Kwan Cuts Through Allof Coaching Speculation

Short of reading she had been abducted by aliens, Michelle Kwan has heard every rumor purporting to explain why she dismissed longtime coach Frank Carroll last month.

Among the theories posed by writers, fans and figure skating commentators:

She fired Carroll because he objected to the amount of time she spent with her NHL player boyfriend. She’s going through a phase of adolescent rebellion, albeit a bit late at 21. She’s confused about skating and her life, resulting in flawed performances in her two Grand Prix events. She has fallen under the influence of an alleged Svengali, coach Peter Oppegard, and changed her training routine to work with him and her sister Karen in Torrance.

And above all, she has made so many changes so soon before the U.S. championships in January at Staples Center and the Salt Lake City Olympics in February that she has sabotaged her chances of standing atop the medal podium.

“I don’t read much of what people write about me, but I hear what people are saying,” said Kwan, a four-time world champion, five-time U.S. champion and 1998 Nagano silver medalist. “Sometimes I laugh, but sometimes I get angry.”

Quashing some of those rumors, Kwan said Monday she does not have a coach, has not taken lessons from anyone--much less Oppegard, who dates her sister--and has skated at the Torrance rink once in the past six months. As for spending too much time with her boyfriend, the problem is the opposite: “I don’t even see him,” said Kwan, who asked that his name be withheld to protect his privacy. “We laugh about it.”

However, she’s not amused by whispers her life is being orchestrated by Oppegard.

“I went to Torrance one day, and people have linked me with Peter Oppegard,” said Kwan, who will split training between the altitude of Lake Arrowhead and the familiarity of HealthSouth in El Segundo. “One day I went to HealthSouth and the ice was so hard that I went to Torrance. Otherwise I hadn’t been there since March. But somehow word got around I was there every day.

“It’s like, ‘Hello, people, I’m not training there.’ I think if anyone says I am, they’re confusing me with my sister.”

Kwan, who was born in Torrance and lives in the South Bay, also disputed contentions she is foundering without a coach’s guidance and criticism. Her father, Danny, was at rinkside for her last two competitions, but both have said he’s not coaching her.

“I guess I’m completely lost and I don’t know where I’m going,” she said with mild sarcasm. “People can write what they want, no matter what I say or feel. I’m feeling a lot better on the ice, and that’s all that matters to me.

“I can’t be all that lost if I’m first [at Skate America] and third [at Skate Canada]. I’m injury-free and I’m thankful. People have different perceptions of me and what I’m doing. This is what I think of it: I read a book or a poem, and I relate to it differently than everyone else. That’s what people are doing. I’ve been very honest and sometimes people see things in what I say. People make up things.”

Kwan plans to work again with Sarah Kawahara, who choreographed her “Sheherezade” long program, but their efforts to meet have been hampered by Kawahara’s duties as choreographer of the Olympic opening ceremony. Kwan wants to tweak the program to adjust for the triple-triple combination jumps she does and avoid repeating a jump. In addition, she said she might jettison the “East of Eden” short program she used most of last season and in her first four competitions this season. That program was choreographed by Lori Nichols, with whom Kwan previously ended her working relationship. However, Kwan would not specify the options she is considering.

“There are some possibilities,” she said. “There are so many possibilities.”

What she sees as possibilities, others will see as indecision. She will use the time before her next competition--on Dec. 7--to continue to explore her capabilities.

“Right now, I feel I’ve made one decision already [to drop Carroll], and I want to see where that goes,” she said. “I could end up with a coach. I could not. Right now, I feel that things are getting better, and I’m taking my time and easing into things. People can say what they want. I know what’s the truth.”