COMMENTARY

Can Madison Hubbell make local Olympic history?

2/19/2018
BY DAVID BRIGGS
BLADE SPORTS COLUMNIST
  • Pyeongchang-Olympics-Figure-Skating-Ice-Dance-17

    Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the United States react as their points are posted following their performance in the ice dance, short dance figure skating in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Monday, Feb. 19, 2018.

    ASSOCIATED PRESS

    • I’ll be honest: I know less about figure skating than a shut-up-and-drivel political commentator knows about the NBA.

    Could hardly tell you the difference between a Dick Button — the American two-time gold medalist in the 1948 and ‘52 Olympics — and a snap button, a quad axel and a Burger King Quad Stacker.

    RELATED: Hubbell, Donohue in third after short dance program at Winter Olympics

    But ... is this Olympic ice dancing fun or what?

    Guess that’s what happens when you have a rooting interest, and remember — as we do every four years — these skaters are absolute athletic marvels. Like many of you, we’ll be tuned in to NBC on Monday night for a potential bit of local history.

    Madison Hubbell, the 26-year-old former Sylvania resident whose family still lives in the Toledo area, and her partner, Zachary Donohue, are in third place after the short dance segment of the two-part ice dance program. With a similar performance in the free dance Monday, Hubbell can join the gilded club of Toledo-area athletes to medal in the Olympics.

    The five-ringed list dates to 1904, when the Summer Games in St. Louis featured a men’s golf team event matching three squads of 10 and the bronze-winning team included Inverness Club members Harold Fraser, Arthur Hussey, Orus Jones, and Harold Weber, and counts a few too many names to note all of them without forgetting one. But most notably, it includes Wilbert McClure, the Toledo boxer-turned-professor who won a gold medal in the 1960 Games; Scott Hamilton, the Toledo-born and Bowling Green-bred figure skater who brought the gold home in 1984; and Erik Kynard, the Rogers grad who won a silver medal in the high jump in 2012.

    Does more history await Monday? With foam finger in hand, we’ll be watching.