Pay no heed to the negative press. These people will say stupid, cruel things, just to be snarky. They think it's funny, as if an athlete messing up at the biggest competition of his life--a competition he has sacrified more than those pundits could ever dream of giving up--is even remotely amusing. People like that are IMO subhuman. They aren't worth the gunpowder to blow them to Hades with.

Because Johnny is outspoken, I'm sure there are people who were just rubbing their hands and waiting for him to screw up so they could gleefully trash him up and down the length of Italy's boot. Tomorrow they'll be on to someone else. Don't forget, these are the same writers (and I use that word in the loosest sense possible) who trashed Michelle Kwan up and down for "daring" to apply for a medical bye--which it was perfectly within her rights to do under the USFSA rules--and "stealing" a spot on the women's team that Emily Hughes had "earned." I don't remember anyone trashing, for example, Todd Eldredge back when he did exactly the same thing in 1992. Certainly not when Nancy Kerrigan applied for a bye after the infamous whack.

Evan richly deserves all the praise he gets for his long program performance. But Evan had none of the pressures Johnny was laboring under. He was skating the same program he'd used at Nationals. He was in the penultimate flight, not the final group. He skated first after the warm up, so he didn't have to follow anyone else's ovation. And the ice had just been resurfaced. He was in 10th place with nothing to lose, no expectations. And I assume he didn't have any transportation glitches and that he made it to the arena in plenty of time to warm up and get ready.

Johnny was laboring under a substantially greater burden of pressure than Evan. Comparing the expectations on them is like the proverbial comparison of chalk to cheese. Evan was skating under the weight of mere feathers, while Johnny had to contend with an anvil. Had their positions been reversed, I have no doubt that Johnny would have had a clean skate, and Evan would've had at least a few stumbles. The law of averages practically dictates it.

Evan deserves all the credit in the world, but his performance should NOT be held up and rubbed in Johnny's face. "If he could do it, why the heck couldn't you?" That is pure and utter BULL. They're two different skaters, and last night were competing under a vastly different set of circumstances.

My response to ANY journalist who criticizes Johnny is this: here's a few kilos of salt. Start pounding.

>:

Fuming,
--EAW

Edited to add: Sara, thank you for the link to that wonderful Washington Post article.