Kwan Spectacularly Steals This Moment

There have been some remarkable performances by women figure skaters over the last three decades--Peggy Fleming at the 1968 national championships in Philadelphia, Dorothy Hamill at the 1975 world championships in Munich, Germany, Katarina Witt at the 1987 world championships in Cincinnati--when athleticism and artistry met to create a magical moment.

No one, however, could remember anything like Saturday night before a capacity crowd of 16,000 in the Edmonton Coliseum where two women skated so superbly, perhaps better than any women have before, in a world championship that is likely to be remembered for ages. Or at least until next year. Both the new champion, Michelle Kwan of Torrance, and the dethroned one, Chen Lu of China, are teenagers.

Chen, 19, did not let go of her title easily, earning two 6.0s for presentation in a four-minute-long program that she skated with grace and precision to Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

Declining to watch Chen perform but listening to the scores over the public address system from a small room underneath the stands reserved for the flower girls, Kwan, 15, was almost paralyzed as she contemplated her turn on the ice 20 minutes later.

“After I heard Lu Lu’s marks, I thought, ‘What am I going to do? I’ll have to do a quadruple loop to win.’ ”

But Frank Carroll, who coaches Kwan at Lake Arrowhead, calmed her.

“You’ve got to believe in yourself, that you can do this,” he told her. “You’re one of the best skaters in the world.”

The best. In her provocative long program, Kwan portrayed Salome, whose Dance of the Seven Veils earned her the head of John the Baptist. It earned Kwan two 6.0s for presentation to match Chen’s plus 5.9s from the other seven judges.

But the most revealing difference in their performances, perhaps the only one to all except the most astute observers, was the triple toe jump that Kwan inserted in the final seconds. Planning to do a double axel, she opted for the more difficult move because she had not done the triple loop earlier in her program.

It was not exactly spontaneous because she had practiced the program both ways, but, still, the decision to attempt a more challenging and risky jump that late was the mark of a champion. It gave her seven triple jumps to Chen’s six.

Ottavio Cinquanta, the president of the International Skating Union who is still learning figure skating after decades in speedskating, turned to officials near him and said, “That’s sport.”

Morry Stillwell, president of the U.S. Figure Skating Assn., said, “I’ve never seen two performances like that in my life.”

The field this year considered so vulnerable that Japan’s Midori Ito, 26, returned after four years as a professional intent on winning her second world championship. But, battling anemia that forced her to a hospital emergency room last week for treatment, she was never a factor, finishing seventh.

That was only once place ahead of Tonia Kwiatkowski, runner-up to Kwan in the U.S. championships. The third American, 13-year-old Tara Lipinski, improved dramatically from 23rd after Friday’s short program to 15th.

Two Russians, Irina Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya, finished third and fourth, respectively. France’s Surya Bonaly, three times a runner-up, was fifth.

Kwan’s victory, combined with the one two nights earlier by Todd Eldredge, gave the United States a sweep of the singles titles for the first time since 1986, when the champions were Debi Thomas and Brian Boitano.

Kwan, who two months ago became the youngest U.S. champion since Peggy Fleming in 1964, is the third-youngest world champion behind Sonia Henie and Oksana Baiul.

“World champion . . . Oh my God, I can’t imagine saying that about myself,” Kwan said.

Chen, who has spent two of the last three summers training at Lake Arrowhead and Burbank, also was having difficulty with that concept. She said that she felt she should have won, complaining that there was no Chinese judge on the panel. Kwan won first-place votes from six judges, including the United States’ Susan Johnson.