Michelle Kwan knows that, which may account for why she never got as worked up as the press did over her succession of Grand Prix silver medals, three years in a row of runnerupdom to Russia’s Irina Slutskaya. Kwan knows the true measure of a skater’s worth will always come in national and world titles. And when those events come around at season’s end, Kwan is a totally different kind of competitor. Last week at the Nationals in Los Angeles, she dusted off routines that have looked stale and lackluster all season and rendered them effervescent and energized before a hometown crowd that couldn’t roar its approval loudly enough.
The crowd response when Kwan stepped on the ice Saturday night for the ladies’ free skate was so overwhelming that Michelle had to take a couple extra loops around the ice to compose herself before launching her “Scheherazade.” No one could doubt for a second the enduring affection and respect the fans have for this great American champion. Still, they may have been compensating a bit for the absence of flowers and teddy bears, the traditional figure-skating tribute.
In another sad offshoot of Sept. 11th, fans were banned from entering the Staples Center with the bears and other throwables, which cascade onto the ice, then make their way as a cheery gift to children’s hospitals. In an attempt to compensate, organizers passed out some ugly and blocky yellow stuffed “cars” (donated by sponsor Chevy) for fans to throw. They made lousy projectiles and often thudded short into the heads and backs of a lot of unintended targets, including my fragile self. (Unless there’s a new chevy in my driveway this week, I may have to seek legal redress.)
But not even an unseemly clump of yellow on the ice could detract from Kwan’s moment, her sixth national championship to go with four world titles. Michelle whipped the teen upstarts Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes so easily that it might not have been apparent that this was her toughest triumph ever. Since firing her longtime coach, Frank Caroll, in mid-season, the press has been waiting to pounce with proof of her capricious and foolish judgment. But competing is always “just between me and the ice,” Kwan kept repeating. “No one can hold your hand when you skate.”
Kwan’s convincing victory takes the coaching question off the table. And she has reestablished herself as this nation’s top gold-medal hope in figure-skating for the Salt Lake Olympics. With the steady, graceful Hughes and the flashy, sizzling Cohen on the team, it is this country’s strongest team since we sent Kristi Yamaguchi, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan to Albertville a decade ago. The men’s team too is incredibly deep, the first time America has ever boasted three present or former national champions–Todd Eldredge, Tim Goebel and Michael Weiss–on one Olympic squad. But they are three men in search of one bronze, a quantum leap beneath the artistry of the two Russian stars, Yevgeny Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin, who will duel for the gold medal.
There are still those who would choose to carp about Kwan’s victory, at least as to how it sets her up for the Olympic gold that eluded her in Nagano four years ago. They will note that Kwan didn’t perform a triple-triple combination, something many view as a requisite move if Michelle is to best her bouncy and more athletic Russian rival, Slutskaya. But none of the top U.S. ladies managed a triple-triple, reminding us that in these pressure-cookers that are the elite competitions, the jumpers often stumble. There is a lot of merit to steady and pretty.
The critics will also point out that Kwan didn’t quite recapture the majesty of her national championship performance before the Olympics four years ago. That may prove, though, to be a blessing. Having peaked in Philadelphia back in 1998, with her startling array of perfect 6.0s for artistry, her very good, but not quite great skate in Nagano couldn’t help but seem a disappointment. And Tara’s Lipinski’s buoyant performance made that difference all too conspicuous. Kwan has clearly learned from her previous experience that, in the Olympic season, there’s simply no point in appearing too perfect a month early.
Backstage, after her L.A. victory, Kwan was enjoying the heady experience of having her named tossed around in the same breath as American skating immortals like Tenley Albright (six national titles, two world championships), Carol Heiss (four and five) Peggy Fleming (five and three) and Dorothy Hamill (three and one). And in the skating world, those titles are the ones that are the true coin of the realm. But in the public’s eye, the Olympic title remains paramount. All those other ladies have that precious Olympic gold. Next month in Salt Lake will determine whether Kwan gets to be mentioned in the same breath with them forever.
