- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
There is a cute article on Caroline Zhang in this month’s International Figure Skating magazine. She says that training on the same ice as Michelle Kwan (at the East-West Ice Palace in Artesia) has been an inspiration for her this season.
“I have been skating almost every day with Michelle when she is home from college and visiting her family. I asked her for about eight autographs when I first met her and she was so nice and signed everything I had.
“Michelle has been so helpful and she’s been giving me pointers on my triple flip, but it’s hard for me to listen to her advice because I am so star struck. I try to concentrate, but in the back of my mind I am thinking, ‘Wow, that’s Michelle Kwan talking to me.’
“I like her passion on the ice and her artistry. I admire her spirals and how she engages the audience with her expression. I think she should come back and compete again. She is definitely still the best. I watch her closely when we share the ice to see how I could be just a little more like her in my own skating.”
“I have been skating almost every day with Michelle when she is home from college and visiting her family. I asked her for about eight autographs when I first met her and she was so nice and signed everything I had.
“Michelle has been so helpful and she’s been giving me pointers on my triple flip, but it’s hard for me to listen to her advice because I am so star struck. I try to concentrate, but in the back of my mind I am thinking, ‘Wow, that’s Michelle Kwan talking to me.’
“I like her passion on the ice and her artistry. I admire her spirals and how she engages the audience with her expression. I think she should come back and compete again. She is definitely still the best. I watch her closely when we share the ice to see how I could be just a little more like her in my own skating.”
The reason that Michelle has become a legend was her amazing competitive spirit. Not her technical skills, not her artistic abilities, but her ever lasting competitive spirit. No offense to any Kwan fans, I am a Kwan fan too. There are skaters who had better artistic abilities. There are skaters who had better technical skills. But there is no skater who can hold up so consistently for so long. That is why Michelle is special.
