announced to the world that Kwan had come of age. As she held the fi nal pose of that free skate, the San Jose, Calif., crowd leapt to its feet to honor the new champion well before the scores were posted. They knew the once-ponytailed little girl from Torrance, Calif., was now all grown up. They had witnessed the beginning of her meteoric rise to international stardom. How ironic, then, is it that the following year in Nash-
ville, a 14-year-old girl would become the youngest to claim the ladies’ prize? Lipinski, with an arsenal of triple jumps and reckless abandon, became the youngest to win a U.S. Championships, leaving Kwan with her third silver medal in four seasons. It would be the last time she did not rise to the top of the U.S. podium. From the perfection of 1998 Philadelphia to her Amer-
ican farewell performance at 2005 Portland, Ore., Kwan was untouchable, becoming the only fi gure skater to win eight consecutive U.S. titles. In all, Kwan would become the most decorated athlete
Kwan acknowledges the crowd after her short program at the the 2003 U.S. Championships in Dallas.
In one elegant frame, Kwan coupled graceful
expression with fi erce will. Every move of the hand, every turn of the head breathed purpose into the music. And on two magical nights in Philadelphia, Kwan recorded the best performances in the his- tory of 100 years of U.S. Figure Skating Champion- ships. For the 1998 Championships, Kwan chose two
very diff erent pieces of music: piano by Rachmani- noff for the short program; Lyra Angelica by William Alwyn for the free skate. Having lost her crown to Tara Lipinski the previous year, Kwan was focused and determined. She also was battling a stress frac- ture in her foot, an injury that required a cumber- some, heavy cast just two weeks prior to competi- tion.
But when Kwan took the ice, any hint of injury
was replaced with a lightness, a grace that moved many judges to tears. After the short, seven of nine judges gave her perfect 6.0 scores for pre- sentation, a sight never seen at a U.S. Cham- pionships. Two nights later, magic again sur- rounded her free skate, in which eight judges rewarded her with perfection. The 15 6.0s were a record then and, with the
retirement of the 6.0 judging system in 2005, will remain a record for all time. Kwan’s remarkable U.S. Championships histo-
ry got off to a surreal start, as she was a 13-year- old understudy in one of sports’ most grandiose dramas. The 1994 storyline will be forever remem- bered for the attack on reigning champion Nancy Kerrigan, but it also thrust a young Kwan into the spotlight as the U.S. silver medalist and Olympic al- ternate in Lillehammer, Norway. It was her second senior season. But it was the sultry 1996 Salome program that
20 JANUARY 2014
Kwan was inducted in to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2012 in San Jose, Calif.
in U.S. Figure Skating history. In addition to her nine U.S. titles, she won 43 major championships, two Olympic medals and fi ve World Championships. A hallmark of perfection, she received 57 perfect 6.0 marks in major competitions, the most of any singles skater in the sport’s history. So beloved was she by fans, that
after earning her seventh SKATING magazine Readers’ Choice Skater of the Year Award in 2003, U.S. Figure Skating renamed the award the “Michelle Kwan Trophy.” Michelle Kwan was elected into
the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2012, the fi rst year she was eligible. She was the only inductee. Her induction ceremony was held in San Jose — on the same ice where she skated to Salome to earn her fi rst U.S. Championships. She is also a member of the
World Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
PHOTOS BY PAUL HARVATH
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