Kwan’s Wild Week Ends With a Bronze

Michelle Kwan has seen a lot in her 11 world championships but nothing like this: a fall during qualifying, a timing penalty in her short program and an uninvited skater during the free program.

“It’s been a tumultuous week,” she said.

And it was a week in which her championship reign ended amid a mix of low, high and perfect scores. Shizuka Arakawa of Japan was the surprise winner with a triple jump-packed routine. Sasha Cohen dropped to second place and Kwan finished third.

Kwan failed to win her sixth world title but did gain her ninth consecutive medal in a world championship.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “After 11 world championships, and still there are lots of things.”

Such as the man in the tutu who came on the ice just before she was getting ready to skate.

“At first, I thought they were penalizing me for the two seconds over the short program,” she said, joking.

“But, really, I was skating around and I thought he was a big flower girl. Then I thought he might have a gun. Who knows what he was thinking? He was crazy, but thank God he wasn’t that crazy.”

Kwan had to leave the ice, then refocus. She came back to skate a fast, fluid and elegant program to “Tosca.” Judges rewarded her with six 6.0 marks for artistry, giving her a career total of 50 perfect marks in Olympic-eligible competition.

Kwan’s medal streak at the world championships is a U.S. record, with only Sonja Henie ahead of her with 11 medals. Kwan would not say if she will be back next year.

She entered Saturday’s free skate with little chance to win the gold. She had fallen in the qualifying round Wednesday and was fourth after the short program in which she was penalized by skating two seconds too long.

On Saturday, a U.S. protest was denied over Kwan’s short program. The International Skating Union said three independent sources confirmed the time of 2 minutes 42 seconds.

Arakawa executed seven triple jumps, including a difficult triple lutz-triple toe loop-double loop combination. She won a perfect 6.0 mark, rarely given for technical merit. The artistry marks also were high, between 5.8 and 5.9.

Arakawa recently teamed with coach Tatiana Tarasova, who split with Cohen in December. She had been with Richard Callaghan, 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski’s coach. Now Cohen works with Robin Wagner, who coached 2002 Olympic champion Sarah Hughes.

Cohen wasn’t quite as sharp as she was during the qualifications and short program, which gave her the lead entering the free program.

“Overall, I would say I was happy with my performances here. It could have been better,” she said after earning her first medal in a world competition after consecutive fourths.

Russian women had their worst showing in 10 years. Irina Slutskaya, the world champion in 2002 and the Olympic silver medalist, finished ninth and Elena Sokolova was 10th. That means the country will have only two spots for its women at next year’s worlds.

The performance by the Russian women was a setback for a nation that will play host the event next year for the first time since 1903.