited to this thread, rather than Allison's thread on the Skaters' Board. Thanks!

[Laura (Lori)]

Sorry it took me so long to follow up on my original post, but I've been having a wonderful day with my family, and as much as I love y'all, my family takes priority...

It appears that yesterday's Denver Post article about has generated a great deal of 'buzz'. The bulk of the article is really an excellent piece about Allison's injury and her gutsy struggle to recover in time to compete at the Olympic Trials.

www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_13023788

However, I'm sure that I don't have to tell you what part of the article has tongues wagging...

My initial inclination was to 'leave this one alone'. A number of inspiring articles have already been posted here about Allison's rehab and recovery, so I felt that posting this particular one would serve no purpose other than to invite comments that could be hurtful to Allison and/or Katherine.

I'll admit that I was sticking my head in the sand due to my great respect for both of them, and an unwillingness to believe that all is not well in the ST world. But the fact is, it's out there, people are talking about it, and I suspect that the greater-than-normal number of visitors to this site over the last 24 hours has something to do with the article. More than likely it would have made its way here eventually, so it made no sense to ignore it - I decided instead to address it on my own terms.

What does make sense is to remind people that we don't know squat. We are fans. Not family members, not the parties involved, not the referees, not the teammates. Despite what we'd like to think, we don't really know the people involved all that well. We don't know if Allison was misquoted; we don't know if she said it and regrets it; we don't know if she said it and meant every single word; we don't know if this is a case of a reporter trying to generate Harding-Kerrigan/Hedrick-Davis Olympics hype; we don't know if Katherine and Allison are having a good laugh about this over coffee, or if they're not speaking to each other at practice. I repeat - we don't know.

What I DO know is that Katherine, Allison and their families have been nothing but gracious, friendly, and absolutely wonderful to me personally, and it is from that (admittedly) limited perspective that I will continue to support them both wholeheartedly, and without bias, throughout this coming Olympic year.

Here at BB we've never taken ourselves too seriously, so this is really the first test of how our forum handles a controversial issue. In a perfect world, those involved would be dealing with this without 'trial by fan-dom', but I'm trusting our members here to comment insightfully without dragging either of these very remarkable young ladies through the mud.

This thread is now open for your comments...

[mtnme]

I stand by everything Lori has said here. I reserve the right to NOT rush to judgement on the skaters, we are hardly part of what could be called the 'inner sanctum' of the short track world.
We can't claim to know all there is to know.

And thus, I will be there in the stands in September, cheering for all of them.

[Deleted]

I understand your points above Lori, but, to me, the fact that Allison has immediately posted the article (with a link to the entire article on the Denver Post site) on the Homepage of her Website undercuts the argument that she was misquoted, taken out of context, regrets any thing in the article, or that it is all the idea of the reporter.

IMO, it gives the reporter/article credibility from Allison directly.

Above all, I just absolutely hate the residual damage that this may potentially do to the whole US ST program. These kids have all worked so hard. Coach Jae has developed a team full of Olympic medal potential and yet, this is where the focus will be?? So unfair to everyone on the team.

We all remember the bad press and the cloud that hung over Apolo when he was unjustly accused of throwing that race in the 2002 Trials. Even years after being exonerated by the Board, you still see that reference crop up in articles occasionally.

US ST doesn't need a repeat of that.

[Laura (Lori)]

From 'Joyce' on the Guest Board:

JMO -

I believe in the depth of character of all the team members.

I believe in the level of maturity and intelligence of all the skaters and their ability to properly process what they see and hear.

I believe all Sports ( and basically every human endeavor ) is not without their daily fractious moments from their members.

I believe the Skating community in general is tremendously strong and can withstand " bumps in the road".

I do not believe that any athlete ( or any individual ) can be defined by a single interview, article, activity, photo, blog, sound byte, tweet, etc.

We as fans are privileged to watch these athletes ( who we only see for minutes on the ice and not anywhere approximating the full spectrum of their lives) and I will be there for full support of every person on the ice.

[susie]

Aug 11, 2009 8:03:28 GMT -8 @justsayin said:

I understand your points above Lori, but, to me, the fact that Allison has immediately posted the article (with a link to the entire article on the Denver Post site) on the Homepage of her Website undercuts the argument that she was misquoted, taken out of context, regrets any thing in the article, or that it is all the idea of the reporter.

IMO, it gives the reporter/article credibility from Allison directly.

Above all, I just absolutely hate the residual damage that this may potentially do to the whole US ST program. These kids have all worked so hard. Coach Jae has developed a team full of Olympic medal potential and yet, this is where the focus will be?? So unfair to everyone on the team.

We all remember the bad press and the cloud that hung over Apolo when he was unjustly accused of throwing that race in the 2002 Trials. Even years after being exonerated by the Board, you still see that reference crop up in articles occasionally.

US ST doesn't need a repeat of that.

Interesting that Allison linked to the article from her own website. She had also expressed similar sentiments in her radio interview from the Marquette training camp, although she didn't take it quite as far as she has now.

Katherine was never DQ'd, never blamed in any way for this incident by skating officials, and she seems to feel really badly about what happened. Allison obviously has her own strongly held feelings in the matter. I'm sure if she feels this strongly about it, she has already pursued and/or exhausted the official avenues of recourse. It leaves me wondering what Allison hopes to accomplish by venting her complaints to the public at large.

I feel that these comments were badly misjudged. I can't see anything good coming of this in terms of public relations. As it was, I think that Allison had built up a great deal of sympathy and good will going into Olympic Trials by virtue of her gutsy determination to bounce back from her injury. My feeling now is that she has squandered much of that good will.

Regardless of Allison's personal feelings, I would like to see her put these unfortunate comments behind her, and keep the focus of any future articles and interviews on the many positive aspects of her Olympic quest.