U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : Now She Flies Solo : Kuchiki, Former Pairs Champion, Stands Third in Singles Figure Skating at San Antonio

Her toe flares in pain every time she jumps off the ice. She doesn’t have a coach. She’s battling a weight problem and she would prefer to be skating pairs.

Yet Natasha Kuchiki’s unflashy, but mistake-free performance Saturday in the ladies’ technical program put her in third place heading into today’s culminating free-skating program at the U.S. Olympic Festival.

Kuchiki, 16, of Canoga Park, with a score of 1.5, trails Michelle Kwan, 13, of Lake Arrowhead, whose score was .5, and Jenna Pittman, 14, of Cary, N.C., who was judged at 1.0.

To the strains of a sultry song, the name of which she does not know, Kuchiki executed each required element without a hitch, from a jump combination to a double axel, from a flying spin to a spin combination with one change of foot and two position changes, to a spiral step.

Her large movements were graceful and fluid, but the small movements, to a rapid part of the song, were choppy.

The music and choreography were borrowed from her sister, Tamara, a former singles skater who is competing in ice dancing at the festival with Neale Smull.

Kuchiki is a former pairs skater competing in singles. And not just any pairs skater. With Todd Sand as her partner, she won the 1991 national championships, placed third in the ’91 World championships and finished sixth in the ’92 Olympic Games in Albertville, France.

After a disappointing eighth-place finish in the ’92 World championships, Kuchiki and Sand parted ways.

He hooked up with Jenni Meno.

Kuchiki was left alone.

She received offers to pair up from a few men, but she thought they lacked talent so she returned to singles skating.

In January, Kuchiki struggled in the technical program and placed 12th in the national singles championships. Although several top skaters did not make the trip to Texas, including Nancy Kerrigan, Tonya Harding Gillooly and Nicole Bobek, a festival medal would serve as a confidence booster and a testament to Kuchiki’s mental toughness.

In early June, a corn on her right foot made jumping impossible. Fearing she wouldn’t recover in time to prepare adequately for the festival, Kuchiki told her coach, Wendy Olson, that she would not compete.

Two days’ later, Kuchiki changed her mind. By then, Olson had made vacation plans preventing her from attending the festival. Olson, who coached the Kuchikis in singles the past 10 years, has not coached Natasha since.

With a little help from her parents, Sashi and Denise, former Ice Capades performers, she has trained herself the last six weeks at Pickwick Arena in Burbank.

“I’ve been skating well at home on my own,” Kuchiki said. “And then I came down here and I got a little nervous.”

Kuchiki’s practice sessions Thursday and Friday were rocky and she slipped warming up for the competition on Saturday.

Denise, who is serving as her coach, knew exactly what to say.

“She believes in me an awful lot,” Kuchiki said. “She said, ‘You’ll be all right. Just go out and have fun.’ ”

Although Kuchiki said that anyone can compete without a coach, she didn’t seem to be convinced when she added, “It’s so mentally tough.”

With a routine lacking the number of triple jumps of several of her competitors, her third-place standing surprised her.

“It’s who has the triple jumps,” Kuchiki said.

Kwan and Pittman are not only younger, but lighter. Kwan is 4-foot-7, 77 pounds, and Pittman is 5-4, 91 pounds.

Compared to her friends, Kuchiki cuts a fine figure, but in the world of figure skating, she is heavy at 5-3, 112 pounds.

Her weight also is a factor in her inability to skate pairs, at least for now.

“I think I’m a great pairs skater,” she said. “And there’s not a lot of choices for guys. If they felt I was ready as far as my weight is concerned. . . . “

The lifts and throws of pairs skating make lighter skaters more desirable.

Kuchiki also is tall by skating standards, making matchups difficult. Yet the problems associated with a return to pairs skating have not inspired Kuchiki to embrace singles skating.

“I want to do it,” she said. “The competition is tough, and the effort is there, but I wouldn’t say I’ve thrown my heart and soul into it.”

She does not, for example, believe she has a chance of making the 1994 U.S. Olympic team because she lacks triple jumps.

In less than one year, she learned a triple toe loop and a triple salchow. But in order to have a chance against her younger, lighter, more acrobatic competitors, she is working on a triple lutz and a triple flip.

The 1998 Games are a million lonely, lengthy practices away for a skater such as Kuchiki who has been on skates since she could stand.

Age restrictions nearly prevented her from competing in her first World championships at 12, but the International Skating Union granted her a special waiver.

In two years she wants to teach skating and eventually she plans to join an ice show. For now, her competitive goals are muddled.

“It’s hard to say,” she said. “You never know. I’d like to compete in the ’98 Olympics, but there’s a lot of new people coming up.”

Kuchiki’s skating life took a serpentine turn since her emotional breakup with Sand.

“We have talked, Todd, Jenni (Menno) and I,” Kuchiki said. “I think we just needed to talk about it to feel better. We did that and we broke the ice. It’s still not as comfortable as we want it to be, but basically we’re friends now.”

It was the second breakup of her career. In a move engineered by her parents, who feared that her 5-9, 150-pound partner Richard Alexander lacked the frame to lift and throw their growing daughter, Kuchiki and Alexander split in 1989. Kuchiki, then 12, was paired with Sand, then 25.

After a rocky start, they made one of the quickest ascensions in pairs skating history, taking second in the national championships in 1990 and winning the 1991 title.

Alone, yet determined and wiser, Natasha Kuchiki skates on.

The festival motto, “Where stars get their stripes,” does not apply. She already has hers.