'It's time to expand'

Kwan hopes to take herself and skating into 'another dimension'

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Posted: Thursday July 30, 1998 08:46 PM

Kwan has her sights set on the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but she hasn't lost sight of the importance of her performance at the Goodwill Games AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- Michelle Kwan did not win the Olympic gold medal this February in Nagano, Japan. That's a fact. The gold medal that she had been training for all her life went to her rival and countrywoman Tara Lipinski.

The loss was supposed to be devastating, sending Kwan to a place where those who come in second place retire to. But Kwan has not gone away. Only 18-years-old, she is still motivated, still getting better, as her near-perfect performance at the World Championships in Minneapolis showed earlier this year.

Kwan has her sights set on 2002 and the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. But she hasn't lost sight of the importance of her performance tonight at the Goodwill Games. The women's short program takes place this evening and as usual she is expected to win the gold medal. The is not an unfamilar role for the skater who took over for the "Tonya and Nancy Tour."

"There are a lot of things that are keeping me going to 2002," said Kwan, who will skate last in tonight's program. "It's what I want inside. I love competing. I love the challenge. That's what makes me keep going. I don't feel that I'll be that old, either. Twenty one, I mean, please!"

And Kwan won't be threatened by Lipinski here or in Utah. The tiny firebrand earlier this year renounced her amateur status to turn professional. Although Kwan should be breathing a sigh of relief, having come in second to Lipinski at the Olympics and in most events in 1997, she will miss the rival who pushed her most.

"I do miss her," Kwan added. "It's a huge challenge, but I feel that there's a challenge against myself also, because right now my challenge is to skate well. I feel I can still create some energy and motivation."

Energy and motivation have never been a problem for Kwan, who has taken some time to reflect on her Olympic performance.

"I had a smile on my face watching it," Kwan said of watching the competition recently on tape. "But when I was watching, I was saying, 'Push, Michelle! Push!' It could have had more oooomph. Maybe because the day of the competition I was too nervous. I usually take a nap before a competition, and at the Olympics I lay there with my eyes closed for four hours and didn't sleep a wink. I was overwhelmed.

"But I don't feel depressed or anything. I'm proud of what I did."

That maturity is one of things that sets Kwan apart on the ice. Skating fans have watched her grow from the the 13-year-old that finished second to Tonya Harding at the ill-fated U.S. National Championships in 1994. It's a transformation underneath the spotlight that her coach, Frank Carroll, has enjoyed seeing.

"She's trained very hard [for the Goodwill Games]," Carroll said. "One day she was in a little bit of a funk and I said, 'Well, what do you want me to say?' She said, 'I want you to say and do nothing. This isn't your problem. This is my problem. Give me a two or three minutes and I'll be over it.' A couple of minutes went by and she was marvelous when she skated a run-through of her program. She shows that she's in charge of herself and she doesn't need me to put her straight."

Kwan agrees, learning that second-place needn't be life and death.

"Last year I thought that if I didn't win, my life would be over," she said. "The things that I have learned from skating and by winning the silver, I know there's more to accomplish besides winning the gold medal."

One of those things is graduating from high school in California, where she is a 4.0 student. Another is creating a special place within the sport, a place separate from other gold medal winners. She wants to change the sport.

"It's one of the things I've been asking myself, 'What do I do? What do I do?'" said Kwan. "I want to add some triple/triple jumps next year, maybe finally do that triple Axel I've been talking about for years. Maybe there'll be a 'Kwan Jump' some day. I think I've stayed at a certain level in my technical ability. It's time to expand.

"The next four years, I have more room to improve on, artistically, technically. Skating can go into another dimension, more than what it is now."

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