Michelle Kwan Withdraws From Olympic Competition  2/13/06

"MICHELLE KWAN HAS GIVEN US THE FIRST TITANIC NEWS OF THE WINTER GAMES"-CARILLO

"If There is the Slightest Distance Between Two Snowflakes, I Guarantee You Emily Hughes Already Has Her Sneakers on, Her Bag Packed and She's Got Three Feet Out the Door."-Button

"Winning A Gold Medal Would Help You Get So Many Babes-Which Is Pretty Much What Baron Pierre De Coubertin Had In Mind"-Costas to Shaun White

TORINO, Italy-Feb. 12, 2006-NBC's 2006 Winter Olympics coverage continued Sunday with news that Michelle Kwan withdrew from the competition, ending her final quest for the gold medal that has eluded her. The U.S. continued its dominance in the men's halfpipe with Shaun White, "The Flying Tomato" winning gold in Torino.

Below are highlights from NBC's Primetime coverage:

JIMMY ROBERTS ON KWAN AND HUGHES: "So sometime tomorrow, somewhere over the North Atlantic, two planes will likely pass each other, heading in different directionsaEURc17-year-old Emily Hughes, on the way to her very first Olympic Games, and Michelle Kwan, heading home from her last."

TODD BROOKER ON BODE MILLER'S DECISION TO CHANGE SKIS BEFORE THE MEN'S DOWNHILL: "I have to think, there's no way Bode Miller would be wearing new skis unless he was totally confident."

TODD RICHARDS ON HALFPIPE GOLD MEDALIST SHAUN WHITE: "Nothing can prepare you for riding at the Olympics. You can win every single contest, have your run dialed, but when you drop into that Olympic halfpipeaEUR|heaEUR"Ms definitely in a pressure-cooker situation."

BOB COSTAS INTERVIEW WITH WHITE: COSTAS: I read somewhere that you said in addition to testing yourself against the best, competing in the Olympics, winning a gold medal would help you get so many babesaEURcwhich is pretty much what Baron Pierre de Coubertin had in mind when he invented the Olympics Games.

WHITE: Really? He was like, "Yeah, we are going to get babes with this." I hope this will help a bit (holding up Gold Medal). I'll be like, "Oh hey, I just happened to be wearing this."

COSTAS: I don't see how it could hurt.

WHITE: I got a good chance going, huh?

COSTAS: I think you are goldenaEURcliterally and figuratively.

WHITE: Everybody found out that I wanted to meet Sasha Cohen...so they are asking me, "So, you think Sasha is digging gold medals?" And I'm like, "Couldn't hurt, right?"

COSTAS: You've got yours already, she can only hope for hers.

WHITE: Maybe we might both get them, and wear them out.

COSTAS: Hey, you put the word out.

WHITE: I'm just putting it out there.

COSTAS: And I'm sitting here feeling like Chuck Woolery.

DAN WEINSTEIN ON APOLO OHNO'S SURPRISING STUMBLE IN THE 1500M SHORT TRACK SEMIFINALS: "If he could have done it cleanly it would have been a smart move, but it was not necessary."

"OLYMPIC ICE," hosted by Mary Carillo with Dick Button and Scott Hamilton continued Sunday night on USA Network, below are highlights:

BUTTON ON EMILY HUGHES: "There is a huge snowstorm going on in New York right now. The heck with that. If there is the slightest distance between two snowflakes, I guarantee you Emily Hughes already has her sneakers on, her bag packed and sheaEUR"Ms got three feet out the door. She is ready to fly here on her own."

SANDRA BEZIC ON SASHA COHEN: "She's had a wonderful season and she's done two really smart things this yearaEURcshe's gone back to her coach, John Nicks and then also she has brilliant choreography this year by Dave Wilson, who I think is probably the best right now. She is ready to go."

BUTTON ON KWAN: "I'm sort of like a doting old grandfather. I watched her when she first put her make-up on at age 13. I watched her become a National Champion, a World Champion, an Olympic contender, and then a young lady of great sophistication and education and worldliness. The kind of child every grandparent wants to see, beautifully behaved, beautifully mannered, lovely gal."

MARY CARILLO ON KWAN: "Michelle Kwan has given us the first titanic news of the Winter Games."

"An American poet once wroteaEURcis a dream a lie if it doesnaEUR"Mt come true? Or is it something worse. Michelle Kwan's gold medal dream ended today but her sublime career will endure. It lives on in the heart of every young girl who, having watched her skate, fosters Olympic ambitions of her own."

DAVID PELLETIER ON BEING A MALE PAIRS SKATER: "This is why I do pairs skating, so I could lift girls for a living. Who can say that?"

PELLETIER ON U.S. PAIRS SKATER RENA INOUE HAVING TO LAND A THROW TRIPLE AXEL: "I do not envy her. I would like to be the guy doing the throwing. I'm not in a bind to become a girl so that's never gonna change."

KWAN INTERVIEW WITH BOB COSTAS AND SCOTT HAMILTON IN NBC'S STUDIO:

COSTAS: The competition isn't until a week from Tuesday. In your mind, evidently, there was no chance that you could be ready at a sufficient level to truly compete?

KWAN: I didn't feel that I could be 100 percent...after yesterday, pulling my groin, again, I knew that the important thing is for America to have their best skaters. And I didn't want to get in the way of that, so I pulled myself out the team.

I just feel that I can't be at my best, and I respect the Olympics and the sport too much to put it at risk, and I think this is the best decision.

COSTAS: Some people, who know you well, have said, and they say this with admiration, this is what Michelle Kwan is all about. She's a run into a wall type of competitor. So even though she's 25, an advanced age for a figure skater, even though she's had physical problems, even though the new scoring system doesn't play to her strengths, she was going to test this to the ninth degree. She was only going to stop when it became apparent there was no possibility of continuing. Is that a fair assessment?

KWAN: The Olympics is courage, strength, passion. It's all of that rolled into one, and the will to want to be the best, to represent your country. It's an honor and a great experience, but that's not enough. To be an athlete it takes physical strength and unfortunately that's not what I have right now. Physically, I am not able to be at my best, and I believe that Emily Hughes is ready to go and will perform her best and make America proud.

I think right now it's better that I go home, and I don't want to be a distraction right now. She (Emily Hughes) has a lot of things to focus on, and to come to the Olympics and enjoy her experience.

I'd love to stay and cheer the rest of the athletes on. And with all of my heart, I am here, but it's better that I just go home, get better and cheer from home and not distract anything-anybody.

COSTAS: Do you think it's possible that you could compete in another Olympics? Vancouver is four years away. You'd be 29.

KWAN: Yeah, it's hard to say. But I've been very, very lucky in my skating career. It's a beautiful sport. It's something that I enjoy doing. You know when I was seven-years-old, eight-years-old, when I had the first dream, first glimpse of the Olympic rings, and I see it today, I still have tears in my eyes. And you know, you always dream of winning gold. And the silver and the bronze, but maybe gold is never, never meant to be.

So I have to accept it and enjoy it, because I love skating. And it will always be in my heart. And you know, gold is something that maybe is out there, but the love of the sport is the most important thing.