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Michelle was born of July 7th, 1980 in her hometown of Torrance California. She began skating at the age of five after watching her brothers playing hockey. After watching 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist Brian Boitano acomplish his dream, Michelle knew what she wanted to do: She was determined that she would someday go to the Olympics.

Michelle's parents always made sure that Michelle would "Work hard, be herself, and have fun." This became Michelle's motto, and certainly expressed all aspects of Michelle's skating. After sneaking behind her coach (Frank Carroll)'s back, Michelle applied for Senior status before Frank thought she was ready (at the age of 12!!!), but Michelle was accepted....

Michelle spent her first few years as a senior skater behind the shadows of other American skaters, and was sent to Lillihammer for the 1994 Olympic games as an alternate, should Nancy Kerrigan not be ready, or should the USFSA force Tonya Harding to withdraw. That was a very interesting year for Michelle, filled with valuable experiences in her first World Championships. Michelle placed 8th, and assured the US team two places on next years team.

In the 1995 Nationals, Michelle placed second to Nicole Bobek, who later earned a bronze medal in the 1995 World Championships. Michelle placed 4th that year in the worlds, despite the fact that she had skated a clean program. From feedback by judges, Michelle realized that the judges wanted to see more of a young lady than a girl. So Michelle did away with her pony-tail and changed to a sophisticated bun, along with makeup to make her look more mature. She worked long and hard on improving the artistic side of her skating. And in the 95-96 season, Michelle unvailed her Salome program, bringing a new and exotic style to her skating. The judges and the world were in awe of her new-found maturity and beauty, and she went on to win both the national and world titles. The world title was particularly a tear-jerker for Michelle, that competition being one of her biggest goals.

With those gold medals behind her, Michelle began the 1996-97 season winning nearly all of her competitions. Michelle was deemed unbeatable, and I, myself, nearly expected her to win the nationals with not trouble at all. But what can you do when a win is expected of you by an entire country? Well, for Michelle, her emphasis moved from skating, to winning, and under the immense pressure by her country and most of all herself, Michelle stumbled in Nationals, and later in the Champions series soon after. However Michelle was not out of the running. After placing 4th after the short program of Worlds, Michelle finally realized that skating isn't about winning, but about being an artist on ice. The tragic death of her close friend, Harris, along with the death of Carlo Fassi and Scott Hamilton's ilness, Michelle got new perspective on her skating. She went on to win the long program, and would have won the entire event, had some of the other skaters scored a little higher. For her long program, Michelle skated like she had earlier that season and the season before - for the true love of her sport. And that is why she has my respect and admiration.

The 1997-1998 Olympic Season got off to a wonderful start as Michelle competed in Skate America. I honestly could not see how Michelle's artistic expression could have gotten any better, but Michelle was captivating in her short program, skated to Rachmanninoff piano conertos. She also introduced a new long program skated to "Lyra Angelica", which means "Angel's Song". This presented Michelle in a different way from the exotic and dramatic toned performances of the past two seasons. The program was not about any biblical charaters, or Indian love stories. The program was about Michelle and her personality. She finished her program with a look of absolute happiness. She took first place in the first competition of the Olympic Season.

Things got a little rough a month or so later, when Michelle competed at Skate Canada. At the end of her program, Michelle had a strange fall on her simple butterfly jump. Everyone was kind of confused: what a silly mistake for Michelle to make. However, little did Michelle know at the time that it was really a stress fracture in her left toe. Things got a little bleak for the rest of 1997. Michelle's spirits were down a little as she had to sit out of the NHK Trophy and the Champions Series Finals. However, Michelle got back to training in small intervals, and kept herself strong off the ice. Nobody was sure of how she would be in the 1998 Nationals in the beginning of January. In this competition, Michelle had to switch some jumps and choreography around to accomodate for her pain. This meant replacing easy, but painful jumps (like the triple toe loop) with harder jumps (like the triple flip). Michelle's practices were okay, but not too revealing on how she would actually do in the competition.

But the day soon came, and on January 8th, 1998, Michelle performed the short program of her life. Everyone was holding their breath as she flawlessly performed her lutz/toe combination and her triple flip (which she was having lots of problems with). Michelle was radiant when she finished that program, and sat down to see the scoreboard light up with seven 6.0's for presentation. This was wonderful- Michelle was in first place at a competition she wasn't sure if she could hold up for. However, the worst part was yet to come. The long program included all the jumps she had struggled with, in addition to the two jumps which hurt her (the triple salchow and the triple toe loop). People all over America were nervously pinned to the screen (like me!!) and watched as one jump after another were delivered with perfect ease. Michelle just beamed the whole program, with a smile of complete joy showing through after she landed her second triple lutz. All anyone could say was WOW. THat's what the judges said too: they awarded her EIGHT 6.0's for a total of 15 from the whole competition. Michelle triumphantly won her title back.

Another chapter of Michelle's story was written at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, where Michelle Kwan rallied to win a silver medal to fellow American, Tara Lipinski. The dissappointment and sadness were present, but Michelle held her head up and accepted her silver medal with maturity and dignity. Many, including myself, wish that Michelle had been able to skate later, when the scores would not have been held back. However, what will be, will be. Maybe Michelle wasn't meant for Olympic Gold this year. However, the future still looks bright for Michelle: she has assured the world that she will fight to the 2002 Olympic Games. Her fight took her to a second World title this past April in her home country. Despite a slip on a double axel and the doubling of a salchow, Michelle skated an otherwise wonderful program and won herself the title. In addition to that title, Michelle won the 1998 Goodwill Games title with spirited and emotional final performances of her Olympic Programs.

When the 1998-1999 Figure Skating season kicked off, most people remained unsure as to what Michelle's plans were. Would she skate in the Grand Prix series? Would she skate at Nationals and Worlds and defend her titles? Would she go on tour? Would she skip everything and go to college? Nobody seemed to know. Michelle was entered only in a few ISU pro-am competitions, ones which blurred the lines between professional and eligible skating. The most prominent rumors were that Michelle would skip nationals and worlds, and only skate in pro-ams. However, it appeared as if Michelle couldn't stay away. In addition to debuting an ISU short program to Carmen at the ISU opens, she sent in a request to fill the single vacant spot on the Skate America roster... the one that the USFSA had left open for her. However, it wasn't as simple as being added to the list. The ISU demanded that Michelle either skate in 2 events AND the Grand Prix Final (scheduled for the weeks in between nationals and worlds) or else she couldn't do anything. Everyone was confused about these unwritten rules, but in the end, the USFSA was forced to turn Michelle's request down. Too fill up the rest of her schedule which didn't include college at the present time, Michelle entered several pro-am competions, including the World Professional Championships where she debuted her new long program, Ariane. It appeared, and Michelle confirmed, that she would go for her 3rd national title in February.

February came quite quickly, and Michelle was in Salt Lake City, possibly in the same arena where she could be performing in 3 years at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games. Michelle skated a solid, but not perfect short program to take the lead over a group of youngsters, including 13 year old Sarah Hughes and 13 year old Naomi Nari Nam and some seasoned veterans such as Amber Corwin and Angela Nikodinov. When the long program came around, Michelle delivered on one of her promises about her next few years: She successfully landed her first triple/triple combination in competition since the 1997 World Championships. Certainly the toe seemed to have settled down over the summer! A very pleased Michelle took home her 3rd national title, and went to Helsinki, Finland in search of World Title number 3. However, this would not be easy. Michelle came down with a congestive head cold while in Helsinki, and performed a flawed short program that left her in 4th place after a fall on a double axel. However, Michelle didn't pull out of the event as many had predicted. Michelle fought through a rough long program and landed 6 triples to win a silver medal to Maria Butyrskaya, who gave the performance of her life to win gold. Once again, the World Championships served as a learning experience for Michelle. She knew then that the next 3 years would be no walk in the park. However, if there's one thing Michelle knows how to do, it is to strive to improve herself and her skating. This coming season, Michelle intends to balance a full skating schedule with college life at UCLA. However, regardless of the gold medals that Michelle Kwan wins, she will always be remembered as a true champion in every sense of the word.