& who will be my hero when you die a tragic death?

[wisdomeagle]

Dominique Dawes is here.

Literally. She's on campus, she'll be speaking in a little less than half an hour and I'm to decide whether I care enough about who I once was to go hear her speak.

Dominique was My Hero in 1996. Yes, I was alive back then. I was actually, believe it or not, a gymnast back then. And Dominique Dawes was my hero. I didn't like Dominique Moceanu that much. Kerri Strug struck me as such a cliche. I adored Amy Chow, and Shannon Miller was solid, but Dominique was my hero. I remembered her from 1992, for pete's sake. I loved her.

Amy Chow too. They were My Heroes.

So in 20 minutes, Dominique Dawes is going to speak, and I'm trying to decide whether I care. If it were Michael Shanks, I would already be out there on the lawn. I would have been out there as soon as I got out of class three hours ago.

It would be more about the symbolism of the thing than actually caring, I think.

But part of me still wants to go.

And I just can't decide.

Comments

[mellfromva.livejournal.com]

Dominique Dawes is awesome. She's from VA, you know. Or was it Maryland? Somewhere local to DC....

I'd go see her. I realize, of course, that by the time you read this the event will be over. But I'm still giving my input, post-fact.

My opinion is that Shannon Miller was a cry baby. That may seem insensitive, but you'll recall, I'm an insensitive person. However, Ma, the face of sensitivity, would even go "oh, great, she landed the dismount; now she's gonna cry again. Aren't they only supposed to cry when they mess up?" That girl would cry when she did something right; she'd sob when she did something wrong; she'd cry when other girls did their routines; I imagine she cried when lunch was served in the Olympic Village. That girl just loved to cry. I can't recall seeing her face where it wasn't tearstained. That's how she stays so thin, I tell you; she's dehydrated!

[wisdomeagle]

:p

I didn't go. I might regret it, but I don't right now.

And I dunno about Shannon Miller. She made it through what, 2, 3 Olympics? Which is impressive, given the length of most of those girls' careers. Still...

[mellfromva.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she was good; I won't say wonderful, because at just about every competition she was the teams second stringer, but hell, just to get to the Olympics in the first place makes you a hell of a lot better then 99.9% of the gymnists out there, so go Shannon. She was at at least 2 Olympics, although she'd obviously passed her prime by the second one; she was much more sloppy; she never just went out and relaxed. Way too much stress. She was going bald at 17. And regardless, she cried her way through both Olympics. The poor child must have been on a saline IV drip for weeks afterwards, she lost so much fluids on the balance bar alone....