Kwan is hardly hip, but fans say hooray anyway
You half expected her to come out perfect, the aging superstar emerging from seclusion in preparation for, likely, her final bid for Olympic gold. You expected the same greatness, the same artistry and emotion.
You got something far more pedestrian.
Looking worse than she has in nearly a decade, Michelle Kwan found Boston to be a forgiving site for her long-awaited coming-ut party. Kwan, whose season debut was delayed by a hip injury, won the Marshalls US Figure Skating Challenge at Agganis Arena yesterday. Forgiving because, in her awkwardness and repeatedly missed jumps, she didn't come close to the performances of any of the other competitors. Not Sasha Cohen. Not Emily Hughes. Not Alissa Czisny.
In essence, she wasn't Michelle Kwan.
''It was a little hard for me, my hip's not that great," said a subdued, black-clad Kwan after the event. ''Just to be out there, I just wanted the chance to skate in front of an audience and get used to the lights -- not the judges -- but the lights and the audience.
''I did what I could today. I definitely want to be in better shape and I have a couple of weeks, which I have to use wisely. Not being able to jump for so long, for two months, kind of off the ice and being frustrated, it was nice to spin, to do something out there."
Though Kwan won the glorified popularity contest, garnering 59 percent of the in-arena, online, and phone voting totals to Cohen's 41, that hardly told the story. Outskated and outshined by the younger Cohen, Kwan was lauded for her heart and contributions to the sport by all three of the ABC judges, who were on hand to provide commentary and critique only. Each chose Cohen with their pick.
On the men's side, Johnny Weir beat Michael Weiss in the final (64 percent to 36), after knocking out Timothy Goebel and Matt Savoie (the judges' unanimous pick in the first round) early. On-ice interviewer Kurt Browning, in a short routine just for laughs, probably gave the best performance of the afternoon.
The format, unfamiliar to the skaters, had four male and four female skaters competing against each other with ''American Idol"-style voting. After the first round, the top-two vote-getters on each side (Weir and Weiss; Kwan and Cohen) moved on to the final round.
Minutes after Cohen performed almost flawlessly, Kwan took the ice for the finals. With the strains of Josh Groban's ''You Raise Me Up" flowing through the arena, Kwan turned in an unimpressive skate that lacked the technical aspects and grace of Cohen's. Her first jump, a triple toe loop, suddenly ended one-and-a-half rotations in. Her second, a flip, was only a double. There was no third.
''I'm walking," Kwan said. ''I'm skating. It feels better to skate than to walk. As long as it keeps on improving, I'm optimistic. At one point I was like, 'How am I going to feel when I'm 60, let alone right now. I've got a long life to live.' You have to push [worry] aside. This is what I have. This is it. I can't change anything that's happening. This is my body. This is the best I can do.
''I've got to push and see what the limitations are. I do have to make a decision on my body, too. When it says no, you have to stop."
