Paul Oberjuerge: Kwan Gone

So, in the middle of the Italian night, Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Olympics. As I thought (and wrote, on Saturday) she should. She apparently got a new groin injury, or perhaps aggravated the old one, during a fall at that 25-minute practice session on Saturday.

I didn't find out until this morning, about 9:25 a.m. Turin time -- 12:25 a.m. in California. It was the buzz in the room in the moments before the ridiculously early Sasha Cohen press conference. As usual, Sasha then spent a chunk of HER press conference talking about Michelle. She's done that her whole career.

Seeing Michelle on the dais, Saturday, she just didn't look right, as I wrote in the newspaper. She was smiling and doing her charming thing, but if you did what the CIA used to call "content analysis" of what she actually said, almost every word out of her mouth was negative or pessimistic. I had the feeling she was really close to bagging it right there on the spot. Apparently, the groin injury was getting worse even as she sat there talking to reporters.

It got only worse, the pain, as the day went on. She apparently called a U.S. team doctor at 2:15 a.m. Italy time, or thereabouts. She was examined, the injury diagnosed, and she decided to give it up. It seems as if the USOC announced it about 8 a.m. local -- too late for East Coast papers, maybe just in time to stick in some West Coast papers.

Sasha has been in and talked. Some quotes from her, on Michelle: ``I just found out and I am a little shocked. I haven't had that much time to formulate my thoughts. It must have been tough to withdraw. ... I know how tough it is to come back from injury. I know she tried ..."

Sasha had a serious back injury 4-5 years ago.

On Kwan going out, Sasha said: "In a way, it kind of humanizes the sport. She's been a sort of icon ... To see that people can be at the very top and then have this ... it humanizes it."

Emily Hughes knows she's up now. She won't be arriving for several days. She told reporters later in the day (this part is an update) that there's a blizzard in New York, and no planes are flying. She even said she'll go to school for a few more days.

More, of course, on this as the day goes on. Maybe even here on the blog.