Kwan Is Still Living in Her Magical Moment

Michelle Kwan still hasn’t seen a tape of the performance that clinched her fifth world figure skating championship. Nor does she plan to watch it for a while.

That’s because she so enjoyed the perfectly calibrated command she felt in her long program last Saturday, she doesn’t want to find flaws in what remains a dreamlike experience.

“I’m still dazed,” said Kwan, who begins a 27-city tour with Champions on Ice today in Baltimore. “It’s a moment that was so incredible, I still haven’t analyzed it yet. It seems like yesterday we were competing at the Olympics and the past year just flew by without even worrying about it.

“I’m still kind of in shock. The audience was great and everything just felt right.... This is a big contrast to the ’98 nationals [when she got eight perfect 6.0s for her long program]. The only way I could describe that is euphoric. Freedom. I didn’t worry about anything. I was flying. This past week, I was in the moment and living through it and I prefer it that way. I felt in control and at ease. I felt like I was adjusting as each second passed.”

Kwan matched Carol Heiss and Dick Button for the most world titles won by a U.S. skater and added to her U.S. record with her eighth world championships medal. She also became the first woman to recapture the title three times: She won it in 1996, lost to Tara Lipinski in 1997, regained it in 1998, lost to Maria Butyrskaya in 1999, regained it in 2000 and repeated in 2001, lost to Irina Slutskaya last year and regained it this year.

Not bad, considering she was unsure last fall whether she would compete at all. Invited at the last moment to Skate America, she won there and decided to enter the U.S. championships, where she won her sixth consecutive title and seventh overall.

Competing less and enjoying was a successful strategy, but the 22-year-old Manhattan Beach resident hasn’t decided whether to follow that plan again.

“I would like to be a little more organized and figure out what I’m going to do,” she said. “I was indecisive. I just kept skating to maintain my sharpness, which was great because I was able to make a decision after Skate America. Everything fell into order. Scott [Williams, her new coach] was easy to work with, the rinks were near my house. It worked so amazingly well that I’m afraid to repeat it.”

Kwan hasn’t decided if she’ll aim for the 2006 Turin Olympics and the gold medal that has eluded her twice. She won’t plan for next season until the tour ends June 1 and she confers with her parents and Williams. “I would have to commit to music and everything and I’m not ready for that jump,” she said. “Give me a couple of months.”

Sarah Hughes, overwhelmed by the demands thrust upon her as the Salt Lake City gold medalist, won’t be in the Champions on Ice cast because of a dispute over whether she agreed to perform. Her name was removed from the cast list and her picture was taken off the Web site. A spokeswoman for rival Stars on Ice said it hasn’t negotiated with her; a publicist for Champions on Ice said tour boss Tom Collins won’t comment. Hughes’ father, John, her agent, didn’t return a call.

On Track for a Great Meet

The first Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee track and field invitational, today and Saturday at UCLA’s Drake Field, appears to be a happy mix of timing, circumstance and opportunity.

Conceived by UCLA Coach Art Venegas as an alternative to the overcrowded Texas Relays, the meet has drawn more than 540 entries. According to meet director Rich Perelman, 10 former NCAA champions and four potential medalists at this summer’s World Championships are expected to compete. Today’s events are primarily for collegiate athletes and Saturday’s events will feature national and world-class athletes and some of today’s top performers.

“We have six lanes Saturday reserved for elite athletes and we’ll fill in with the best kids from Friday if they want to compete Saturday,” Perelman said. “It’s a novel way to do it and a way to not make great athletes go through qualifying.”

The list of NCAA champions is led by Felix Sanchez, who won the 400-meter hurdles title in 2000 for USC. He has been ranked No. 1 in the world in that event the last two years and is the favorite at the World Championships. He will run the 800 this weekend. Also entered are Jerome Davis of USC, who won the NCAA 400-meter title in 1998; Lena Nilsson of UCLA, who won the NCAA 1,500-meter title last year and the 800-meter indoor title this winter; six-time NCAA shotput and discus champion Seilala Sua of UCLA; three-time world outdoor shotput champion John Godina, a UCLA alumnus; Jessica Cosby and Chaniqua Ross, who won the shotput and discus titles, respectively, for UCLA last year; and Tracy O’Hara, a two-time NCAA pole vault champion for UCLA.

Past or present world champions include Tyree Washington, who won the 400 at the U.S. and world indoor championships this year, and Eunice Barber, the 1999 world heptathlon champion for France.

Here and There

Australian swimmer Grant Hackett, who hasn’t lost a 1,500-meter freestyle race in nearly seven years, eagerly anticipates Sunday’s “Duel in the Pool” between Australia and the U.S. in Indianapolis even though Aussie standout Ian Thorpe stayed home because of a virus. “We’ll pull together,” said Hackett, who will swim in the 200 and 1,500 freestyles. “It allows other swimmers to shine. We know we’re going in as underdogs and we don’t have the strength we possibly could have. That’s not a bad position to go in as.”

Sydney triple gold medalist Lenny Krayzelburg of Los Angeles, who hasn’t swum in a dual meet since 1998, said the format calls for saving energy whenever possible. He’s coming off surgery on his shoulder in August 2001 and a torn knee ligament last September. The latter injury occurred when his ankle collapsed while he ran on a treadmill. “It was kind of a freak accident,” he said.

Dennis Phan of Palm Desert, the U.S. men’s junior figure skating champion, won the Gardena Spring Trophy event last week in Urtisei, Italy. However, other skaters, including Danielle Kahle of Thousand Oaks, stayed home because of security concerns related to the war in Iraq.

Marjan Cernigoj, coach of the U.S. women’s alpine ski team the last five seasons and a member of the coaching staff for 11 seasons, resigned to pursue other interests.... Heath Van Aken resigned as freestyle coach of the U.S. snowboard team. He was replaced by Bud Keene, a member of the 2002 Olympic snowboard coaching staff and assistant freestyle coach this season.