Her past history and performances never entered into it.
It is the opinion of this monitoring team that Michelle could win the Olympics. She is definitely qualified to win a medal and we really believe it. She skated that way.
After evaluating Michelle today, the monitoring committee felt very strongly that she is more than ready to compete at the Olympics. Both her short program and free skate were very solid, and she showed us that her levels and jumps are ready for international competition.
The mission of the international committee is to win medals.
Not every element was performed perfectly, but they were at a high competitive level. We didn't keep a score for the programs. We were looking at her competitive fitness.
I said, ?What are you doing Michelle? She was ready to do her short program.
There aren't numbers I can compare there, just relationships. The committee felt Michelle probably had a better chance of winning a medal. The mission of the international committee is to win medals.
We looked at basically the Olympic selection criteria we're dealing with and we had a healthy discussion. We felt she had a better chance to medal.
Emily is a wonderful athlete, she competed well. Michelle competed well at worlds last year. There aren't numbers I can compare there, there are relationships.
Emily is a wonderful athlete. She competed well here. She also competed well at junior worlds. Michelle competed well at worlds last year (finishing fourth), The committee felt that Michelle probably would have a better chance for a medal.
