Too Absent Herald

I won’t even watch the women’s finals tonight. The commentary has been so lopsided you would think it was scripted by Faux News. I’ll have to look forward to the individual event finals and hope that NBC has budgeted a certain amount of time so that they would have to show Kozich (UKR)or even, if her game is on, this woman.

Evgenia Kuznetsova (BUL):

Zhenya’s been around since ‘88, but she was buried in the soviet team. For Bulgaria, now, it seems she hasn’t had the coaching, because when she is on, as in the 2001 Swiss cup (pic), no one has a better balance between strength and grace. (This is the problem I have with the American team, and with all the American teams since Shannon Miller (a little): There’s no individuality. Maybe I’m wrong, and they are going to change for the individuals, but no one is risking anything out there).

Then, there is the look. I don’t have a picture, but you’d have to go back to Aurelia Dobre (ROM) who, at times, could look like Audrey Hepuburn.

Perhaps only few (Musgrove, Vail, Gammon, and Battles) will get this, but Kuznetsova looks like the girl that works at the Steak Escape or Sbarro’s. The one you swoon over as you order more than you can eat. And you wonder how she can keep her complexion clear while working there; – though she most certainly doesn’t eat any of that greasy slop. And then you fall for her again, in the car, afterwards, when you realize that fact.
And you spin fantasies out into some future where that integrity and sharpness of wit will be an anchor; and you imagine some far distant cocktail party when, while unwillingly basking in the praise for some weak book you dashed off, you will raise your eyes above the swarm and, finding her eyes, you know she has been guarding you all evening. And you will insist to each person that all your functional talent is due entirely to her grace. And you wonder, too, how you can get “integrity” and “wit” from a ponytail and the fact that she can make a steak sandwich…

Yeah, all that, and she can probably bend a chrome fender around your neck. She’s low in the rankings, I don’t know if she’ll even make the individuals. But you should catch her, when you can.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2004 at 8:00 pm and is filed under the small stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.