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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Kwan isn’t finished

Michelle Kwan speaks to assistant team leader Taffy Holiday during her brief stay at the Turin Winter Olympics.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
George Diaz Orlando Sentinel

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Her reincarnation begins in a nondescript arena before a few thousand fans along Florida’s Gulf coast.

The word is defined as the “rebirth of the soul in another body,” a term that reflects the arduous journey of Michelle Kwan as she slowly comes out of the darkness that surrounded her in Turin, Italy.

Unable to compete in the 2006 Winter Olympics because of recurring physical issues, Kwan returned home to California, wiping away the tears she shed in a sad farewell in February.

The assumption was that it was the end of the road for an elegant ice princess who has been the marquee name of figure skating for the past decade, winning five world and nine U.S. titles.

But a new perspective emerges nearly two months later. Feeling better and energized by old friends on the Champions on Ice tour Kwan has not ruled out another Olympic run.

“The most important thing for me is to get healthy,” she said before her solo performance in Fort Myers on Friday night. “A lot of things will be based on that. I have to sit down after this tour and evaluate how I feel. That’s my main focus right now. I’ve always had that mentality as an athlete, one by one.

“I don’t get too ahead of myself. I can’t wig out. I have to take care of myself.”

Kwan took her first baby steps Friday, skating to Natalie Cole’s version of A Song For You (a Leon Russell standard) in a routine that did not include any jumps. She is under doctor’s orders to take things slowly, trying not to tweak hip and groin injuries that significantly limited her performance and availability last year.

She had not skated publicly since December in Boston, and although some fans in Fort Myers may have been bewildered why she was so conservative in her performance, there was no question that fans still embrace her as America’s reigning ice queen. A number of them stood in appreciation after she finished skating; still the final solo act in an arena full of Olympic stars.

Now 25, Kwan’s greatness is weighed down by the big Olympic albatross. The favorite in both Nagano and Salt Lake City, she settled for silver in 1998, bronze in 2002 and being a sad spectator in 2006.

“It was definitely emotional,” she said of the Turin experience. “You can’t deny that, but I was surrounded by my friends and family and a lot of people who cared. I watched the whole coverage. I think I needed to root for the Americans and be a part of the Olympic experience.”

She would share a cry with her sister, Karen, after the women’s free-skate final in Turin, where Karen and older brother Ron had stayed despite Michelle’s absence.

Karen ran to the concourse and called Michelle on a cell phone as the fans left the arena. The moment brought them both to tears.

“It was weird because of the connection we have,” Kwan said. “She could be my eyes.

“They called me all the time during the Olympics.”

The question that will linger for a while is where Kwan will be when the Olympic flame burns in Vancouver in 2010.

Those answers began in Fort Myers and will continue to evolve during tour stops throughout the country, stretching through August.

One skate and one song at a time, the reincarnation continues.