Kwan’s Career Takes a Twist

Saying she needed to take responsibility for her skating in the final weeks before the Salt Lake City Olympics, U.S. and world figure skating champion Michelle Kwan said Tuesday she had ended her remarkably successful, decade-long relationship with Coach Frank Carroll. Kwan said she will coach herself and isn’t seeking a replacement, but she didn’t rule out hiring someone else--or returning to Carroll.

“I believe I’ve made the right choice,” she said. “It must be earth-breaking news, but for me, it’s the right decision. And maybe it’s very close to the Olympics, but I think you’ve got to believe and stick to your guns. You can’t go between things right now. The person that knows best is me.”

When she skates her short program Thursday at Skate America, the season’s first Grand Prix event, her father, Danny, will be at the endboards of the World Arena instead of the tall, white-haired Carroll. However, she said her father will be there to support her, not to coach her.

“I’ve been going through a lot just thinking where I am at this point as far as school and skating and life in general,” said Kwan, who turned 21 in July, has her first serious boyfriend and has tried to squeeze UCLA classes into her hectic schedule.

“You’ve got to understand, I’ve been doing this a long time. The passion is still there. But sometimes it’s like splashing more flavor and more ingredients into it. It’s what everybody goes through, and every athlete goes through.”

Kwan, who was born in Torrance and trains in El Segundo and Lake Arrowhead, said she trusted her strategy for preparing for her anticipated gold-medal battle with Russia’s Irina Slutskaya more than she trusted Carroll’s plans. However, she did not elaborate.

Carroll said he was baffled when Kwan delivered the news last Friday.

“I would say I’m in complete shock. I’m very upset, very nervous,” Carroll said as he prepared for a practice session Tuesday with U.S. men’s champion Timothy Goebel, his other star pupil.

“I love Michelle Kwan terribly. We’ve spent a lot of time together, since she was a little girl. In the future, I’d do whatever I can to help her.... I’m not taking it personally. I care about Michelle. There are issues in her head only she understands. I feel like she’s having a lot of trouble with her own head.”

During a conference call with reporters, the five-time U.S. champion and four-time world champion repeatedly cited differences between her and Carroll, but she remained vague about the nature of those differences. She said having hired Sarah Kawahara to choreograph her “Scheherezade” long program and replace Carroll protegee Lori Nichol had not been a source of friction.

“We have differences. We have issues,” Kwan said. “And maybe it’s just better now to skate along and see where it gets me and take it one thing at a time.”

Carroll, widely respected by judges and his peers, is a former skater with more than 40 years’ experience in the sport. He coached Linda Fratianne to a silver medal at the 1980 Olympics and also worked with former U.S. men’s champion Christopher Bowman. Carroll began coaching Goebel about a year and a half ago and helped transform him into a more complete skater, guiding him to the U.S. title earlier this year and a fourth-place finish at the world championships. He and Goebel will continue to work together, Carroll said.

Kwan called Carroll “a great coach” and said his influence on her skating will endure. She also said she won’t add new jumps or change her style or training base as she tries to find her way to the top of the Olympic medals podium.

“It’s not like the technique he taught me will diminish and go away,” she said. “I will continue skating the way I do.”

Carroll said he could not recall, from his extensive experience, any elite-level skater having left a coach at so crucial a time. Asked whether Kwan might be jeopardizing her Olympic chances by making such a dramatic move less than four months before the Games, he demurred.

“I hope to God not,” he said. “I do want her to win. I think she’s the best skater in the world, and I think it would be a shame if she doesn’t win. It would be presumptuous to say that without me, she can’t win.

“She needs time to consider all her options and how to gather the strength to do this. She needs to soul search and gather all the strength to do this.”

Carroll said he wasn’t concerned by her slow start this season--she finished second to Slutskaya at the Goodwill Games and Masters of Figure Skating--and recalled similar starts ended with world championships the last two years. He said he spoke to her after her Masters performance Oct. 13, in which she reduced the difficulty of several jumps in her short and interpretive programs, and said he had some suggestions to “spark” her training. He said she left a message on his cell phone saying she wanted to skate alone for a day and later told him she wanted to work by herself for a few days.

“I said, ‘OK, tell me when you want me to be by your side,”’ he said. “She did not call me. Finally, on Friday she came in, in tears, really emotional.”

Carroll said he would gladly work with her again if she asked, but he won’t watch her Thursday.

“I might make her uncomfortable, and I don’t want that,” he said. “I want her to go out and give her best shot without my critiquing how things are going.

“It will be painful, yes.”