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Some time ago, I posted the video of Paul Wylie's 1992 Olympic short program, and made a mental note that I should follow up one of these days with his Olympic long program. It took a while, but here it is. This is my favorite story in all of sports, bar none.
Paul was considered washed up, an also-ran, a hopeless headcase who'd never won a world or Olympic medal and never would. A lot of people didn't even want him on the Olympic team that year. People were shocked when he actually skated a clean short program, but there were so many other great skaters there, and he had been an also-ran for so long, it was still hard to believe that he could be a medal contender.
And then, this.
Paul won silver, but I'm pretty sure it meant more to him than Viktor Petrenko's gold meant to him -- and Paul's is the program everyone still remembers and talks about.
Paul was considered washed up, an also-ran, a hopeless headcase who'd never won a world or Olympic medal and never would. A lot of people didn't even want him on the Olympic team that year. People were shocked when he actually skated a clean short program, but there were so many other great skaters there, and he had been an also-ran for so long, it was still hard to believe that he could be a medal contender.
And then, this.
Paul won silver, but I'm pretty sure it meant more to him than Viktor Petrenko's gold meant to him -- and Paul's is the program everyone still remembers and talks about.
