Kwan Leaves Comfort Zone

Michelle Kwan didn’t need someone who’d teach her how to jump when she asked Rafael Arutunian to coach her in late November.

The five-time world figure skating champion could have stayed on the same comfortable path, winning but not advancing the sport as far athletically as she had moved it artistically. But the competitiveness that fuels her after more than a decade among the sport’s elite wouldn’t let her settle for less than what she believes she is still capable of accomplishing.

“She is like a genius of skating,” said Arutunian, who worked with Kwan before the 1998 and 2002 Olympics. “She is the whole package. She really has everything to stay on top for years, as much as she will want to do.”

What the Manhattan Beach resident lacked, after winning silver and bronze Olympic medals to go with her world honors and seven U.S. championships, was a hunger to take risks. With Arutunian’s guidance she has rediscovered the rewards of pushing herself as she pursues a record seventh consecutive U.S. title and eighth overall this week in Atlanta.

“You have to find something new and exciting each time you go,” said Kwan, 23. “I get excited when I skate well. Preparing for a competition, you get sort of antsy.

“It’s fun because it’s a competition. You should be excited, nervous.”

Her previous coach, Scott Williams, was ideal for her last season. Their friendship created a cocoon-like atmosphere, soothing her jumbled emotions as she pondered her future after a flawed performance and third-place finish behind Sarah Hughes and Irina Slutskaya at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Last season was a time to heal, but this season was the time to acknowledge that to hold off challengers such as Sasha Cohen of Laguna Niguel -- and score well under the new point system that was used in Grand Prix events and might be in place at the 2006 Turin Games -- she would have to up the ante in the technical aspects of her skating.

That’s why she called Arutunian and why she moved to a hotel in Lake Arrowhead to focus on training, instead of traveling to Los Angeles-area rinks. They have collaborated at only one competition -- last month’s International Figure Skating Challenge in Auburn Hills, Mich., which she won -- but that’s one more than Cohen has had with her new coach, Robin Wagner, who formerly coached Hughes.

“Rafael is very interesting and he’s pushing me real hard but encouraging me,” Kwan said. “It’s perfect. It’s what I need right now.”

Kwan will perform “The Feeling Begins” short program she used last season and the “Tosca” long program she skated twice this season. She has practiced a triple flip-triple toe loop combination and triple salchow-triple toe, as well as an easier triple toe-triple toe combination. Choreographer Nikolai Morozov recently helped her polish the programs and made minor changes, mostly on entrances to jumps and spins, to enhance the flow of her skating.

“The last few years she did some stuff, and in my opinion she should develop and improve more,” Arutunian said. “She is at a level everybody wants to reach .... I think she gets more aggressive and knows what she wants.”

Cohen got what she wanted most -- her first victory over Kwan -- at the Campbell’s Classic in October. Training in Connecticut with Tatiana Tarasova, Cohen won three Grand Prix events but faltered in her last two competitions.

On Dec. 24 she parted with Tarasova, who cited health problems for the split. Cohen turned to Wagner.

“Switching to Robin and working with her is another step toward reaching my goal and reaching my potential,” Cohen said. “She pushes me just as hard, if not harder [than Tarasova]. It was close to nationals, but I knew what I can gain in the long run with this.”

To win her first U.S. title she would have to defeat Kwan, but she and Wagner said she is more intent on skating cleanly.

“I like her thought process now,” Wagner said. “She’s focusing on herself and her performances. I don’t focus on who has to be beaten. I look at everybody as a good competitor.

“Sasha has to worry about what she needs to do and the rest will take care of itself.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

*

87th U.S. Figure

Skating Championships

* Where -- Atlanta, Philips Arena and the Arena at Gwinnett.

* What -- U.S. titles will be decided at the novice, junior and senior levels in men’s, women’s, pairs and dance.

* When -- Novice competition started Monday and juniors start today. The senior competition starts today with ice dance compulsory and original dances.

* Overview: Michelle Kwan will try for her seventh straight women’s title and eighth overall, which would rank her behind only Maribel Vinson’s nine. Her main rival should be Sasha Cohen of Laguna Niguel. Michael Weiss will defend his men’s title, which he backed into last year without landing a quadruple jump.