To make things clear, I am not talking about Peggy Fleming. I am talking about someone else. Who has been mistaken for Peggy by even close friends. They are not related. We traced it back three generations. If they've met, it's a surprise to me. Everybody knows her as Peggy Girl. I'll leave it at that.

How do you tell them apart? You don't. You just know. That's not Peggy. Peggy can, of course, do the famous layback. Peggy Girl won't even try any more. She's failed too many times. Bad coaching.

Peggy and Peggy Girl act completely different. One is an original and one is a copy. That's about all you can say.

And a sadder sacrifice on the altar of the Peggy Mystique I have never seen.

Peggy won in '68. Peggy Girl was supposed to win in 1976. That was the original due date on the Peggy Girl Project. Then it was '80. Then '84. Sorry. Never happened.

Plastic surgery. Reshaping her legs. Cutting her hair. Trying to coach her to skate like Peggy. Problem is, nobody skates like Peggy. They just skate like themselves. Not even if you put a girl in Peggy-style boots (which only Peggy could ever wear), dress her in a Peggy costume, and make her skate like Peggy. Problem is. No two skaters skate alike. You notice I coach only certain points from famous (or any other) skaters. Because the rest is them. Go develop it yourself. No web page substitutes for work.

I have tried to describe the lengths the Peggy Project went to to duplicate the real Peggy. People routinely tell me I'm crazy. So I've quit telling those parts. 99% of you literally would not believe it.

(More later. This is a painful essay to type in. Thanks.)