Kwan, Michelle

▪ 2001

      At the 2000 world championships on April 1 in Nice, France, American figure skater Michelle Kwan proved to the world what determination was all about. Although she already had two world championships to her credit, she had had a less-than-stellar season—having lost several major international competitions—and was being written off by many critics, who cited the distractions caused by her studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the challenge posed by an upcoming crop of young teenagers with a dazzling mastery of technical skills. She managed to win the U.S. women's championship, but she still had to face such formidable opponents as the Russians Mariya Butyrskaya, the defending world champion, and Irina Slutskaya, who had been left off her country's world team a year earlier but, newly energized, had recently become European champion. Indeed, going into the final free skate, Kwan found herself only in third place. At that point, however, she pulled out all the stops. Skating her technically challenging program—with its seven triple jumps, including the difficult triple toe–triple toe combination—with a new abandon enhancing her customary superb artistry, Kwan took command of the ice and decisively snared her third world championship.

      Kwan, whose Chinese name was Kwan Shan Wing, was born on July 7, 1980, in Torrance, Calif. She began skating at the age of five and from the outset was determined to be a champion. When she was 12, her eagerness to advance prompted her to take the test for advancing to the senior level on the sly—while her coach, Frank Carroll, was out of town—and at 13 she captured public attention by landing the alternate spot on the U.S. Olympic team. A year later she placed fourth at the world championships, and in 1996, sporting a new, more grown-up look, she won her first world championship. Although the pressures of being champion, combined with a growth spurt that added both height and weight, sent Kwan into a slump the following year, she still finished a close runner-up to new superkid Tara Lipinski at the 1997 world championships, and the stage was set for a public rivalry in the battle for the gold medal at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. Kwan defeated Lipinski at the 1998 U.S. championships, was favoured to win the Olympic title, and was in the lead after the short program but, despite high marks for her long program, was second to an inspired Lipinski. With her usual optimism, however, she stated that she won the silver, not that she lost the gold, and she came back the following month to win her second world championship, though her win was somewhat diminished by the absence of Lipinski, who turned professional, from the competition. At the 1999 U.S. championships, Kwan again took the gold, and she took silver at the world championships.

      In her autobiography, Michelle Kwan, Heart of a Champion (1997), Kwan reiterated her motto: “Work hard, be yourself, and have fun.” She was planning for that motto to help take her to victory in the next Winter Olympics, to be held in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Barbara Whitney

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▪ American ice skater

original name  Kwan Shan Wing 

born July 7, 1980, Torrance, California, U.S.

 

 American figure skater, who was one of the most decorated athletes in the sport. Combining artistry and elegance with athleticism, she won more than 40 championships, including a record-tying nine U.S. titles (1996, 1998–2005).

      Kwan began skating at age five and won her first competition two years later. In 1994 she landed the alternate spot on the U.S. Olympic team and the following year placed fourth at the world championships. In 1996, sporting a new, more grown-up look, she won her first U.S. and world titles. After a growth spurt that added both height and weight, Kwan finished second to Tara Lipinski at the U.S. and world championships in 1997. She entered the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, as the gold-medal favourite, having defeated Lipinski at the U.S. championships earlier in the year. Lipinski, however, won the closely contested event, and Kwan had to settle for a silver medal. She captured a bronze medal at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the following year won her fifth world championship (1996, 1998, 2000–01, 2003). In 2005 Kwan claimed her ninth U.S. title, tying a record set by Maribel Vinson in 1937. Later that year, however, she finished fourth at the world championships, marking the first time since 1995 that she had not won a world medal. She qualified for the 2006 U.S. Olympic team but was forced to withdraw after she suffered an injury during her first practice at the Games in Turin, Italy. Kwan did not compete during the 2007 and 2008 seasons while pursuing studies at the University of Denver.

      In November 2006 Kwan was appointed envoy for public diplomacy by the U.S. State Department. Her autobiography, Michelle Kwan: Heart of a Champion, was published in 1997.

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