Michelle Kwan

1980-

American figure skater

The most decorated American figure skater in the sport's history, Michelle Kwan became one of the most respected and admired athletes of her generation for her grace on and off the ice. First making headlines in 1994 when she was named an alternate to the American team at the Lillehammer Olympics during the Tonya Harding scandal, Kwan was a national silver medalist at the age of thirteen. At fifteen, she claimed her first U.S. and World Championship titles and at the 1998 National Championship delivered performances in the short and long programs that received the highest-ever marks in the modern history of the sport. Already something of a legend when she competed at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games, Kwan finished second in a surprising upset to Tara Lipinski , who performed two triple-jump combinations to take the gold medal. Ironically, the loss served to increase Kwan's popularity for her gracious comments and philosophical outlook after the event. Reigning as U.S. Champion from 1998 to 2002, Kwan also picked up gold medals at the World Championship in 1998, 2000, and 2001. As in 1998, Kwan was disappointed at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games, where she finished third after a fall in the free skate. Once again Kwan won the public's sympathy and respect through her disappointment, which did little to diminish her impact on the sport and her status as one of the most popular athletes in North America.

Started Skating with Sister

The third and youngest child of Danny and Estella (Wing) Kwan, Michelle Kwan was born on July 7, 1980 in Los Angeles, California. Her father had been born in China and grew up in Hong Kong, where he met her mother when they attended the same grade school. The two met again at a school reunion and after marrying moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. Danny Kwan worked for the phone company while Estella Kwan helped her family run the Golden Pheasant restaurant in suburban Torrance. It was son Ron, the oldest of the three Kwan children, who first took up ice skating as a hockey player. Younger sister Karen, who would one day rank among the country's top skaters, then asked for skating lessons, which Michelle begged to join. Her parents finally gave in and the girls took lessons at a shopping mall in Rancho Palos Verdes, where the family lived, when Kwan was five years old.

Chronology

After winning some local competitions, Kwan and her sister began taking private lessons with coach Derek James in 1988. With the financial burden of daily lessons for their two daughters, the Kwans sold their home in Rancho Palos Verdes to pay for their training and moved into a house in Torrance owned by Danny Kwan's parents. After Kwan won a gold medal in the United States Figure Skating Association's (USFSA) Southwest Pacific Junior Championship in 1991 and a bronze medal the following year in the Pacific Coast Junior Championship, she won a scholarship to study at the Ice Castle, an elite training facility in Lake Arrowhead, California. Karen Kwan was also accepted into the program; accompanied by their father, the girls moved to the facility, about one hundred miles away from Los Angeles, and started working with coach Frank Carroll in 1992.

Although the relationship between Kwan and Carroll eventually resulted in one of the most productive teams in figure skating, Kwan's first year with her new coach got off to a rocky start. She finished a disappointing ninth place at her first appearance at a national USFSA event, the Junior Championship, in 1992. Kwan also raised Carroll's ire by taking the USFSA test to advance to the senior ranks in 1993. Carroll had hoped that Kwan would make a strong showing at the 1993 Junior Nationals as a springboard to entering senior competitions. Motivated by a desire to earn a place on the 1994 U.S. Olympic team, Kwan ignored his advice and took the test while Carroll was out of town. It was days before Carroll would even speak to his driven pupil after he found out what she had done.

Unexpected Trip to 1994 Olympics

Kwan was not perfect in her first USFSA National Championship appearance in 1993, but her performance was good enough to land her in sixth place. She had a much better showing at that year's U.S. Olympic Festival, where she won the gold medal. Already earning predictions of future greatness based on her jumping ability, Kwan was slowly incorporating the artistry into her program that would later become her trademark. Yet she was unprepared for the unprecedented attention focused on women's figure skating at the 1994 Nationals, which she entered as a still relatively unknown skater. Leaving the practice session ice at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, the site of the event, Kwan was just a few feet away when Shane Stant clubbed reigning U.S. Champion Nancy Kerrigan in the knee. Stant had carried out the attack in a plot coordinated by rival skater Tonya Harding 's husband, Jeff Gillooly, in the hope of forcing Kerrigan out of Olympic contention. With Kerrigan sidelined by the injury, Harding won the championship, with Kwan placing second. Kerrigan and Harding were named to the Olympic team, but with the investigation around the attack centering on Harding's entourage, Kwan's nomination as an alternate to the team made her a featured attraction of the media circus that surrounded the Lillehammer Games.

Awards and Accomplishments

Related Biography: Skating Coach Frank Carroll

Until their partnership ended in 2001, Michelle Kwan and coach Frank Carroll had one of the most productive relationships in figure skating. Born in Massachusetts in the late 1930s, Carroll grew up skating at a Worcester rink and in the 1950s trained with former U.S. Champion Maribel Vinson Owen. Although he became one of the top U.S. skaters of the late 1950s, Carroll put aside his amateur career after failing to make the 1960 Olympic team. He instead completed a degree in education at Holy Cross and spent four years in the Ice Follies, a popular figure skating review that toured the country.

Carroll took bit parts in several low-budget movies in the mid-1960s but was drawn into coaching after giving a few informal lessons to skaters around Los Angeles. With the death of Owen and several other of the country's top coaches in a 1961 plane crash en route to the World Championship—an accident that devastated the USFSA's ranks—the demand for skilled coaches was high. By the mid-1970s Carroll had coached several outstanding skaters, including 1977-1980 U.S. and 1977 and 1979 World Champion Linda Fratianne, who won the silver medal at the 1980 Olympics. Carroll had a less harmonious relationship with 1989 and 1992 U.S. Champion Christopher Bowman, who was eventually sidelined with drug and alcohol problems.

Although he considered retiring from coaching at various points in his career, Carroll began working with Michelle Kwan at the Ice Castle in Lake Arrowhead, California in 1992. The two developed into one of the strongest teams in figure skating and seemed so close that Kwan's announcement in October 2001 that she had left Carroll to compete without a coach came as a surprise. "I think maybe she's feeling like a woman now," Carroll told David Davis of the Los Angeles Magazine in a January 2002 profile, "She's twenty-one, she's wealthy, she has a boyfriend. She's probably feeling she should take charge of her life. She's feeling her oats." Carroll remained one of the most respected coaches in figure skating with pupils that included 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Timothy Goebel and former U.S. bronze medalist Angela Nikodinov.

U.S. and World Champion in 1996

Kerrigan recovered in time to compete at the 1994 Olympics, where she took the silver medal. Harding delivered two disastrous performances at the Games and was later banned for life from the amateur ranks by the USFSA for her knowledge of the plot against Kerrigan. Kwan went on the represent the U.S. at the 1994 International Skating Union's (ISU) World Championship, where she placed eighth. The following year, skating to Camille Saint-Saens' "Rondo Capriccioso," she earned another silver medal at the U.S. National Championship. At the World Championship, Kwan skated two perfect performances. The low marks she received from the

judges for her short program, however, had placed her in fifth going into the free skate. Despite having the best technical content in her long program, with seven triple jumps, Kwan placed fourth overall at the end of the event. Many observers, Carroll included, could not recall when a skater had performed so well without receiving a medal.

Looking forward to the 1996 season, Carroll and Kwan decided that her youthful appearance had dissuaded the judges from giving her the marks she had deserved. Kwan had previously appeared with her hair in a simple ponytail and without makeup, but her look for the 1996 season changed dramatically. In her long program, Kwan portrayed Salome, the Biblical woman who had asked for the head of John the Baptist after mesmerizing an audience with her dancing. Kwan's artistry on the ice matched her more mature appearance, and she swept the U.S. Nationals, even with minor mistakes on two of her jumps.

At the 1996 World Championship, however, Kwan faced an almost insurmountable challenge. China's Lu Chen had skated a beautiful long program and received two perfect marks of 6.0 for her presentation. Taking the ice, Kwan knew that she had to skate perfectly and hit all of her seven planned triple jumps. After doubling one of the triple toe jumps she performed in combination, Kwan made a last-second change at the end of her program, throwing in another triple toe jump instead of a simpler double axel. The technical edge—along with two perfect presentation scores she received—gave Kwan the victory, with six of the nine judges putting her ahead of Chen. It was one of the closest competitions in the history of the event, and it made Kwan into the leading figure skater of the day.

Astounding Performance at 1998 Nationals

Kwan's reign as U.S. and World Champion lasted just one year. Hampered by new skates and a lack of self-confidence, Kwan stumbled badly in her free skate at the Nationals and finished second to Tara Lipinski . With another mistake in the short program at the 1997 World Championship, Kwan placed second to Lipinski again, even though her free skate was the best at the competition. With a stress fracture in her left foot, Kwan was unable to go through full run-throughs of her programs and did not enter the 1998 Nationals as the favorite. After Lipinski unexpectedly fell on her triple flip jump in the short program, however, Kwan took the ice in her program, skating to selections from Sergei Rachmaninoff. After completing a stunning program, Kwan made history as the first women to receive a perfect score for her short program at the Nationals; in fact, she received seven 6.0 marks from the nine judges for her presentation. Her long program, skated to "Lyrica Angelica" by composer William Alwyn, was even better: Kwan received eight out of nine possible perfect scores for her presentation. The performances were immediately rated as the best short and long programs ever seen at the Nationals, and they made Kwan the heavy favorite going into the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan.

Olympic Disappointment

In first place after her short program at the Nagano Games, Kwan seemed to be fulfilling the expectations that had grown out of her astounding victory at the 1998 Nationals. Despite the pressure, Kwan delivered another clean program in her free skate, although some of her moves were a bit slower than they had been in her prior competitions. Kwan was also at a disadvantage by skating first in the final group in the long program; even though her artistry was again impressive, she had to settle for a string of 5.9 marks for her presentation. Lipinski, skating later in the event, again did not match Kwan's aesthetic quality on the ice; she more than made up for that, however, in her technical content with a triple-loop, triple-loop combination jump midway through her program and a triple salchow-half loop-triple toe jumping pass to conclude it. It was technically the most difficult program of the evening, and it earned Lipinski the gold medal over Kwan.

A model of graciousness in her defeat, Kwan earned praise for the way she handled her disappointment at the Olympics. She won her second world title at the 1998 Championship a few weeks later, a victory that took place without the presence of Lipinski, who had immediately retired from amateur ranks after the Olympics. For her part, Kwan announced that she was looking forward to competing at the 2002 Olympics, to be held in Salt Lake City.

Kwan Song

From the age of seven, Kwan has known that she would achieve greatness as a figure skater, but she wasn't sure that would be enough. "I wanted to be the Michael Jordan of my sport," she said. "I dreamed of being a legend." … But legends are not made by points alone, in the rink or on the basketball court. For figure skaters, the door to that mythic realm of eight-figure endorsement deals, of celebrity that transcends sports itself, opens only once every four years. … And Kwan knows this better than anyone. "Tothe public," she tells you, "the Olympics is the supreme of the supreme, and I don't believe you can ever truly be a legend without winning it."

Source: Mark Starr, Newsweek, February 18, 2002, p. 50.

Continued Success at U.S. and World Competitions

In the meantime, Kwan racked up a string of medal-winning performances. Repeating as National Champion in 1999, Kwan struggled with a bad cold at that year' World Championship and placed second. She won the 2000 national title and made a surprising comeback in the World Championship to claim another gold medal with a program skated to haunting music from the soundtrack to The Red Violin. With a triple toe-triple toe combination jump and intricate and sophisticated choreography, Kwan had reached another athletic and artistic pinnacle with the program.

Kwan chose another unusual piece of music for her 2001 season, "The Black Swan," by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Although her performance at the U.S. Nationals did not include a triple-triple jump, Kwan still managed to win the event. Her performance at the World Championship, however, was perfect; in addition to her triple-triple combination, Kwan completed five other triple jumps. With another gold medal, Kwan reigned for a second consecutive year as the U.S. and World Champion.

Most-Decorated Skater in U.S. History

Many observers were stunned when Kwan announced that she was leaving her longtime coach in October 2001. She had no plans to hire another coach and intended to train and compete on her own, a move that few other skaters had ever attempted. After a stunning performance in the long program at the 2002 U.S. Nationals to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Sheherazade," however, Kwan entered the Salt Lake City Olympics once again as the favorite. In first place after her short program, Kwan took the ice midway through the final group of competitors in the free skate. American teammate Sarah Hughes had already completed an astounding program that included two triple-triple jump combinations. Indeed, Hughes's performance contained the highest degree of technical difficulty ever accomplished in the women's free skate. Although her artistry remained intact, a fall on a triple flip jump midway through her program once again dashed Kwan's hope for a gold medal. With Hughes in first place and Russian Irina Slutskaya in second, Kwan had to settle for the bronze medal.

Kwan again gained the public's respect with her grace, dignity, and good humor after her second Olympic loss. She also gained a lucrative contract with the Disney Corporation as a spokesperson and performer. Still in the amateur ranks, Kwan announced in 2002 that she would return to the U.S. Nationals in 2003 and perhaps to the World Championship as well. "I've been very fortunate," Kwan told Sharon Ginn of the Boston Globe in November 2002 about her decision to keep competing, "I've never felt stronger or better. I haven't reached that point yet, so until that time I guess I'll keep competing until I know when to stop. When do you actually know [when to give it up]? The worst thing I can do is regret." Off the ice, Kwan decided to take time away from her studies at the University of California-Los Angeles to fulfill her endorsement contracts and to spend more time with her boyfriend, Brad Ference, who played with the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers.

The most decorated American figure skater ever, Kwan entered the 2002-2003 season as a six-time National Champion, four-time World Champion, and two-time Olympic medalist. At the 2003 USFSA National Championship in Dallas, Texas, Kwan took a gold medal, her seventh gold medal at a National Championship.

Although the Olympic gold medal still eludes her, Kwan did not rule out making a bid for the 2006 U.S. Olympic team for the Turin Winter Games. Such drive and dedication are typical of Kwan's outlook and have indeed made her into one of the most respected and admired athletes of her generation. In overcoming her losses at the Olympics and emerging as an even more popular personality, Kwan has seemed to transcend her sport. Embodying the ideals not just of figure skating but of athleticism and good sportsmanship in general, Kwan was honored with the James E. Sullivan Award as Outstanding Amateur Athlete by the Amateur Athletic Union in 2002.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY KWAN:

(With Laura James) Heart of a Champion: An Autobiography. New York: Scholastic, 1997.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Brennan, Christine. Edge of Glory: The Inside Story of the Quest for Figure Skating's Olympic Gold Medals. New York: Scribner, 1998.

Brennan, Christine. Inside Edge: A Revealing Journey into the Secret World of Figure Skating. New York: Scribner, 1996.

Kwan, Michelle, with Laura James. Heart of a Champion: An Autobiography. New York: Scholastic, 1997.

U.S. Figure Skating Association. The Official Book of Figure Skating. New York: Simon & Schuster Editions, 1998.

Periodicals

Brennan, Christine. "Kwan's Skating Had Even Judges in Tears." USA Today (February 19, 1998).

Davis, David. "Lord of the Rink: Frank Carroll Lost His Star Pupil, Michelle Kwan, But Not His Hopes for Olympic Gold." Los Angeles Magazine (January 2002): 30.

Ginn, Sharon. "Her Turn in Turin?" Boston Globe (November 27, 2002): C7.

Smith, Russell Scott. "Whither the Queen?" Sports Illustrated Women (February 1, 2002).

Starr, Mark. "Kwan Song." Newsweek (February 18, 2002).

Other

"Kwan in Seventh Heaven with Dazzling Performance." United States Figure Skating Association. http://www.usfsa.org/uschamp03/index.htm (January 20, 2003).

"Michelle Kwan." United States Figure Skating Association. http://www.usfsa.org/team/ladies/kwanmich.htm (December 12, 2002).

Sketch by Timothy Borden