Kwan Rises to Occasion

The Dawg Pound doesn’t do figure skating finals, and Gund Arena hadn’t seen anything in mascara and burgundy velvet since Dennis Rodman’s last swing through, but the locals roared their approval for Michelle Kwan on Saturday night, because her victory at the U.S Figure Skating Championships was purely Cleveland On Ice.

Kwan brought this title home with ice shavings on her back. She fell during the short program, she fell during the long program, she was trailing late in the contest and had to grind it out with a last-second audible.

In fact, Kwan was in overtime--the scoreboard clock had just flashed the required 4:00--when she ad-libbed an unscripted triple-toe loop before bringing her long program to a close seconds later. She needed the extra triple jump, giving her six for the evening, because she landed a regularly scheduled triple-loop on her backside.

That was one more triple jump than either of her economy-sized challengers, Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes, could muster, enabling Kwan, who began the day in third place, to vault over both for her fourth national title in five years.

This time, there was no torrent of 6.0s raining down from the judges, as she received in Philadelphia in 1998. Her victories in 1996 and 1999 were also easier on the eyes. This one was a struggle from the opening minute, the closest women’s figure skating ever gets to Winning Ugly.

Yet after it was over, Kwan fingered the gold medal hanging from her neck and said, with no small measure of pride, “I can say truthfully that this competition was very satisfying to me. I knew I had to be strong, and I was. I didn’t give an inch.”

Of course, she couldn’t afford an inch, given her fall in Friday’s short program--the reason she began the final round trailing Cohen and Hughes--and her tumble early in Saturday’s program.

Two falls in two days. Such adversity had leveled Kwan before. At the 1997 nationals in Nashville, one pratfall in Kwan’s long program mushroomed into a four-minute disaster, opening the door for a previously unknown jumping tyke named Tara Lipinski.

This time, Kwan didn’t flinch.

“I felt today I was all business,” she said. “I came to the rink determined, very serious. I was saying to myself, ‘OK, we’ve got something to do. Just do it, Michelle. Don’t fool around on the ice.’ ”

She mentioned her choice of musical accompaniment, a brooding piece from “The Red Violin” soundtrack.

“My music wasn’t very cheery, either,” Kwan said. “I think it suited my mood perfectly.”

Kwan caught one break when Hughes, leading off the final group, fell on a triple salchow and singled a triple loop, leaving her with five completed triple jumps out of a scheduled seven.

That provided Kwan the opening she needed, but she matched Hughes’ miscue with one of her own, falling on the triple loop. She also failed to complete a triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination, doubling the second jump.

“I hadn’t been doing the triple-triple that well in practice,” Kwan noted, “so I couldn’t expect a miracle in my long [program]--’God, come down and grant me a triple-triple.’ ”

Kwan had to make do on her own, throwing in the last-ditch triple jump.

“If I didn’t add it, I would have only had [five] triples,” Kwan explained. “So at the end, a triple toe loop.”

Kwan’s performance was enough to move her past Hughes, but Cohen was still to skate. The 15-year-old from Laguna Niguel glided through the first half of her program but seemed to tire near the end. With 20 seconds left, Cohen tried her final triple jump--and triple toe--and fell, leaving her with a total of five clean triple jumps.

When Cohen’s marks appeared on the scoreboard, the crowd jeered. Technical marks were low: one 5.4, another 5.5. Presentation marks were also conservative: one 5.6, three 5.7s.

Cohen, however, responded to the scores with a pragmatism well beyond her years.

“I don’t think I would have won even if I didn’t fall,” Cohen said. “Because [Kwan] is a world champion and an Olympic [medalist] and has a reputation--and I don’t.”

Cohen had to settle for second place, with Hughes taking third. Naomi Nari Nam, who trains at the same Costa Mesa club with Cohen, finished eighth after falling twice during her long program.

Kwan and Hughes received automatic berths onto the three-woman team that will represent the United States at next month’s World Championship in Nice, France. Cohen, because she is under age and hasn’t medaled at the Junior World Championships, will have to finish in the top three at that event in early March in order to earn the third spot. Hughes, 14, finished second at the 1999 junior worlds.

If she doesn’t, Angela Nikodinov, who finished fourth Saturday, will get the third berth.

Kwan, meanwhile, has six weeks to work out the kinks before bidding for her third world championship. That, and continuing the ongoing struggle of juggling studies at UCLA with the demands of elite-level figure skating.

Jokingly, or so it seemed, Kwan’s father offered his daughter a bit of advice.

“From now on,” Danny Kwan deadpanned, “she can’t have a life.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. FIGURE SKATING

WOMEN’S FINAL

1. MICHELLE KWAN

Lake Arrowhead

2. SASHA COHEN

Laguna Niguel

3. SARAH HUGHES

Great Neck, N.Y.

*

A WEISS DECISION

Goebel lands three quad jumps, but judges award men’s title to more conservative Weiss. Page 11