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Back on track Kwan wins championship at Masters of Figure Skating
Posted: Sunday October 17, 1999 11:26 AM
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- If her grades are as high as the marks she received Saturday for her new short program, Michelle Kwan will soon be an honor student at UCLA. Playing hooky from her freshman studies, the 19-year-old, two-time world champion and 1998 Olympic silver medalist successfully unveiled an elegant new short program in the Masters of Figure Skating, one of the first big competitions of the skating season. "This program is completely different. It's a bluesy version of a Beatles song. It's not like Rachmaninoff or classical," Kwan said. "I was really at ease. I felt like I was over my skates. Today, I just felt like the ice and I were one." Kwan skated to a Jeff Beck version of the Beatles tune "A Day in the Life," a natural choice because she said her father "named me after the song [Michelle, a Beatles hit]." He also named her sister, Karen, after another favorite singer, Karen Carpenter. Kwan followed her short program with a long routine as elegant as her sheer lavender costume to win the women's championship. Skating to "Kissing You" from the movie "Romeo and Juliet," Kwan performed three triple jumps in a mistake-free program that earned her her 40th perfect mark of 6.0 as fans littered the ice with flowers and stuffed animals. "I didn't know it was the 40th," Kwan said. "That's incredible. These judges don't give 6.0s that easily. What is perfect, that's what I'm thinking." Despite falling twice, Maria Butyrskaya of Russia finished second after a dramatic, exquisitely skated long program to a Spanish melody by Bizet. Todd Eldredge, first after the short program, skated strongly and cleanly in the long to beat three other skaters including Alexei Yagudin, the two-time world champion from Russia who finished second. Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, second after the short program, skated well enough in the finale to win the pairs. Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman of the United States came back strong to finish second while Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao of China fell from first to third. The short program counted for one-third of the final score and the long program two-thirds. Despite the added pressure of college studies, Kwan skated a flawless short program, receiving all 5.8 scores for required elements and 5.8 and 5.9 marks for presentation to distance her competition. Clad in a sparkling red dress with silver slashes, Kwan had the crowd at the Brown County Arena standing and cheering at the finish of her new 2 1/2-minute routine. "No matter how many times you do it in the ice rink, in practice, it's not the same as getting out there in front of the judges, the people. I was really at ease so I just went out and had fun," said a relieved Kwan. Fun is also something Kwan is having in college, which she feels is important even though she already has a lucrative career in figure skating. "I want more than just to be a skater. It's a great opportunity," she said. But Kwan admits that taking 12 credits while continuing to skate competitively has made for a busy life. "I've got midterms coming up, I've got a paper due, I've pulled all-nighters. That's hard when you have to wake up in the morning and try to skate," she said. Although the short program is "just for the season" and won't be around for the 2002 Olympics, Kwan will be. The silver medalist in 1998 to Tara Lipinski, Kwan will go for the gold in Salt Lake City. "I can't wait until 2002. I'm really excited because it's in the United States," she said with real enthusiasm. "I know how supportive everybody is. Everybody will be waving the American flag. It's going to be awesome." Eldredge, who has failed to medal in two Olympics despite an impressive career that includes a world championship, will also be in Salt Lake City. And his energetic, technically superb short program showed he still has the talent to be a medal threat. "That has always been something for me for a long time -- I want an Olympic medal, I want an Olympic medal," he admitted. But Eldredge is approaching the 2002 Olympics differently. "It's still something that would be nice to have, but the priority for me now is to have more fun with skating," he said. "I think I put a lot of pressure on myself in the last Olympics to try to skate better than I normally do. And I think that hurt. I think I'll enjoy it more next time." Eldredge in 1998 finished fourth, narrowly missing a bronze.
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