• Link Party: Angelina Jolie Gets Salty

  EOnline.com - Found Nov. 17, 2009 Vartan','Michelle Kwan','Michelle Monaghan','Michelle Obama','Michelle Pfeiffer','Michelle Rodriguez','Michelle Trachtenberg','Michelle...

• South Korean Kim holds off Flatt at Skate America

  Philadelphia Daily News - Found Nov. 16, 2009 ... relatively unimpressive class of contemporary U.S. women, a group that has produced four national champions since Michelle Kwan's retirement. Kim a winner at Skate America � - ESPN.com Kim Shaky in Free Skate, but Still Wins - New York Times Kim Shaky in Free Skate, but Still Wins - New York Times Kim Shaky in Free Skate, but Still Wins - International Herald Tribune Explore All

  CBC North

• Kim shows there's work to do before Vancouver Olympics

  USA Today - Found Nov. 15, 2009 Back in 1997, that was the feeling when Michelle Kwan, then the early strong favorite for the 1998 Olympic gold medal, made mistakes on four...

• U.S. Women Are Seeking a Contender for Skating

  New York Times - Found Nov. 14, 2009 ... goes on to become the face of the Games in the United States.?In the past, we?ve had Michelle Kwan, Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill year...

• For Emily Hughes, an Opportunity to Impress at Skate America

  International Herald Tribune - Found Nov. 12, 2009 At the 2006 Turin Olympics, she was a last-minute fill-in for Michelle Kwan, a five-time world champion, after Kwan dropped out with an injury. For Emily Hughes, an Opportunity to Impress at Skate America - New York Times Explore All

• Burning Up The Ice Damian Strohmeyer/SI Shani Davis will look to ...

  SI.com - Found Nov. 11, 2009 She has been training in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., under the watchful eye of Rafael Arutunian, a former coach of five-time world champ Michelle Kwan.

• Brian Cazeneuve: Davis heating up; Cohen's comeback in doubt

  SI.com - Found Nov. 10, 2009 She has been training in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., under the watchful eye of Rafael Arutunian, a former coach of five-time world champ Michelle Kwan.

• Cohen Withdraws From Skate America

  New York Times - Found Nov. 9, 2009 She left her longtime coach, John Nicks, this year to train with Rafael Arutunian, who used to coach Michelle Kwan. Cohen Bows out of Skate America With Tendinitis - ABC News Cohen bows out of Skate America with tendinitis - ESPN.com Injured US star Cohen to skip Skate America - AFP via Yahoo! Cohen bows out of Skate America with tendinitis - Seattle Times Explore All

  CBC North

• Cohen bows out of Skate America with tendinitis

  USA Today - Found Nov. 10, 2009 The United States has been searching ? unsuccessfully ? for a breakout star since Cohen and Michelle Kwan stepped away from the sport in 2006... Injured Right Calf Forces Cohen to Withdraw From Skate America - New York Times Injury forces Olympian off ice - Canada.com Sasha Cohen withdraws from 2009 Cancer.Net Skate America - US Olympic Team Cohen to skip Skate America; hopes to be ready for Nationals - Fresno Bee Explore All

• Michelle Kwan - Met Backstage at Champions On Ice

  TheCelebrityCafe.com - Found Oct. 18, 2009 Met Backstage at Champions On Ice I met Michelle Kwan when I snuck backstage with a large Italian family at Champions on Ice in 2005. She was super

Michelle Kwan

Kwan performing an arabesque spiral in 2002.
Personal Information
Country represented:	United States
Date of birth:	July 7, 1980 (1980-07-07) (age 29)
Residence:	Torrance, California
Height:	5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Former coach:	Rafael Arutunian, Frank Carroll, Scott Williams
Former choreographer:	Tatiana Tarasova, Lori Nichol, Nikolai Morozov, Sarah Kawahara, Peter Oppegard, Karen Kwan, Christopher Dean
Skating club:	Los Angeles FSC
ISU Personal Best Scores
Combined Total:	175.20 2005 Worlds
Short Program:	61.22 2005 Worlds
Free Skate:	113.98 2005 Worlds

Michelle Wingshan Kwan¹ (simplified Chinese: 关颖珊; traditional Chinese: 關穎珊; pinyin: Guān Yǐngshān; born July 7, 1980) is an American figure skater. She has won nine U.S. championships, five World Championships, and two Olympic medals. She has remained competitive for over a decade and is the most decorated figure skater in U.S. history.² Known for her consistency and expressive artistry on ice, she is widely considered one of the greatest figure skaters of all time.³⁴⁵

Personal life

Born in Torrance, California, Kwan is the third child of Danny and Estella Kwan, Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong. As a child, Kwan grew up speaking a mixture of Cantonese and English at home. In addition, she also speaks some conversational Mandarin. Kwan’s interest in figure skating began at the age of five when she followed her two older siblings (hockey player Ron and figure skater Karen) onto the ice. Karen and Michelle began serious training when Michelle was about eight years old. They practiced three to four hours a day, waking up at 3 am to skate before school and going back to the rink right after school to skate again. Paying for their increased skating-rink time led to financial hardship for Kwan’s working class family. When Kwan was ten years old, her family could no longer afford a coach, but they were offered financial assistance by a fellow member of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club⁶⁷ that allowed them to train at the Ice Castle International Training Center in Lake Arrowhead, California.

Kwan attended Soleado Elementary School in Palos Verdes, California, but left public school to be homeschooled starting at the age of 13. After graduation from Rim of the World High School in 1998, she attended UCLA for one year. In the fall of 2006 she transferred to the University of Denver with the intent of majoring in political science and minoring in international studies.⁸ In June 2009, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in international studies and a minor in political science. ⁹ She has chosen to pursue a graduate degree in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.¹⁰

Public life

Ambassadorship endeavors

Kwan dined with U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao during President Hu's 2006 state visit to the United States.¹¹

On November 9, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Michelle Kwan as a public diplomacy ambassador. In this non-salaried position, Kwan will represent American values especially to young people and sports enthusiasts and is expected to travel widely.¹² Kwan made her first overseas trip in the capacity of public diplomacy ambassador with a visit to China from January 17–January 25, 2007.

Her diplomatic position as an Envoy has continued in the Barack Obama administration where she has worked with vice-president Joe Biden ¹³ and Secretary-of-State Hillary Clinton ¹⁴.

Filmography

Kwan has guest starred as herself in "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass", an episode of The Simpsons, and in the Family Guy episode "A Hero Sits Next Door". She has also made guest star appearances in the children's cartoon television series Arthur, and has also appeared in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. She provided the voice of a shopkeeper in Disney's direct-to-DVD sequel Mulan II, and she and fellow figure skater Brian Boitano appeared as announcers in the film Ice Princess. She has performed in numerous figure skating programs, and has cameo appearances in various other television series. In 1999, she appeared in the Michelle Kwan Figure Skating computer game.¹⁵

Other activities

Kwan wrote an inspirational book for children titled, The Winning Attitude: What it Takes to be a Champion. She also wrote an autobiography, Heart of a Champion, at 17.

In 2005, Michelle Kwan's family opened the EastWest Ice Palace in Artesia, California. The ice rink houses many of her skating medals and memorabilia.¹⁶

Kwan has had numerous endorsement contracts and has appeared in television commercials for sponsors including Campbell's Soup, VISA, Coca-Cola, and Kraft.¹⁷ The Chevrolet/Michelle Kwan R.E.W.A.R.D.S. Scholarship program was established by the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors in cooperation with Kwan.¹⁸ In February 2006, Kwan was named a "celebrity representative" for The Walt Disney Company.¹⁹

Competitive biography

Summary

Kwan has won five World Championships (1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2003), the most by anyone in the ladies' division since Carol Heiss (1956–1960), with whom she is tied for the most wins by an American.^{citation needed} She has won nine United States Figure Skating Championships (1996, 1998–2005), tying the record for most set by Maribel Vinson-Owen (1928–1933, 1935–1937). Kwan's eight consecutive U.S. Championship titles (1998–2005) and 12 consecutive U.S. Championship medals (1994–2005) are both U.S. records. She is the only woman in figure skating history to reclaim the World title three times (1998, 2000, 2003).² She has also won a silver medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and a bronze medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Among her many accolades, Kwan is a recipient of the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award, which is given to America's best amateur athlete; she was the first figure skater to win the award since Dick Button won it in 1949. Kwan has received a combined total of 57 6.0s (perfect scores) from her National and World competitions throughout the years. At the U.S. Nationals alone, she holds the record for most 6.0s. Because figure skating is no longer scored on a 6.0 scale, Kwan's records will stand indefinitely.²⁰

Early competition

In 1991,Michelle and her sister Karen began training with Frank Carroll. After one year of coaching by Carroll, 11-year old Michelle placed 9th at the junior level at the United States Figure Skating Championships. At the age of 12 in 1992, Kwan passed the final test to become a senior-level figure skater despite the disapproval of her coach. In 1993, Kwan finished sixth at her first senior U.S. championships. The next season, she won the 1994 World Junior Championships.

In 1994, Kwan finished second to Tonya Harding at the U.S. championships, which ordinarily would have earned her a spot on the U.S. team to the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. That place, however, was instead given to 1993 national champion Nancy Kerrigan, who had been sidelined by an assault and battery (eventually connected to Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly), after a practice session at those championships. The 13-year-old Kwan went to Norway as an alternate but did not compete. Kerrigan and Harding both dropped out of eligible competition before the 1994 World Championships. Because of this (and teammate Nicole Bobek not making out of the qualifying round), Kwan had the sole responsibility to ensure two spots for the U.S. at the 1995 World Championships by placing in the top ten. Kwan had an unusual mistake in the short program and placed 11th in that portion, but came back strong to finish eighth overall.

At the 1995 U.S. Championships, Nicole Bobek won the gold medal, while Kwan again placed second after struggling with her lutz jump in both the short program and free skate. She advanced to the 1995 World Championships. She skated a clean performance and placed fifth in the short program portion of the competition behind Nicole Bobek, Russia's Olga Markova, China's Chen Lu, and France's Surya Bonaly. Because of the way the top four had skated in the long program, Kwan had a rare opportunity to win the competition from 5th place if she won the free skate. During her free skating performance, she landed 7 clean triple jumps and placed 3rd in that portion of the competition. She would finish 4th overall.

Artistic development and 1998 Olympics

Michelle Kwan performing Salome during the 1996 Worlds.

Following 1995, Kwan developed a more mature style. Her new, more artistically expressive programs were "Romanza" (short program) and "Salome" (free skate). She also improved her speed and her jump technique, and performed more difficult choreography. In 1996, Kwan won both the U.S. Championships and the World Championships. In the latter event, she edged out defending champion Chen Lu in a very close competition in which both competitors garnered two perfect 6.0s for Presentation in the free skate.

In the 1996–97 season, Kwan skated to "Dream of Desdemona" (short program) and "Taj Mahal" (free skate). It was during this year that Kwan debuted a change-of-edge spiral, which is still considered her signature move. However, in this season, Kwan struggled with her jumps because of a growth spurt and problems with new skating boots which she wore for an endorsement contract with the manufacturer.²¹ She fell twice and stumbled once in her free skate at 1997 U.S. Nationals. She also lost the Champion Series Final to Tara Lipinski a month later. At the World Championships, Kwan made a mistake on her Triple Lutz combination and placed 4th in the Short Program portion of the competition behind Tara Lipinski, France's Vanessa Gusmeroli, and Russia's Maria Butyrskaya. During the Free Skate, Kwan skated a six triple, mistake-free performance to win first place in the long program, but placed second to Tara Lipinski overall.

Kwan started out the 1997-1998 Olympic season by winning Skate America over Tara Lipinski and Skate Canada. However, she suffered a stress fracture on her foot and was forced to withdraw from her third Grand Prix event and the Grand Prix Final, formally known as the Championship Series Final. Kwan regained her U.S. title from Lipinski at the 1998 National Championships, in spite of competing with a toe injury. Many people consider her performances of her Rachmaninoff short program and free skate set to William Alwyn's "Lyra Angelica" at the 1998 U.S. Championships to be the high point of her career from both a technical and artistic standpoint.²² The performance earned her eight perfect 6.0s and left one judge in tears.²³

Kwan and Lipinski were the co-favorites to win the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. She placed first in the Short Program portion of the competition, winning eight first place votes out of nine judges. In the Free Skate, Kwan skated a 7 triple performance but placed behind Lipinski who also did a 7 triple performance that included a triple loop/triple loop combination and a triple toe-loop/half-loop/Triple Salchow. Kwan ended up winning the silver medal, with the gold medal being won by rival Tara Lipinski and the bronze medal by Chen Lu.²⁴ Lipinski and Chen both retired from competitive skating shortly after the Olympics, while Kwan went on to win the 1998 World Championships in Minneapolis.

A controversy was sparked when MSNBC used the headline "American Beats Kwan" to report the result of the Nagano competition. The headline, according to Joann Lee, Associate Professor and Director of Journalism at Queens College in New York City, implied that Kwan is not American. MSNBC subsequently issued an apology.²⁵

From 1998 to 2002 Olympics

Kwan competes her Scheherazade long program at the 2001-2002 Grand Prix Final.

Kwan continued to compete as an eligible skater in the 1998–99 season, although she bypassed the fall Grand Prix season and instead chose to skate in a series of made-for-television pro-am events. Her "regular" competitive programs that season were "Fate of Carmen" (short program) and "Lamento D'Ariane" (free skate). At the 1999 U.S. Championships, competing against a weak field, Kwan attained her third title. At the 1999 World Championships, Kwan did not skate her best,²⁶ and placed second behind Russian competitor Maria Butyrskaya.²⁷

Kwan's win at the 2000 U.S. Nationals was controversial to some^who?. She was criticized^who? for planning an easier jump in her short program than her competitors (a triple toe loop rather than a triple flip), and then she fell on this element in the competition. The judges nevertheless placed her third in that segment behind younger challengers Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes;²⁸ however, the placement still kept her in contention for the title. Ultimately, she won the free skate with the best performance of the night, capturing 8 of the 9 first-place ordinals.²⁹³⁰ At the 2000 World Championships, Kwan was again in third place after the short program, behind Maria Butyrskaya and Irina Slutskaya. In her free skate, Kwan landed seven triples, and won that segment of the competition. Butyrskaya lost her commanding lead by finishing only third behind Slutskaya in the free skate, allowing Kwan to win the overall title as well.³¹

In 2001, Kwan again won the U.S. Championships, receiving first-place ordinals from all 9 judges in both the short program and free skate. At the 2001 World Championships, Kwan was second behind Slutskaya in the short program. Kwan won the title with her "Song of the Black Swan" free skate, executing 7 triples, including a triple toe loop/triple toe loop combination.³²

In the fall of 2001, Kwan and Carroll decided to end their coaching relationship. In interviews, Kwan said she needed to "take responsibility" for her skating.³³ Coachless, Kwan arrived at the 2002 U.S. Championships in Los Angeles amid the media's scrutiny over her separation with Carroll and her season's inconsistencies. Kwan won the competition with a revived "Rachmaninoff" short program and a new "Scheherazade" program for her free skate, securing a place on the 2002 Olympic team. Joining her on the team were Sasha Cohen (second) and Sarah Hughes (third).³⁴ The 21-year-old Kwan, along with Russia's Irina Slutskaya, were favorites to win the gold. Kwan led after the short program, followed by Slutskaya, Cohen, and Hughes. In the free skate, a combination of a flawed performance by Kwan (two-footing her combination and falling on her triple flip), a perfect performance of Sarah Hughes, and Irina Slutskaya beating Kwan in the free skate, saw Kwan receive the bronze medal.³⁵ Kwan finished the 2002 season with a second place finish at the World Championships to Slutskaya.

Continued competition

Michelle Kwan skating to Fallin' in the 2004 World Figure Skating Championships Exhibition in Dortmund, Germany

While the question of her retirement to the professional level lingered, Kwan continued to compete on the Olympic-eligible circuit. She added three more U.S. championships (2003–2005) and a fifth World championship (2003) to her list of victories. Her wins at Nationals brought her consecutive winning streak to an all-time record eight and her title total to a shared record of nine.

Coached by Scott Williams, Kwan won all phases of every competition she entered in the 2002–2003 competitive season with her programs: Peter Gabriel's "The Feeling Begins" from The Last Temptation of Christ (short program) and "Concierto de Aranjuez" (free skate). She won the U.S. Championships again and regained her World title.

In 2003, she hired noted technician Rafael Arutunian as her coach, with whom she attempted to increase the technical difficulty of her programs. In the 2003–2004 competitive season, she skated again to "The Feeling Begins" for her short program, and Puccini's "Tosca" for her long program.

During the fall seasons of 2002 to 2004, Kwan competed in only one Grand Prix event, Skate America in the fall of 2002, which she entered as a last-minute replacement. She won the event and qualified for the Grand Prix Final but chose not to compete in it. Kwan chose to not compete in Grand Prix events in the 2003 and 2004 seasons where the new judging system was being used.

Again, Kwan won the U.S. Championships (where the old 6.0 system was still being used), earning 7 more 6.0s for presentation in the Free Skate. At the 2004 World Championships, after a difficult qualifying round, Kwan was penalized in her short program for going two seconds over time which caused her to placed 4th going into the Long Program behind American Sasha Cohen, Japan's Shizuka Arakawa, and Miki Ando.³⁶ Then, just as she was about to start her free skate, there was a disruption caused by a spectator entering the ice surface, who had to be removed by security staff. In the end, Kwan skated an inspired, if conservative, 5 triple performance and received the last 6.0 marks given at the World Championships. She placed second in the Free Skating portion (she was one judge away from winning the long program) and placed third overall at the championships behind Shizuka Arakawa of Japan who performed a daring 7-triple performance with two triple-triple combinations and Sasha Cohen. This was the first time Kwan had placed lower than second at a major international competition since 1995.

For the 2004–2005 competitive season she skated a long program to the Christopher Dean choregraphed "Boléro", which was made famous by ice dancers Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean two decades before, and debuted a new short program, "Adagio" from Aram Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus. At the U.S. Championships, she won her 9th title, tying the all-time record previously set by Maribel Vinson-Owen. Interestingly, Vinson-Owen had coached Frank Carroll, who in turn coached Kwan. At the 2005 World Championship, Kwan's rough Qualifying Round and inexperience with the new Code-of-Points judging system caused her to trail her competitions going into the Free Skate despite placing third in the Short Program portion. In the Free Skate, Kwan fell on her triple salchow and two-footed a triple lutz. She finished fourth, missing third place by 0.37 points. For the first time since 1995, Kwan finished off the podium at the World Championships and placed lower than third at an international competition. Later, Kwan commented that her lack of experience with the new scoring system had affected her performance.^{citation needed}

2006 Olympics

Kwan looked at the 2005 Worlds as a learning experience in the ISU Judging System.^{citation needed} She continued to train and stated that she would attempt to qualify for the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.³⁷ However, following a hip injury, she was forced to withdraw from her three planned competitions in the fall of 2005. Kwan skated her new short program ("Totentanz") at a made-for-TV event in December, 2005, but her performance was well below her usual standard. On January 4, 2006, Kwan withdrew from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships with an abdominal injury incurred in December 2005. One week later, she filed a petition with the USFSA for a medical waiver to be placed on the 2006 Olympic figure skating team.³⁷ On January 14, 2006, after the United States ladies' figure skating event, the USFSA's International Committee met and in a 20 to 3 vote approved Kwan's petition under the stipulation that she show her physical and competitive readiness to a five-member monitoring panel by January 27.

Kwan performed her long and short programs for the panel on the stipulated day, and her spot on the Olympic team was established, as the panel felt she was fit to compete. However, on February 12, 2006, the United States Olympic Committee announced that Kwan had withdrawn from the Games after suffering a new groin injury in her first practice in Turin. Kwan remarked that she "respected the Olympics too much to compete.³⁸" The Turin organizing committee accepted the USOC's application for Emily Hughes (who had finished third at the U.S. Championships) to compete as Kwan's replacement.

After her withdrawal from the Olympic team, Kwan turned down an offer to stay in Turin as a figure skating commentator for NBC Sports.³⁹ During an interview with Bob Costas and Scott Hamilton, Michelle Kwan said she was not retiring yet.

Injury and moving forward

Kwan and Kim Yu-Na at the 2009 World Figure Skating Hall of Fame reception.

Kwan underwent elective arthroscopic surgery in August 2006 to repair a torn labrum in her right hip, an old injury which she traces back to 2002.⁸ According to Kwan, the surgery allowed her to skate pain free for the first time in four years.⁴⁰ Kwan did not compete during the 2006–2007 figure skating season.⁴¹ Kwan told the Associated Press in October 2007 that she would decide in 2009 if she planned to compete in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics⁴⁰, but she ultimately decided not to do so, focusing instead on graduate school.⁴² Although Kwan joined Kim Yu-Na, 2009 world champion, at Ice All Stars in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2009⁴³ and will skate in exhibitions and commentate in the future, she had said "Representing the United States as an American Public Diplomacy Envoy the past three years has been very rewarding, and I want to do more. Furthering my education will bring me closer to that goal, and I don't want to wait any longer to continue the journey."⁴²

Awards and accolades

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Kwan is a recipient of the prestigious James E. Sullivan Award (2001), which is given to America's best amateur athlete; she was the first figure skater to win the award since Dick Button won it in 1949. In 2003 she was named the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) "Sportswoman of the Year", and is the 5th figure skater in history to receive this honor. She has also been named USOC "Athlete of the Month" 14 times, which is more than any other athlete, male or female, as well as being named "Female Figure Skating Athlete of the Year" by the USOC multiple times. She is also the recipient of the USOC's "Citizenship Through Sports Alliance Award" (2004).

Kwan is the only multiple winner of the "Readers' Choice Figure Skater of the Year" award given by Skating magazine (1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001–2003). In 2003, the United States Figure Skating Association, which publishes Skating, announced that the award would be renamed the "Michelle Kwan Trophy." The USFSA stated that although Kwan may continue to skate competitively, she will no longer be eligible for this award. She also appeared on International Figure Skating Magazine's "25 Most Influential Names in Figure Skating List" seven times, and was named the most influential skater for the 2002–03 season.

In 1999, she was given the Historymakers Award by the Los Angeles Chinese American Museum.⁴⁴

In January 2009 she was appointed a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports by George W. Bush.⁴⁵⁴⁶⁴⁷ And on May 3, 2009, Kwan will be honored by the Los Angeles Chinese Historical Society of Southern California in "Celebrating Chinese Americans in Sports".⁴⁸

Programs

Competitive highlights

Kwan sits in the kiss and cry area at the 2002 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Other people in the photo include Kwan's father, who was acting as her coach at this event.

Major events for Olympic-eligible skaters include the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, World Figure Skating Championships, the Olympic Winter Games, and the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. Kwan's record in these events is listed by season in the tables below.

Post-1998

Pre-1998

• J = Junior level, WD = withdrew

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michelle Kwan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michelle Kwan

• Michelle Kwan at the International Skating Union
• Michelle Kwan at the United States Figure Skating Association
• Official U.S. Olympic Team Biography