Mukilteo Musings

Kalakala Watch--it is supposed to move out of Lake Union today and head for Neah Bay!! We'll see! Get the Binocs set up!

Olympic Athletes

Last week a local news story lasted about three days and actually, I found it mildy fascinating. Twenty years ago Roslyn Sumners participated in the 1984(?) Olympics as a figure skater. She is from Edmonds, right down the road from Mukilteo. At the time, she was the local media darling--blond and cute and expected to win a Gold Medal. After all, she had won several World Championships. Roslyn did not win the Gold Medal; she took the Silver instead. I remember watching and my memory is that she was devastated and bitter. Bitterness did not suit her well because I also remember thinking she wasn't so cute after all.

Fast forward twenty years and a local bank is having an auction of unclaimed safety deposit box items. (Actually, there was some gross stuff like gold teeth.) The bank found some gold World Championship figure skating medals among the items and it wasn't difficult to figure out that they belonged to Roslyn. Evidently, a bank in Edmonds had put them on display for her and they went missing 20 some years ago. I find it mysterious that Roslyn didn't make much of a fuss about this at the time but maybe (and I am speculating) she was so upset she just didn't care.

Anyway, with a lot of fanfare, the medals were returned to Roslyn last week. She returned here to collect them from wherever she is living now. Marriage is upcoming for her and a display case for all of her medals is just now being built in her home so she was anxious to have all of them together. The interview on TV revealed a beautiful woman who said she is now proud and amazed at all that she accomplished as a young skater. I sensed that she has come to terms with that Silver Medal; maybe it is the passage of time. Or maybe, just maybe she watched another local media darling, Apolo Anton Ohno, be unquestionably thrilled during the 2002 Olympics to take the Silver.