ICEBREAKER

From the time she won her first figure skating competition, Michelle Kwan has had one wish.

“When I was younger, I always wanted to be remembered as a legend,” she said. “Not necessarily for the number of medals, but just to be remembered as someone who made an impact on figure skating and left a lasting impression. Someone who made it better.”

Kwan, who heads a stellar cast in “Champions on Ice” today at the Arrowhead Pond, has made a remarkable impression, and continues to do so. She has won four world championships, the last two in succession; five U.S. championships, the last four in succession; six medals in world competition, four gold and two silver, and an Olympic silver medal at Nagano in 1998.

“I don’t think people realize how difficult it is to maintain the level she has for so long,” said Dorothy Hamill, a three-time U.S. champion and the 1976 world and Olympic champion. “She had to add to the technical content of her program to win a fourth world championship and added the triple-triple [combination]. People don’t know how tough that is.

“Mentally is where it’s really tough. It’s tough to not only have technical ability but artistry. That’s what she has contributed.”

After rallying from second to win the world title at Vancouver in March, Kwan became the favorite to win gold next February at the Salt Lake City Games.

But does she have to stand atop the podium at Salt Lake City to be rated one of the greatest female figure skaters to glide across the ice?

Hamill thinks not.

“By far, she has already established herself at that level,” Hamill said. “For a skater, Olympic gold is the ultimate. Even the last Olympics, maybe some of us thought maybe Michelle should have won [instead of Tara Lipinski]. She won’t be happy until she wins it. No question, she is the best female figure skater in the world.”

Kwan’s coach, Frank Carroll, believes she is assured of immortality. Sure, he’s biased, but he has a unique perspective--he was a senior men’s competitor during the era Carol Heiss was becoming the only U.S. woman to win five world singles titles, and he coached past U.S. champion and Olympic silver medalist Linda Fratianne.

“Michelle is, if not the greatest, one of the greatest. Nobody would talk about the greatest female skaters without mentioning Michelle,” said Carroll, who works with Kwan at HealthSouth training center in El Segundo.

“She’s completely unique in her interpretation of what figure skating should be. I like [Russian] Irina Slutskaya, but at this year’s worlds, Irina Slutskaya’s best skating and Michelle’s best skating were not in the same ballpark. One is extraordinary, one was ordinary. One is a great athlete, but the other is a great athlete and a great artist.”

Peggy Fleming agreed that Kwan doesn’t need a gold medal at Salt Lake City to certify her stature.

“Whether she finishes first, second or third, she will be remembered as a superb athlete with a competitiveness that’s refreshing in a time everybody thinks winning is everything. It’s not,” said Fleming, the 1968 Olympic champion and winner of five U.S. titles and three world crowns.

“You should go away having learned and tested yourself, and that’s what’s great about her. She tests herself.

“At worlds, she had to fight every single step of the way. They weren’t cutting her any slack.”

Any discussion of the top female figure skaters must begin with Sonja Henie, the blond Norwegian who won 10 consecutive world titles from 1927-36 and won gold at the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympics. A natural performer, she popularized the sport by skating in ice shows and movies.

“When I went to Norway, I went to see the Sonja Henie museum and see her medals and the exhibits about the history of figure skating,” Kwan said. “It’s nice to know the history of it. You can’t make the future unless you know what came before.”

But Kwan, who has said she might retain her Olympic eligibility after Salt Lake City, never will match Henie’s 10 titles.

“I don’t think I can catch up unless I skate until the year 5000,” she said.

Tenley Albright, who won silver at the 1952 Oslo Games, became the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic singles gold medal in 1956, at Cortina, Italy. Heiss was second to Albright at the 1956 Games and defeated Albright at that year’s world championships. Heiss won the next four world titles and the gold medal at the 1960 Games.

Athletic and a superb technician, Heiss is among the best female skaters the U.S. has produced. Her five world titles ties her for second with Austria’s Herma Jaross-Szabo, who competed in the 1920s.

“In her time, in technical difficulty she was far ahead of the other girls,” Carroll said of Heiss. “She could do a clean double axel, which not many girls could do, and she could do two in a row. She was very fast, very perky, very consistent, and she had the most gorgeous [compulsory] figures. She really was in a class by herself.”

Fleming won her first world title in 1966, ending a dark period that began with the plane crash that killed the U.S. delegation to the 1961 world competition. She won again in 1967 and ’68 and won gold at the Grenoble Olympics.

“She was a steel butterfly,” Carroll said. “She was very thin and she looked very delicate and had a very balletic kind of style. She looked almost frail. When she’d step on the ice you’d be afraid if a strong wind blew, she’d fall over. But that’s not really the story. She had a core of metal and the ability to compete. She was a good jumper. She had big, flying jumps. She was a very, very fine jumper when she was at her peak, but most people don’t remember that.”

No list of great skaters is complete without Janet Lynn, who succeeded Fleming as U.S. champion. She won five consecutive titles from 1969-73 but never won world or Olympic gold; she was third at both competitions in 1972 and second at the 1973 world meet. However, she left an indelible impression with her smooth, effortless grace and her radiance.

“To me, watching Janet was like a religious experience,” Carroll said. “She was very religious, and when she skated, she was giving something up to God. She had an angelic look on her face. It was a love of God and a love of the sport and an appreciation of her ability. That was her personality coming across.”

Hamill, the U.S. champion from 1974-76, gave skating the “Hamill Camel” spin and sent countless women to hair salons to duplicate her wedge haircut. But she too had substance.

“She was one of the best spinners there has ever been,” Carroll said. “She studied with Gus Lussi, who was one of the best spin teachers. She was very perky and had a face like an angel and came across as the girl next door, Miss Apple Pie. Peggy was balletic, like a goddess. Nothing about Dorothy was goddess-like. She was the all-American girl.”

Katarina Witt of East Germany was the ice queen of the 1980s. She won four world titles in five years, in addition to Olympic gold at Sarajevo in 1984 and at Calgary in 1988. It didn’t hurt that she was attractive and saucy.

“She was a muscular, strong, flirty kind of skater, and that’s how she is in life,” Fleming said. “Skating is really revealing of what people are all about. Katarina was a very tough competitor.”

Before Kwan, Kristi Yamaguchi was the last U.S. woman to win consecutive world titles, 1991 and ’92. Yamaguchi, who won gold at Albertville in 1992, brought athleticism and sureness to her performances. Yet, Fleming and Hamill say Kwan is the more complete athlete-artist.

“Kristi was more of a technician and was more shy when it came to expressing herself to the audience,” Fleming said. “Michelle is the best of both worlds. She’s not just good technically, but also at expressing herself to the audience and expressing confidence to the audience. You don’t have to sit there and wonder if she’s going to get through it, because she always does.

“There was a reserved kind of quality to [Yamaguchi’s] skating. Not a coldness, but there was a quietness and privacy to her skating.”

Said Hamill, “It really has changed too much to compare eras. Katarina and Kristi gave something special to the sport as well. This is an era where it’s not all triple jumps--it’s triple-triple combinations, and that’s what Michelle has had to do. . . . Competitors today have so many more competitions than ever. When I was competing, there were two major competitions a year, if you qualified [for worlds]. To be at that level is remarkable.”

Fleming believes Kwan has made her mark with her ability to thrive under pressure and maintain a gracious and graceful demeanor.

“She was the best skater of the generation and also the best person,” Fleming said. “She respects the position she’s in and she’s a good role model for all kinds of athletes. I’ve watched her grow up and I know she listens to criticism, and yet still is herself and knows her downfalls and weaknesses. She is her own person.

“When the going gets tough, she really pulls it out. She really does. When she’s falling apart or makes a mistake, for her that means she comes in second. A bad day for her is second. When we look at the big picture, we get so dulled to the excellence, and that’s too bad.”

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Champions on Ice 2001

* When: Today, 3 p.m.

* Where: Arrowhead Pond.

* Who: Michelle Kwan, Sarah Hughes, Sasha Cohen, Naomi Nari Nam, Todd Eldredge, Timothy Goebel and Michael Weiss.

* Tickets: (213) 480-3232 or (714) 740-2000.