The old Shannon Miller was a shy girl. The new cosmetically-enhanced Shannon is such an attention whore that she is showing off her shaved head and conducting countless interviews as she undergoes chemotherapy. Only Shannon would not even wait until after completing chemo in order to make a career out of 'inspiring' women to get checked and promoting cancer research and prevention.
Bridget Sloan is deferring enrollment into the University of Florida until the fall of 2012 in order to make a failed run at the London Olympic Games. With many juniors improving and veterans hoping to come back, Sloan could easily be left off the team.
Ingo Steuer says that Savchenko and Szolkowy have been affected by being stuck in limbo with the World Championships. It is quite possible that many of the athletes will be burnt out or past their peak by the time the event occurs. Aliona and Robin are feeling de-energized.
Day 1 of the Doha World Cup is in the books. It is an event full of athletes who will not take part in the Europeans, so the field is decidedly thin. Canadians scoring in the 12s and 13s even qualified in the top five on some events. Tan Sixin and Yao Jinnan are the stars of the event, going 1-2 on bars, beam and floor. Daniele Hypolito is leading vault even though we all wish she'd just retire.
Daniel Keatings was left off Great Britain's team for the European Champions despite finished second all-around in his return to competition last weekend.
Q+A with Beth Tweddle. Beth has a new bar routine that she's only been training for three weeks. She says now is the time to try with with Worlds and the Olympics fast approaching.
As if we didn't see this coming, the FIG is reevaluating hosting Worlds in Tokyo.
Today is Megan Dowlen's 25th birthday. The former elite and Gym Dog is currently coaching level 7/8/9 at WOGA. She coaches alongside Valeri in his groups and is reportedly an excellent coach and mini-Valeri. Megan can be seen coaching in gymnastike's footage of the Texas Level 9 State Championships. One of Megan's pupils won the AA. Tiffany Tolnay can also be seen coaching at Texas Dreams. She coaches a number of the girls outright and assists Kim Zmeskal with the girls who have elite futures.
Carrie Ann Inaba got engaged on LIVE! TV.
Why shouldn't Shannon be out and about, especially if she's feeling great? And showing off the bald head is wonderful. Small price to pay for her future. A friend's sister was diagnosed with cancer last year and she refused chemo because she was afraid to lose her hair. She died five months later at the age of 41. I wish she had Shannon's strength.
ReplyDeleteDon't see anything wrong with what Shannon is doing. I think you were a little harsh in your post.
ReplyDeleteShannon is a famewhore.
ReplyDeleteBridget was on the bubble in '08 given that Shayla broke her leg and Jana bombed bars and then she got on the team. Than Sam P. and Chelsie were both injured and Bridget got bumped up to do more routines. I point this all to say that while its unlikely in 2012 that she would make the team I can imagine a scenerio in which girls get untimely injured, get sick, etc., and Bridget is in the right place/right time ...though I too think its a failed run. But hey at least this way she never wonders "what if?"... She can start Florida fall 2012 with a clear mind.
ReplyDeletei agree, if theres any chance that you can make an olymipic team, even a tiny one, you fucking go for it.
ReplyDeletealso agree that this post is too harsh on shannon. i didnt think anybody sank low enough to insult cancer patients.
Make It or Break It premiered its new season this week. Are we going to get one of your signature reviews, AJ? I love wasting brain cells on MIOBI, but I love your reviews more!
ReplyDeleteanon 4:46, Spanny Tampson has a good one
ReplyDeleteGood for Bridget Sloan for trying for another Olympics. Many girls can do college gymnastics, but only a couple handfuls have a shot at making an Olympic team. Just by trying, Bridget is already a success and should be applauded for not giving up.
ReplyDeleteSnarking about how a chemo patient conducts their life?
ReplyDeleteStart running your blogs past your mom- she would keep you from embarrassing yourself on these sort of posts (such as the Carolina Kostner crotch shadow post).
Instead- we see some Shannon jealousy rearing its (not-so-shaved) head?
Quite bluntly- she's achieved things not ever accessible to you. You'll never be a blonde Olympic female gymnast: life is unfair-deal with it, don't snark about it.
To snark @ her not meeting your ideas about how a chemo patient should act (what experience do you have in being a chemo patient, btw?): shows that she lives life on her own terms & that you kick people when they're down through no fault of their own doing.
Think about pulling this one off the blog-if this is all you have for a post today: take a hint- you don't have a post today.
So, AJ's post is a bit strong, but I don't entirely disagree. She's not Elizabeth Edwards here. She had a tumor and got it removed and is cancer free. She states that she is undergoing ELECTIVE chemo and is now a spokesperson for cancer prevention. While that's admirable, I think that it is a bit disrespectful of people who are truly battling cancer, for Shannon to present her situation as more dire than it actually is. AJ is calling it as he sees it and don't exactly disagree. I know that it seems a bit mean, but she has a reputation for maximizing drama in her life for publicity.
ReplyDeletei hope that Aliona and Robin can pull it together at worlds. 10-1 the chinese aren't "de-energized." They were such a class act being the first to pull out, I understand that they didn't expect this sudden change of plan to have worlds this spring anyway, but at this stage in their careers I want to see them focus and just do it.
ReplyDeleteThe Carrie Ann Inaba proposal was sweet, but she didn't see totally surprised...the way she was trying not to smile as Regis was reading. They must have told her something.
Dorothy Hamill and Peggy Fleming both battled serious bouts with breast cancer and used it to educate other women later on during their battles. Something about what Shannon is doing screams that she is almost loving it because it is added publicity for her new lifestyle business.
ReplyDeleteShannon would've filmed the surgery for her website if she could've.
ReplyDeleteWTF??? Just because it's elective doesn't mean she is out of the woods by ANY means. Cancer could just as easily be in another part of her body, or it could recur. She is not exactly scot-free. Like all cancer patients, she will not be considered "cured" until five years after the tumor was removed. You people are sick.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Shannon and support her, it is just highly unusual for anyone to make a virtual diary of their chemo and to go on talk shows for their lifestyle business. Then again, Shannon used her first pregnancy to talk about being pregnant the right way, eating the right way while pregnant and exercising the right way while pregnant. She is a driven woman who will let nothing get in the way of her ambition. There is a lot to admire about Shannon and some to be troubled by.
ReplyDeleteJust because someone has cancer does not make them above discussion/criticism. Canonizing her does no one any favors. If you get a tumor tomorrow, you won't get a free pass at life either. She can have cancer, which I don't wish on her, but that doesn't mean that she can't ALSO be acting in an inappropriate or downright weird manner.
ReplyDeleteI guess my opinion must have made sense because it seems to have been deleted.
ReplyDeleteI didn't delete any comments.
ReplyDeleteWell it is gone so someone did. Typical.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you just didn't post it? Why dont you post it again you sore loser.
ReplyDeletelol last anon sounds bitter. My post was there for hours now it is gone. Delete-eeeer
ReplyDeletewell, what was it? if it really got deleted, and AJ says he didnt do it, then post it again.
ReplyDeletesometimes i have trouble posting on this site, and i have to hit the post button 2 or 3 times before the captcha pops up and i can actually post. i dont think this guy ever actually posted
ReplyDeleteWhy are people being so judgmental about wrong or right way for cancer patients to act? Who are you to judge? As for differentiating whether her Cancer is considered serious enough for her to raise awareness, well, that's a bit cruel isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'm a survivor of Stage II Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I was diagnosed and treated successfully when I was in my late teens. Let me tell you something, unless you've had to come to terms with likelihood of your own early death, you don't what that feeling is like. Furthermore, you don't know how you'll respond or act when faced with such devastating news.
On the whole, Cancer survivors and related communities are a big tent, meaning we don't disparage each other over who had it worse as far as diagnosis and treatment are concerned. For example, as someone diagnosed at an early stage (Stage II), I don't get shit from survivors or families of patients with late stage Cancer. They don't say to "get the fuck out of here, you're only Stage II and probably would be cured". No, everyone has their own experiences and have to go through this tough road in their own ways. Please try to have compassion.
My own HL diagnosis and treatment has taught me to have compassion, and it's given me life lessons and insights...things that I'm grateful to have, oddly enough. So when snarky people who don't know me make fun of how thin I look, I've learned to brush that off and take solace that I'm still alive and doing what I can to help others (I'm a PICU RN).
Our health isn't guaranteed just because we're young and seemingly healthy. I was a picture of health when I was diagnosed. Also, there's so such thing as a "cure" as far as Cancer goes, the 5-year rule is basically just a timeframe for research purposes mainly. I know people whose Cancers came back 10+ years after their last treatment and "clean bill of health". I lost a friend whose disease came back 16 years after she was declared cancer-free.
Sorry for the long post but I just wanted to say to everyone to chill out and be kind to each other even if you disagree with them.
I just feel sad about the way she is promoting herself. It just seems to be all 'look at me!' behind a veil of increasing cancer awareness, when if she was really set on helping other women she could use her fame to campaign against the appalling American healthcare system. The US has some of the worst cancer survival rates in the developed world and if Shannon wasn't so rich, she wouldn't have stood a chance.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 2:12 doesn't have a clue about how GOOD our healthcare is. People from Canada are coming here for treatment because we don't have waiting lists. People in Europe are dying or suffering for months or years because they are put on a waiting list or denied treatment. Do some research, kid.
ReplyDeleteI had cancer and my insurance paid for all of it. I am average middle class. When did you have cancer?
ReplyDelete>I feel bad for Shannon and support her
ReplyDeleteOh, no you don't, and we all know it. You're capitulating because of the negative feedback. You've never supported her, never will- which is fine, but stick to the gymnastics commentary (keep it between the lines). At least own up to your snark (anything else is cowardly).
>it is just highly unusual for anyone to make a virtual diary of their chemo
Ever hear of Farrah Faucett?
>and to go on talk shows for their lifestyle business.
Maybe she's attempting to create a business that may outlast her (for the benefit of the children she leaves behind). (IMHO- it's doubtful that it can happen a la Kathy Ireland /Martha Stewart, etc. but you can't blame her for trying (in lieu of slowly expiring away on her chaise lounge).
These type of blog posts really do reveal you as a kid still living at home with Mom and Dad: commentary on this shows your lack of world and life experience. Stick between the skating/gymnastics lines- you're in over your head.
I can't say I always agree with the posts on this blog (for example, I loves me some Bridget and would love to see her on the 2012 Olympic team), but I still find them entertaining and informative. I can't understand why some of you bother reading this blog if you hate on it so much.
ReplyDeleteThe Shannon debate aside ...
ReplyDeleteI never understood why gym fans are so quick to walk all over a gymnasts' decision. If a girl wants to make a push for an Olympic team, why not? If a girl wants to go pro and make a few dollars instead of going to NCAA, who cares? Not every gymnast dreams of doing college gymnastics. And I'm sure if any of us had even the slimmest of chances to accomplish a major goal we would all try.
Ah yes the new "get chemo to prevent cancer" craze. Indeed. Really? Does anyone know what chemo does to your body? It takes away your ability to fight off anything that comes into your body ...
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I think Shannon has gone way over the top with her self-promotions. I loved her as a gymnast but she is just creepy now. I certainly don't wish another tumor or anything more on her, but really she just needs to stop.
If all the interviews Shannon does and showing the reality of what she is going through and her strength of perseverance inspires one mom to go get checked and go through early detection and one more kid gets to grow up with their mom by their side I dont care what her motivation is. Maybe you posting the link/ video even critically has the same impact, which is more to that child that gets to grow up with a mom that otherwise might have died.
ReplyDeleteHer medical decisions are between her and her family and her doctors, no one has the right to judge or criticize.
If this saves one life, I honestly don't care what Shannons motivation is, but I think the main person trying to get attention is Aunt Joyce.
I know this was posted a year ago but the comment about Shannon made me a little mad. It would make sense if you were refering to Nastia who announced her comeback after the prelims in worlds. But you don't get to judge a woman who has cancer and undergoes chemotheraphy unless you've been there and you know what it's like. If the interviews (which come with people's support) make her feel good why shouldn't see do this? People with cancer (and I know that because I had a couple of friends who were sick) sometimes tend to not talk about their condition to anyone and that makes them depressed. And even if she's a publicity whore, if this publicity helped her fight againist cancer then I'm more than OK with that. Not to mention that she's one of the most well loved gymnasts and her fans were dying to see her and learn about her condition.
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