Word: kwan
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...debut: ninth at the junior nationals). Carroll did not think she was ready for the seniors, from whose ranks Olympians were chosen. But she knew that was her only way to get to the 1994 Games in Lillehammer in time. So when Carroll left to attend a coaches' conference, Kwan persuaded her father to drive her to the qualifying tests. "It was important to me to qualify," she explains without any regret. "I wanted to be in the senior ladies' in 1993 so the judges could see me, and maybe the next year they would give me second or third...
Well, perhaps not that overwhelming. Kwan has competition, the keenest being fellow American Lipinski, the reigning world champion. This year Lipinski, like Kwan, has had to learn some harsh lessons. The first came at the competitive season opener in October; Kwan powered through a dramatic, elegant program set to Rachmaninoff, and this time there were no slips. Lipinski followed suit, delivering a clean short program. She couldn't hide her disappointment when the marks appeared. The technical scores, usually her highest, included a 5.5 out of a perfect 6.0. The pattern has continued in Lipinski's other competitions this season...
Still, she has not dominated competitions this year. She won one event but lost the nationals to Kwan and Trophy Lalique to the relatively unknown French skater Laetitia Hubert. Lipinski points out, however, that she had not won anything before her sweep at the end of last season. She tells TIME, "I feel so much less pressure now that I've made the Olympic team. The Olympics is going to be a little easier, because you've already made it, and you can just have fun with...
That fierce self-assessment, with its apparent reference to Kwan's spectacular fall last year, is magnified by Lipinski's appearance. There is a moment during every competition when the audience is reminded of just how young--and tiny--Lipinski really is. Just before it's her turn on the ice, as she waits for her name to be called, she skates around with the flower girls. She carves small circles around them, head down, eyes focused, concentrating on the program she is about to perform. At 4 ft. 10 in. and 80 lbs., with her hair pulled back...
Lipinski's artistry is still nascent, and in that way she is where Kwan was about four years ago. Then Kwan was a ponytailed girl who could not believe people were actually interested in what she had to say. Now she rules the ice. Her skating has a light, effortless quality that transcends the mechanics of the sport and its often rote choreography. She feeds off the power of her music, using the swells and dips of the notes to guide her movements and propel her spins and jumps. "The skating quality she has achieved--her edge, her body line...