Word: kwan
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...articulate the mechanics of her whirlwind style, Lipinski once said, "I just rotate." In a fairy-tale blue-and-yellow frock, she flew to the Anastasia sound track, whipping through her triple flip, exploding into a grin that dwarfed her 80-lb. frame and skating circles around everyone but Kwan. Then the 17-year-old veteran showed that having soul as well as legs counts. Kwan drew out the chords of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor into a smooth legato line as she flowed, left leg extended, straight toward the panel of judges. When she emerged...
Going into the final 4-min. free skate, the message was clear: just rotating wouldn't be enough. Could Lipinski rise to Kwan's level of artistry? A judicial preference for maturity on ice certainly decided the bronze, claimed by the elegant Chen, 21. Bonaly, who might have been a contender, knew that judges have little appreciation for her muscular acrobatics. "The judges aren't pleased with anything I do anyway," she said. So, in her long program, she gave the judges figure skating's equivalent of the finger: an illegal back flip. Take that! It was a mandatory deduction...
America's gold-silver knockout, its first since the 1956 one-two scored by Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss, proved only that champions are formed in the most variable of circumstances. Lipinski and Kwan stuck to completely different schedules at Nagano, setting off rampant speculation about whose off-ice routine would triumph. Journalists handicapped the event in favor of Lipinski because she was so carefree and relaxed. She was all over the Olympic village, taking to dorm life faster than a pre-frosh. She celebrated Picabo Street's super-G win ("Isn't it neat!"), updated her Website at Surf...
...Kwan, in contrast, watched the opening ceremonies the same way 56 million other Americans did, on the tube at home. Instead of sharing cramped quarters with Lipinski and the flu that took Germany's Tanja Szewczenko out of the running, she bunked with Mom and Dad at a hotel. (Its location was kept secret.) "I'm going to spend as much time as I can in the Olympic village," she declared firmly. "But I've got to focus on my own thing right now and do what's good for me." Conventional wisdom says that Kwan should have played...
...semblance of fun disappeared Friday. "Right now I'm thinking, What can I do to be better for the next Olympics?" said a teary Kwan at a press conference. "I'll add a triple-triple and add more difficulty on the technical side, and hopefully I'll be really ready next time." It was a painful statement coming from the teen marvel widely considered the best of this decade--no matter the hue of her medal...