MK's Q&A on USFSA website with a "tease"

Mk answers questions and allude's to performing again soon - adding "stay tuned"

http://www.usfsa.org/Magazine.asp?id=57&issue=42401

Thanks for posting the link. So nice to hear from Michelle. Would love to see her perform again!

Any word on when she's expected to graduate? Or what she plans to do afterwards (besides possibly skating again)? With her major, maybe she can work for the federal government.

feraina said:

Thanks for posting the link. So nice to hear from Michelle. Would love to see her perform again!

Any word on when she's expected to graduate? Or what she plans to do afterwards (besides possibly skating again)? With her major, maybe she can work for the federal government.

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She said at one point was scheduled to finish all of her credits by last semester - so there is speculation that she had already met the requirements for graduation - then again there has been no official announcement - so perhaps she got delayed until spring - or maybe we will hear soon that she has graduated. She has said she will eventually go on to get her Master's degree.

"I miss you and your skating, and was sorry to see you withdraw from the Olympics. Will you ever return to compete or perform in shows? Your fans are sad because we didn't get a chance to give you a much deserved farewell.
Mae Allan, 12
Cleveland, Ohio

Michelle: I miss you guys, too! I took a long break from skating because I wanted to focus on finishing up college. I do look forward to performing again soon…stay tuned."

This is an excerpt from the QA. Good news for us Kwan fans, seems like she has not hung up her skates entirely and is interestied in performing again. I am curious as to which venue she will choose. Thank you for the link.

With Worlds in the US, and California (her home state) to boot... wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if Michelle were able to somehow "perform" at the Exhibition during Worlds. Given the economy, adding such a headliner would certainly help boost ticket sales. Given the prices$$$$ that are being charged for Worlds, they could use all the "help" they can get, in this economy, I would think...

lcd said:

With Worlds in the US, and California (her home state) to boot... wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if Michelle were able to somehow "perform" at the Exhibition during Worlds. Given the economy, adding such a headliner would certainly help boost ticket sales. Given the prices$$$$ that are being charged for Worlds, they could use all the "help" they can get, in this economy, I would think...

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Hasn't $peedy already handed out some ruling about skaters not competing at the event not being able to skate in any exhibition connected with it? I thought the issue came up regarding the possibility of Browning skating in an exhibition at an ISU event. Possibly also with the Protopopovs?

Ant

antmanb said:

Hasn't $peedy already handed out some ruling about skaters not competing at the event not being able to skate in any exhibition connected with it? I thought the issue came up regarding the possibility of Browning skating in an exhibition at an ISU event. Possibly also with the Protopopovs?

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I remember at the 1998 Skate America, both of the reigning U.S. champions, Todd Eldredge and Michelle Kwan, opted out. Todd had won the previous four Skate Americas and Michelle the previous three. The sponsors were afraid that the event would be a box office dud without the big U.S. draws. So Todd (not sure about Michelle) offered to skate an exhibition for free to "save the show." No dice.

(It turned out OK. The audience was charmed by winners Yagudin and Butyrskaya, and U.S. sweetheart Angela Nikodinov made a big splash with a bronze.)

Mathman said:

I remember at the 1998 Skate America, both of the reigning U.S. champions, Todd Eldredge and Michelle Kwan, opted out. Todd had won the previous four Skate Americas and Michelle the previous three. The sponsors were afraid that the event would be a box office dud without the big U.S. draws. So Todd (not sure about Michelle) offered to skate an exhibition for free to "save the show." No dice. .)

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So what was all that "I love to compete" about?

Joesitz said:

So what was all that "I love to compete" about?

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Skate America 1998 was the first competition of the season after the Nagano Olympic year. That's when Kwan was making her mind up whether to carry on. I think the loving to compete sound bites came afterwards - after she'd been competing for a whole lot longer.

Ant

^ Pretty much the same thing happened after the 2002 Olympics as well. Michelle decided to take the fall season off to rethink the direction she wanted to go in. There was some question about whether she would even do nationals.

Skate America 2002 was going to be huge, featuring all the Olympic gold medalists -- Sarah Hughes, Alexei Yagudin, Berezhnaya & Sikharudlidze, and Sale & Pelletiere. Then both pairs teams withdrew, and then also Sarah came up with an injury. (Yagudin tried his best to compete, but had to withdraw before the LP.)

Anyway, there were big Sarah Hughes billboards all over Spokane. When Sarah withdrew, who you gonna call? The details were never made public, but all the talk was that United States Figure Skating rang up Shep Goldberg (Michelle's agent) and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. (Michelle said afterward that she felt like Michael Corleone in the Godfather -- "Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in!")

Michelle skated a excellent short and a pretty good long to Aranjuez and won. By winning Skate America it turned out -- oh no! -- that she scored enough points to make the Grand Prix final, even though she did only one competition. She got out of the GP final (I guess she was "injured"), but that victory gave her the green light to go on to Nationals and 2003 Worlds (and the rest is history. )

The interesting thing to me (I was there) was that even though Michelle was the headliner, the media darlings and belles of this particular ball turned out to be the teenaged beauties Jenny Kirk and Ann Patrice McDonough. They went the extra mile to be fan-friendly and Spokane couldn't get enough of them.

Ironically, both Kirk and McDonough were about at the end of their careers. Over the next year or so they both decided that figure skating just wasn't fun any more and it was time to move on. It makes you wonder what choices Michelle might have made if she had won the gold medal in Nagano, or in Salt Lake City.

Kirk skated through 2005.... I still miss seeing her...

and of course Angela was forced out due to reckless driving :no:

antmanb said:

Hasn't $peedy already handed out some ruling about skaters not competing at the event not being able to skate in any exhibition connected with it? ...

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Technically, you are correct. However, I believe that a host federation could "close the event" and still have a "salute" to a special skater -- as (I understand) Skate Canada did in hosting a "special farewell" when Alexei Yagudin retired.

Oh, my God, it would be *unbelievably* cool if there could be a special salute to Michelle Kwan and finally give her a proper farewell! That would really be amazing. I'd totally go to LA just to see that! Mathman, thanks for the mini history lesson, I had no idea that it was through such a fortuitous route that Michelle was nudged back into competitive skating (and maybe if Sarah hadn't withdrawn from SA, maybe she'd hung up her skates for good).

I found some recent news about Michelle:
http://skateangel.blog.sohu.com/106748729.html
It's a blog by the assistant coach of the three young Chinese skaters who're now training with Mingzhu Li (Caroline's coach, Lulu's former coach) in LA. There are photos of Michelle with the young skaters, including in her own skates!

In reply to comments, the blogger writes (in Chinese) that Michelle still likes skating and goes to skate when she has time, but that she's not training seriously. So maybe she will indeed perform in some kind of farewell salute, but I don't think she's likely to train herself back into the shape that'd be required to execute the programs she had planned for the '06 Olympics.

We also heard on the other thread that Michelle is being appointed by Bush to the Presidential Fitness Council. I don't know how much of actual work that involves, but it does look like Michelle's going in the direction of having a career in public service, diplomacy, or and/or politics. Wouldn't it be cool if she succeeds Schwarzenegger as governor of California? And unlike Arny, she can actually run for the U.S. presidency one day.

feraina said:

I found some recent news about Michelle:

http://skateangel.blog.sohu.com/106748729.html

It's a blog by the assistant coach of the three young Chinese skaters who're now training with Mingzhu Li (Caroline's coach, Lulu's former coach) in LA. There are photos of Michelle with the young skaters, including in her own skates!

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Thanks for the link!

In reply to comments, the blogger writes (in Chinese) that Michelle still likes skating and goes to skate when she has time, but that she's not training seriously. So maybe she will indeed perform in some kind of farewell salute, but I don't think she's likely to train herself back into the shape that'd be required to execute the programs she had planned for the '06 Olympics.

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Yes, I think that is perfectly clear at this point. There is "in shape" and then there is "in world class athletic competition shape."

In fact, about the "tease" that is mentioned in the title of this thread, I think Michelle saying "stay tuned" is more likely to mean that she has some kind of entrepreneurial scheme in the works. The economic climate isn't right for a revival of a COI-type venture just now, but..."stay tuned!"

One thing I found interesting in the interview was Michelle's answer to the question, "what was your favorite program." She said Salome.

Winning the world championship at 15! Everything else was just icing on the cake. To me, this reinforces the view that figure skating is indeed a young person's game. Winning a fifth world championship at 22? That was OK, too, I guess.

I for one am glad that Michelle is finding new directions to explore. When athletes try to extend their adolescence by playing competitive sports into their twenties, I think there is a bit of a Peter Pan thing going on.

Here are more photos of Michelle on that blog:
http://skateangel.blog.sohu.com/107144592.html

Apparently Michelle and her older brother came to watch the Christmas show at the rink. I didn't even know she had an older brother. Devoted fan that I am!

According to someone on MKF, Michelle was interviewed by ESPN at the Lakers game last night. She confirmed that she did graduate from University of Denver and has moved back to LA. Regarding the Olympics, she said she is training and trying to get back in Olympic shape.

Take it for what it's worth. This MK fan would love to see Michelle skate again ~ in any capacity!

I am so glad to see that Miss Kwan might return to skating soon! I have really missed her for a while! I think there's a certain element about her on the ice that won't go away no matter how long she keeps her skates off.
Haha, I liked the question about the pink bunny slippers Michelle wore in the Kraft commercial.

Mathman said:

I for one am glad that Michelle is finding new directions to explore. When athletes try to extend their adolescence by playing competitive sports into their twenties, I think there is a bit of a Peter Pan thing going on.

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Given the slew of athletes who are in their 20's and still competing not sure that the Peter Pan analogy is one I would use. MaybeTinkerbell is watching over them lol.

Thanks for the pics. Surprised that Caroline Z. was not there, as she trains at that rink as well.

I would not but too much stock in the ESPN interview. She was probably just in LA for winter break and training in her spare time.

Michelle supposedly said she graduated and moved back to LA to try and get into Olympic shape. I think that's good news. Grace from MKF said she knew Michelle was training to get her jumps back. The two together seems to signal that Michelle has at least some hope. We'll see. But I'm hoping Michelle and Sasha both make it to Nationals 2010 at least. I miss them both watching comps.