Last night Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao won silver after a horrible fall. It was one of those moments that makes you wince and say “ow” half a world away. So, that leaves me torn. On the one hand, they clearly violated my “you fall down, you don’t get a medal” rating system. True, they were attempting a move that hadn’t been tried before, but the Americans did that in the short program without falling down. But this fall was so bad, they had to leave the ice for five minutes. My Olympic dreams would have ended right then because there’s no way I would have gone back out there. But Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao returned to the ice and finished their program, to thunderous applause. For that, I have to give them respect and an exception to my rating system. So, here’s the new rating system: If you fall down, and it makes me say “ow, that must have hurt” and you continue skating, you can still qualify for a medal. But if it’s just a namby, pamby sit on your rear, no medal for you.
