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Playing it safe With competition dwindling, Kwan scales down routine
BOSTON (Reuters) -- A momentary frown flicked over the face of figure skating's most luminescent star on Wednesday as Michelle Kwan told of the mounting pressure, and pain, that comes with trying to maintain her position at the top. Kwan, the current world champion and favourite for the gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is in Boston to defend her national title on Friday and Saturday. The 20-year-old American, who is unanimously acknowledged as the world's most artistic performer, had hoped to win her fifth U.S. championship in six years by presenting her most difficult routine ever. "I was planning to raise the bar -- do two triple-triple jump combinations back to back. I know I can do it. I do it in practice. The judges want you to up the ante and I want to go with the flow," Kwan said. But the ugly face of pain has temporarily stymied that avenue of progress and Kwan will perform a less-challenging programme. Frank Carroll, who has coached Kwan for the past nine years, feared she was headed towards injury. Stress fractures and problems with hip flexors have become endemic among women competitors at this level. Two of Kwan's rivals, Naomi Nari Nam, who finished second to Kwan in the 1999 national championships, and Deanna Stellato, the world junior championship silver medal winner, withdrew from the national championships in the past few days due to injuries resulting from jumping. Another rival, Sasha Cohen, who was runnerup to Kwan last year, withdrew Wednesday night because of intense back pain. "You teach these children not to be wimps but you have to be careful to get them to differentiate between pain levels," Carroll said. "When the body develops pain, are we going to push forward to a stress fracture? A lot of competitors are so self-driven, they don't want to restrict jumping." Kwan did not want to cut back. "You look at your coach and say, 'Where's the blood? I don't see any blood. So what's the problem?' " But Kwan gave in to Carroll's wishes. "I've been lucky. I only had the one bad injury," said Kwan. That was a stress fracture in her foot that restricted her training in the months before the 1998 Olympic Games in which Tara Lipinski won gold and Kwan silver. Lipinski said recently that part of the reason she retired from Olympic-eligible skating after becoming, at 15, the youngest ever individual gold medallist in the Winter Games, was that doctors told her that unless she reduced the intensity of her jump training, she was headed for an injury which would prevent her skating at all. "That was frightening," Lipinski said. "Not to be able to do what you love." As a professional, Lipinski can restrict the number of jumps. Even so, she had to pull out of the World Professional Championships held in December because of injury. Both Kwan and Carroll say they are not assuming Kwan will win automatically. Carroll said: "People perceive it as a walk in the park. They say you're Michelle Kwan. What is the national championship to you? But there's a lot of talent in the United States. There's possibly more depth of talent in the United States than at the world championships. We don't take a win for granted." Cohen, who is 16, and Sarah Hughes, 15, are Kwan's main challengers. Kwan, who is the third oldest of the 18 entrants, admits she is vulnerable. "I know what they're thinking. I know what's in their heads. I was there. It doesn't take them long to go from, 'Wow, I'm skating on the same ice as Michelle Kwan' to 'I can beat her.' "
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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