Kwan at a Crossroads of Successful Career

Michelle Kwan is carrying an unfair burden these days. Every time she skates competitively, she is measured not against her competition, but against herself.

That’s a very difficult standard for anyone.

So when an ill Kwan struggled at last year’s World Figure Skating Championships, losing to Russia’s Maria Butyrskaya, she was criticized for not beating a seemingly mediocre field.

When Kwan finished behind Irina Slutskaya, the latest Russian reclamation project, at the Grand Prix finals, she was questioned about her preparation for the event. How could she balance being a freshman at UCLA and the most famous female skater in the world?

And when Kwan looked ordinary and somewhat uninspired in winning her fourth national championship last month, people began wondering where that wonderful, often dominant competitor had gone.

As Kwan competes at the world championships in Nice, France, beginning Monday, she is at a crossroads. And she knows it.

So she hunkered down in the Los Angeles area to work on perfecting the triple-triple combinations every other top woman is doing. She’s taking just one course in school, concentrating more on getting her third world crown--and silencing the critics.

“I feel I can raise the bar again,” says Kwan, who at 19 is an old lady in U.S. skating compared with such sprites as Sarah Hughes, 14, and Sasha Cohen, 15, her main American competition. “At my first nationals, it was like, ‘Oh, she’s the jumping bean.’ Now, ‘She’s artistic, she’s beautiful on the ice.’ I want to be well-rounded.

“I think that’s what’s bugging me. Because I feel like I can do that.”

Which means mastering the triple-triples--and not just a triple toe loop-triple toe loop, the easiest of combinations. Slutskaya does far more difficult moves than that. Cohen and Hughes can, too.

It means maintaining her high level of artistry, still the best in the world, while pushing her technical marks to where they were earlier in her career.

And it means figuring out just how much schooling she can handle and still remain a formidable force in the sport as the 2002 Olympics approach.

Kwan is committed to staying at UCLA, and she should be applauded for that. Few figure skaters have been as dedicated to their studies as Kwan, who also has enjoyed campus life in Westwood by living in a dorm and just “being a college freshman.”

Unfortunately, it seems unlikely she can balance skating and school for another two seasons and stay atop her sport.

“It’s hard to focus all the time on skating. . . . It doesn’t mean I don’t love the sport anymore,” she says.

What she doesn’t love is the need to train nearly every day for extended periods, something she willingly did in advancing to the top.