SAVING GRACE; KWAN PUTS SPARKLE BACK INTO WOMEN'S FIGURE SKATING.Byline: KAREN CROUSE Michelle Kwan Michelle Wing Kwan (關穎珊) (born 7 July 1980) is an American figure skater and media celebrity who has won nine U.S. championships, five world championships, and two Olympic medals. hasn't won an Olympic women's title, but she has skated in ice shows and written her life story. Not so long ago the idea of having professional appearances and a book before an Olympic gold Olympic Gold is the official video game of the XXV Olympic Summer Games, hosted by Barcelona, Spain in 1992. It was released for the Sega consoles, Mega Drive/Genesis and Master System, and Sega's handheld, Game Gear. medal would have been preposterous, as ludicrous in the fastidious fas·tid·i·ous adj. 1. Possessing or displaying careful, meticulous attention to detail. 2. Difficult to please; exacting. 3. Having complex nutritional requirements. Used of microorganisms. world of figure skating figure skating Sport in which ice skaters, singly or in pairs, perform various jumps, spins, and footwork. The figure skate blade has a special serrated toe pick, or toe rake, at the front. as learning a triple-toe loop before a double axel. A new order was choreographed after Tonya Harding Tonya Maxine Harding (born November 12, 1970) is an American former figure skater. Despite a tough childhood in an unstable family, as well as being plagued by asthma (aggravated by smoking), she became an elite figure skater. She won the U.S. entered into a Faustian pact and had her U.S. nemesis Nancy Kerrigan Nancy Kerrigan (born October 13, 1969 in Stoneham, Massachusetts) is a two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist and 1993 U.S. champion. Biography Kerrigan began skating at age six. She grew up with brothers who played hockey, and often joined in herself. whacked on the knee before the 1994 Olympics, the better to keep Kerrigan from realizing the success and subsequent financial security that Harding craved. When the attack was launched at the U.S. Championships, it seemed a blow not only to Kerrigan but also to the sport, which long had packaged its women's champions as prim and proper paragons of loveliness. But a funny thing happened as Harding's plot unraveled like a cheap skating dress; Harding was ostracized, Kerrigan was canonized can·on·ize tr.v. can·on·ized, can·on·iz·ing, can·on·iz·es 1. To declare (a deceased person) to be a saint and entitled to be fully honored as such. 2. To include in the biblical canon. 3. (if only for the weeks leading up to her Olympic silver-medal performance in Lillehammer, Norway) and the sport was popularized beyond anybody's wildest belief. The taped telecast of the women's singles short program earned the sixth-highest rating in U.S. television history. The telecast of the free skate two days later was the most-watched Friday-night program in history. Among those who had a rink-side seat to see Ukrainian teenager Oksana Baiul Oksana Baiul (Ukrainian: Оксана Баюл) (born November 16, 1977) is a Ukrainian professional figure skater. She is the 1994 Olympic Champion. edge Kerrigan for the gold medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize was Kwan, then 13, who traveled to Norway as an alternate after finishing second to Harding at the U.S. Championships. Kwan, who was born in Rancho Palos Verdes Rancho Pal·os Ver·des A city of southern California on a channel of the Pacific Ocean west of Long Beach. Population: 42,100. , was part of the circus, but on the periphery. Like the guys who trail after the elephants, Kwan has done a laudable job of cleaning up the mess left by Harding and Kerrigan - whose lissome lis·some also lis·som adj. 1. Easily bent; supple. 2. Having the ability to move with ease; limber. [Alteration of lithesome. strides on the ice were overshadowed by her graceless asides off it - and Baiul, who declared herself an alcoholic after a drunken-driving arrest in Connecticut last year. Harding and Kerrigan will dredge up the past for old ratings' sake tonight when they meet face-to-face in a contrived interview on Fox (Channel 11). Thankfully, the Olympic skating competition commences Feb. 18, in Nagano, Japan, and the world turns its attention to the ruddy-cheeked rivalry between Kwan and her fellow American, 15-year-old Tara Lipinski Tara Kristen Lipinski (born June 10 1982) is an American figure skater and celebrity. At the age of 15, she won the Olympic gold medal in figure skating at the 1998 Winter Olympics, and remains the youngest gold medalist in the history of the Olympic Winter Games. . Lipinski is a guileless wonder gunning to supplant Sonja Henie as the youngest women's gold medalist in Olympic figure skating history. Standing in her way is Kwan, 17, a throwback throwback see atavism. to the days of Janet Lynn and Peggy Fleming. She is sanguine and unspoiled and powered by passion rather than the promise of any palatial pa·la·tial adj. 1. Of or suitable for a palace: palatial furnishings. 2. Of the nature of a palace, as in spaciousness or ornateness: a palatial yacht. payoff. The jostling for supremacy between Kwan and Lipinski has helped restore a sense of balance to a sport that four years ago seemed in danger of spinning out of control even as its ratings soared. ``Skating has changed since Tonya and Nancy,'' Kwan said. ``People are watching now because they're more interested in the grace and beauty of skating.'' Kwan deserves a lioness' share of credit for the fact figure skating telecasts today have more in common with ``Masterpiece Theater'' than ``The Jerry Springer Show.'' At the U.S. Championships in Philadelphia in early January, Kwan took back the national title that Lipinski had wrested from her last year with a peerless and nearly flawless performance in her short and long programs. Kwan received an unprecedented 15 (out of a possible 18) perfect marks for artistic impression. Lynn, who took home a bronze medal the last time the Olympics were held in Japan, in Sapporo in 1972, watched Kwan's long program on television from her home outside Detroit and was moved to tears by the elegance and elan of her performance. Later that night, Lynn said, she stumbled upon a sentence while reading the Scriptures that summed up for her Kwan's most recent performance. `` `And to present you faultless fault·less adj. Being without fault. See Synonyms at perfect. fault  less·ly adv. before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy,' from the Book of Jude,'' said Lynn,
a brilliant free skater whose star was handcuffed by the school figures
that were dropped after 1990. ``Those were the perfect words to describe
what I had seen and what was in my heart.''
Like Lynn before her, Kwan's sparkle on the ice exceeds the sum total of her sequins. In Philadelphia she moved to music from William Alwyn's Lyra Angelica as if she had sprouted wings, her blades brushing the ice but never seeming to alight. Her long program, which included seven triple jumps, was all the more remarkable given she had sat out almost the entire month of November with a stress fracture stress fracture n. A fatigue fracture of bone caused by repeated application of a heavy load, such as the constant pounding on a surface by runners, gymnasts, and dancers. in the second toe of her left foot. She had trouble landing the more difficult jumps in her program right up until the time she took the ice for her short program. Whereas a year ago she had been fixated fix·ate v. fix·at·ed, fix·at·ing, fix·ates v.tr. 1. To make fixed, stable, or stationary. 2. To focus one's eyes or attention on: fixate a faint object. on not falling, the feeling Kwan experienced in Philadelphia, she said, was of ``angels and clouds and flying.'' After soaring so close to sheer perfection, is Kwan at all concerned about a crash landing? It's a question that makes her coach Frank Carroll cringe no matter how carefully it's worded. ``Sometimes people ask all kinds of scenarios, all these psychological questions that she's better off not thinking about,'' Carroll said. As the Romanian-born playwright Eugene Ionesco once wrote, ``take a perfect circle, caress it and you'll have a vicious circle A Vicious Circle (1996) is a novel by Amanda Craig which dissects and satirizes contemporary British society. In particular, it describes the world of publishing -- its aspiring young authors, busy agents and opportunist literary critics. .'' Kwan, whom Carroll describes as ``very worldly-wise for her age,'' knows of what downward spirals are made. She won her first U.S. women's crown and world title in 1996, then dwelled so much on what she needed to do to stay on top, she lost her footing and relinquished both titles to Lipinski last year. ``When I became world champion in 1996, everything started happening so fast that I almost couldn't appreciate how lucky and happy I was,'' Kwan wrote in ``Heart of a Champion,'' which was published in November and already is in its second printing. ``I wished then that I could take a picture of my life so I could look at it at the same time that I was living it.'' Back then she was so busy she turned down an invitation to the White House. An older, wiser Kwan has learned there are times when the only things that should be moving are the pictures. So it was that she recently dragged Carroll to the world movie premiere of ``Titanic.'' It is one of countless films she has watched during the past few weeks in an effort to relax her body and her mind. She also has slipped into the VCR VCR: see videocassette recorder. VCR in full videocassette recorder Electromechanical device that records, stores on a videotape cassette, and plays back on a TV set recorded images and sound. a tape of her performance in Philadelphia. She gives it good reviews but not as gushing gush v. gushed, gush·ing, gush·es v.intr. 1. To flow forth suddenly in great volume: water gushing from a hydrant. 2. as the two-thumbs up she enthusiastically reserved for ``Titanic.'' ``I was pretty amazed,'' Kwan said during a recent conference call with reporters, ``because from the inside it seemed more than what I put out there on the ice. In my heart, I felt like I was flying so high. On the tape, I look at it and I was only skating around the rink.'' Kwan was introduced to skating at a rink in Rolling Hills Estates when she was 5. She quickly got hooked on the feeling of stroking and gliding across the ice. Two years later, she was enraptured en·rap·ture tr.v. en·rap·tured, en·rap·tur·ing, en·rap·tures To fill with rapture or delight. en·rap by U.S. skater Brian Boitano's gold-medal performance at the 1988 Olympics. ``Right then,'' she said, ``I decided that I wanted to know that feeling for myself.'' Kwan never lacked the determination to pursue her dream, but sometimes her parents Estella and Danny struggled to find the dollars to fund it. Kwan and her old sister Karen, who's also a leading U.S. skater, had to practice on their own for nine months in 1992 because their parents couldn't afford lessons despite holding down three jobs. That same year, the Kwans sold their house in Rancho Palos Verdes to help pay the bills and moved into a home in Torrance that Kwan's grandparents grandparents npl → abuelos mpl grandparents grand npl → grands-parents mpl grandparents grand npl owned. Kwan didn't get her first pair of brand-new skates until 1995, the year after she finished eighth in her World Championships debut. Before then, she made do with hand-me-down skates and outfits. She and Karen, now a sophomore at Boston University, even shared tights. On the strength of their parents' daily sacrifices and the generosity of some people within the skating community, the Kwan girls got everything they needed to continue climbing the competitive ladder. Michelle practically shimmied it, qualifying for senior competition at the age of 12. Every step of the way, Kwan has felt pride but also pangs of guilt. The relaxed standards of amateurism that the International Skating Union The International Skating Union (ISU) is the international governing body for competitive ice skating disciplines, including figure skating, synchronized skating, speed skating, and short track speed skating. approved in 1990 were a godsend god·send n. Something wanted or needed that comes or happens unexpectedly. [Alteration of Middle English goddes sand, God's message : goddes, genitive of God, God for Kwan, who in 1994 began skating for dollars during the offseason as part of a caravan consisting of many of the sport's marquee names. ``My parents have done a lot for me in my skating and it crossed my mind a couple of times that maybe it was (too much to ask),'' Kwan said. ``Oftentimes I'd wonder, why have they sacrificed so much? But they've always said that if I'm going to do something, they want me to do it to the best of my abilities.'' Kwan is on the cusp of Olympic immortality, a spot as thin as ice. She has been exercising extreme caution when driving on the snow-covered roads around Lake Arrowhead where the Kwans have lived since 1995. She has been washing her hands a hundred times a day. She appeared on Jay Leno's show recently and when fellow guest Burt Reynolds coughed in Kwan's direction, she nearly jumped into Leno's lap. Kwan has come too far to let a few wayward germs or a freak injury slow her. An Olympic gold medal could fetch her $10 million in endorsements, but that's not what drives her. ``I've never stopped imagining myself skating my best in front of the world,'' Kwan wrote last year. ``It might be the closest I'll ever come to flying in real life.'' ATHLETE PROFILE Women's Figure Skating: Michelle Kwan Born: July 7, 1980, in Torrance Height: 5'2'' Weight: 100 lbs. Current home: Lake Arrowhead Coach: Frank Carroll Competition highlights: World Championships: 1997 (2nd) 1996 (1st) 1995 (4th) U.S. Championships 1998 (1st) 1997 (2nd) 1996 (1st) 1995 (2nd) 1994 (2nd) Additional information: -- When she won the World Championships at 15, Kwan was the third youngest skater to accomplish the feat. -- Kwan began ice skating when she was 5. In her free time, she enjoys biking, bowling, swimming and riding her four-wheeler. SOURCES: U.S. Figure Skating U.S. Figure Skating (USFS), officially called the United States Figure Skating Association or USFSA, is the national sport governing body for figure skating in the United States. Association; Long Beach Press Telegram; KRT KRT Knight Ridder/Tribune KRT Keratin KRT Knights of the Round Table (Diablo gaming guild) KRT Khartoum, Sudan - Civil (Airport Code) KRT Kleene's Recursion Theorem Photo. CAPTION(S): 4 Photos, Box PHOTO (1--Color) ``People are watching now because they're more interested in the grace and beauty of skating,'' says Michelle Kwan. (2) Michelle Kwan had plenty to smile about in Philadelphia, where she won the national title. Associated Press (3--4) Michelle Kwan BOX: ATHLETE PROFILE (see text) |
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