She talked about the need to be strong, then dabbed a tissue at the tears in her eyes. She mentioned bouncing back, then dabbed again. Brave words, the words Michelle Kwan could mouth by heart, could not silence the emotions pouring from deeper inside her.
Friday afternoon, Kwan was a champion beaten who was fighting not to be a beaten champion. She finally acknowledged how much easier it was to say the right thing than believe it after staggering to fourth place in the short program at the world championships.
Sympathetic judges, giving Kwan the respect accorded a heavyweight champion, resisted the more legitimate decision to rank her shellshocked performance even lower.
“I couldn’t believe they held me up there,” Kwan said.
She was in immediate trouble when she took off at an angle and struggled to land the triple lutz that opened her jump combination, one of eight required elements in the 2-minute-40-second short program. Within 20 seconds, she had crashed on a double-axel jump.
Kwan still could win a third world title if she wins Saturday’s free skate and leader Maria Butyrskaya of Russia finishes third or lower. The way both skated Friday, when European champion Butyrskaya was brilliant and Kwan as poor as she had been since her disastrous 1997 season, few would count on Kwan successfully defending her crown.
“It’s hard to rely on other skaters’ mistakes,” Kwan said. “It’s bad karma.”
Julia Soldatova of Russia, who stands second, and 1997 world bronze medalist Vanessa Gusmeroli of France, who is third, were stunned to find themselves ahead of Kwan. Grand Prix Final champion Tatiana Malinina of Uzbekistan, who was fifth, said she was “a little upset” the judges put Kwan ahead of her. Anna Rechnio of Poland was sixth.
In presentation and execution, Kwan was far from the standard she has set. She got marks of 5.1 to 5.5 for technical merit and, thanks to overly generous scoring, four 5.9s, four 5.8s and a 5.6 for presentation. One judge ranked her as low as seventh.
Kwan refused to use as an excuse the head cold that has required her to take antibiotics. World meet debutant Sarah Hughes, 13, was a surprisingly strong ninth. The other U.S. skater, Angela Nikodinov, was 17th.
