Athlete profile: Michelle Kwan

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

In the wake of Tara Lipinski's mercurial rise to the top of the skating world, Kwan has been precociously mature -- and that maturity many believe will vault her back to the top of the skating world...the 1996 world champion, Kwan sputtered to second-best in 1997...used to attacking, not defending, Kwan fell twice in the long program at the US Championships and hit the ice in the short program at the Worlds in Lausanne..."I think I was very confused in '97," admitted Kwan. "I didn't understand what was going on. Like I was thinking about too many things instead of just loving skating. The whole year I just didn't want to skate. I was like I want to skate from deep down in my heart but I was too tense to"...her longtime coach Frank Carroll feels he has prepared Michelle to rebound from disappointment..."From the first time Michelle skated, her family and I have impressed on Michelle that there will be times when she's on top of the world and times when she's not. And you better be able to take the good with the bad or you're really in the wrong sport and you're in the wrong business"...it was in the defeat of the short program -- that placed her fourth -- that Kwan began to regain her edge..."I remember I was in tears and I didn't know what had happened in the short program," says Kwan. "`Why did I make a mistake?' `Can't I rewind the time and do it all over.' And I was tying my shoelace and my hand slipped and I hit my face and started laughing. I was like, `This is ridiculous. Why am I crying about something that anybody could've done?' And then I was thinking about Scott Hamilton (diagnosed with cancer) and what he's going through and what he must be thinking. I mean I realized that nothing really matters except life. He's probably not thinking about the gold medal he won in '84, he's probably thinking about am I going to wake up tomorrow morning and walk. And I was thinking about [skating coach] Carlo Fassi who passed away that week. He must be nervous about his skaters at that competition. But skating is just an itty, bitty part of your whole life"...Kwan won the free skate with a dazzling effort to climb to second and evoked a different kind of tears..."On the medal podium, I had tears in my eyes," says Kwan. "It wasn't disappointment because I was second. It was because I did it. I pulled myself together. I came through it"...in the past, Kwan has played different characters in her free skate...she has the Biblical temptress Salome; Desdemona, the ill-fated wife of Othello; and Mumtaz Mahal, the Indian Empress for whom the Taj Mahal was named...but for the Olympic year, Kwan will not play a character...she says she wanted a change, but most believe Kwan has matured on the ice to the extent she does not need to play characters to evoke the necessary emotion...Kwan's short program is set to music from the movie Shine -- to classical music followers, that is excerpts of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto Number Three...Carroll has an interesting take on Kwan's short and long programs..."Well, we think of the short program as a declaration of war," says Carroll. "It's where you get out there and say, `This is what you're up against!' so we want it to be very strong and exciting. The second program is designed to show the joy of skating and beauty of skating. It doesn't have a theme like her previous programs. It's just about loving skating"...her free skate is to music called Lyra Anjelica, or Angel's Song..."It's a great pleasure for me as a coach to sit back and look at her new program and sort of wonder at it," says Carrol, "like how it came about from a little girl who was a jumping jack and did all these triples when she was 12, and was quick and cute and all of that. And the she turned into this musical wonder to me. It's a real rewarding feeling to me to watch her skate the way she can"...Kwan does not plan on throwing a triple Axel into the program (only retired skaters Midori Ito and Tonya Harding have ever completed the three-and-a-half-rotation jump)...but Kwan's triple toe, triple toe combination has been upgraded to a triple Lutz, triple toe combination -- obviously a response to Lipinski's triple loop, triple loop combination...it was the Lutz that gave Kwan problems last year -- "Lutzitis" -- Carroll called it, but for Kwan the Lutz has been historically a safe jump...Kwan seems full recovered from a stress fracture in a toe on her left foot -- after beating Lipinski at Skate America and then winning Skate Canada, Kwan did not reappear until the US championships...Kwan can pinpoint the exact moment she envisioned an Olympic gold draped around her neck..."Well, I think I was seven years old when I watched Brian Boitano win the 1988 Olympics," recalled Michelle. "I first was like, `Okay, now I'm going to go to the Olympics,' and so I started competing. I was taking all the competitions like it was the Olympics and I think that's how I started developing my [competitive spirit]. I talked to Brian a lot about the Olympic Games and how he dealt with being Olympic champion. How it must feel to wake up every morning knowing you have a 1988 Olympic gold medal in your hand, like how it must feel. I just always wonder if that could ever happen to me"...for the one thing that Kwan remembers about the '88 men's competition is that Boitano outskated a nearly-as-brilliant Canadian named Brian Orser...it was anointed the Battle of the Brians, and Kwan takes that memory in to her meeting with Lipinski..."We respect each other," says Kwan. "We both have the same dream. It's kind of like, `Let's go out and see who can do better'"...the first time Michelle remembers being on the ice, she was skating around the rink handing out Nerds candy to everyone who was watching...the rink was at a nearby mall; her sister Karen started lessons six months before Michelle and both would follow older brother Ronald to the rink where he played hockey...her parents, Danny and Estella, met in fifth grade in Hong Kong and immigrated to America in 1971...along with Michelle's grandparents, they opened the Golden Pheasant, a Chinese restaurant in Torrance, California...last year, the Kwans sold the restaurant and Danny retired from his phone company job to move up to Lake Arrowhead to be near Michelle...Danny and Estella have entrusted their daughter to Carroll -- never more evident at the 1996 Worlds in Edmonton...fourth in 1995, many saw the 1996 Worlds as the transformation of Kwan from girl to young woman...in addition to replacing her pony tail with a braided look, Carroll convinced Danny and Estella to allow Michelle to wear eye makeup on the ice..."In the Chinese-American culture, young girls don't wear makeup," says Carroll. "I told them we're not going to the schoolyard here. If you were in the ballet performing in front of thousands of people, you'd wear makeup. It's part of the shtick"... Carroll, who gained a reputation as the coach of 1980 silver medalist Linda Fratianne, became Kwan's tutor in 1991..."I remember when I was younger, I went up to him and said, `Well, what do I need to do to become a World Champion?'That was my exact question," says Michelle. "`What do I need, tell me. If I have to work harder, skate 100 hours, I'll do it. Give me direction.' And that's what he's given me, a guideline to how to become a good skater"...at age 12, Kwan had the gumption to defy her coach and take her senior profiency test while he was away at a coaches' convention...she had a goal to compete in five Olympics and saw Lillehammer as her starting point...Kwan passed the test; and when Carroll returned, he was at first infuriated, then resigned to Kwan competing as a senior...her rise was rapid...very few people have ever mentioned that the Kwan family never shouted in 1994 when the United States Figure Skating Associating granted Nancy Kerrigan an injury waiver and the United States Olympic Committee allowed Tonya Harding to compete...the then 13-year-old Kwan had been second to Harding at the 1994 US Championships and was training in Oslo even after Kerrigan was given her spot (only two US berths) in case Harding was found guilty of assault...financing Michelle's training was difficult for Danny and Estella -- made even more taxing because their oldest child Karen competed...in 1991, Michelle's parents sold their home to pay off figure skating debts...the home sold for $375,000 -- by the time the debt was paid, $600 remained...Michelle competed in her first Nationals in 1993 on borrowed skates...while Michelle's income has allowed the family to climb out of debt, much of it has been placed into an education trust fund...Michelle is tutored at Lake Arrowhead and has completed the 11th grade with a cumulative high school average to 3.53...she is scheduled to graduate in June 1998..."I study every day no matter where I am in the world, even right before competitions," says Kwan, who has said she aspires to a law degree from Harvard (see Paul Wylie)...in fact, Michelle will bring her schoolbooks to Nagano..."Absolutely," says Michelle. "Conjugating French verbs will help me relax"...a sophomore at Boston University, Karenfinished sEventsh at the 1997 US Championships..."Michelle is a big part in keeping my spirit high," says Karen, who will retire after this season. "She calls me a couple of times a week and helps me. I hope I also help her"...Ronald is a senior at University of California-Irvine...like Lipinski, Kwan has an autobiography on the bookshelves: "Michelle Kwan: Heart of a Champion"...indeed, each time Kwan receives a stuffed animal from a fan after a skate, the toy is sent to a California children's hospital...Michelle speaks some Chinese -- mostly the Cantonese dialect...