Kwan-tum Leap

She is 17 going on 6.0, the closest thing to perfection the city of Philadelphia has seen since the Liberty Bell cracked.

She had judges weeping, Dick Button swooning and Philadelphians on their feet chanting her name as she completed what is already regarded a legendary long program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships three weeks ago.

Eight perfect scores of 6.0--out of a possible nine--for artistic presentation.

These coming two days after a short program that garnered seven artistic marks of 6.0.

And as late as the morning of that short program, there had been speculation that Michelle Kwan would pull out of the championships because of the stress fracture in her left foot that had kept Kwan off the ice for a month and out of competition for two.

Hotel lobby gossip had it that Kwan’s practice sessions were deteriorating; that she couldn’t attempt the triple toe loop for fear of shin-shivering pain; that she couldn’t land the program substitution for the triple toe loop, the triple flip; that the foot was just too sore for her to continue; that she would have to withdraw and accept an injury waiver onto the U.S. Olympic Team.

The response from the Kwan camp?

Fifteen perfect artistic scores out of a possible 18--and the national title Kwan frittered away in 1997 wrested back from Tara Lipinski.

All punctuated by one final exclamation point--a perfectly executed triple toe loop at the conclusion of Kwan’s long program.

Kwan landed the jump without so much as a wince, beaming as her coach, Frank Carroll, stood slack-jawed behind the dasher boards, clasping a hand to his heart.

And then came the remarkable, unprecedented scores for presentation:

6.0, 6.0, 6.0, 6.0, 6.0, 5.9, 6.0, 6.0, 6.0.

One month into 1998 and already Kwan has comeback of the year sewn up.

‘Magical’ Performance

Was it the greatest skate ever?

Had Kwan, in those four sublime minutes on the night of Jan. 10, 1998, truly gone beyond standards previously etched out by Sonja Henie, Katarina Witt, Carol Heiss, Peggy Fleming, Janet Lynn and Kristi Yamaguchi?

Or was Kwan more the beneficiary of judicial home-cooking? Had a panel of American judges simply melted into an emotionally overwrought pool of 6.0 scores while watching Kwan overcome her physical struggles in such grand style?

If there had been Russian and German and Chinese judges sitting on the panel that night, would the marks have been the same?

“I think it was in the league of all-time great performances,” says Tracy Wilson, a member of CBS’ Olympic figure skating broadcast team.

“It’s interesting, because any skaters that I have talked to since that performance say the same thing--it’s unanimous. I think it was one of those performances that was magical. . . . She was skating in a different realm, almost where she couldn’t put a foot wrong.”

Scott Hamilton, 1984 men’s Olympic gold medalist and CBS figure skating analyst, believes the scores were warranted.

“With Michelle, you’re looking at somebody very unique, and someone who is special in a way that she has a presence on the ice,” Hamilton says. “She’s huge on the ice. You look at her and you’re completely captivated.

“And, you know, that doesn’t happen all the time. That’s something that’s very special and something that we should all appreciate as a unique time in figure skating.

“Her strengths are obvious, and the way that she skates and the way that she presents herself really is . . . it’s mesmerizing. It’s special and should be rewarded, as the judges did.”

Yet, three weeks’ time and the existence of videotape have diminished the performance in the minds of Kwan and Carroll.

“I’ve seen the tape of the nationals,” Kwan says, “and I was pretty amazed, because from inside, it seemed more than what I put out there on the ice. In my heart, I felt I was flying so high. On the tape, I look at it and I was only moving around the ice.”

Such a reaction didn’t surprise Carroll, who maintains figure skaters are “always disappointed” as they review the videotape because they “feel and envision it differently and then when you see it, it doesn’t live up to expectations.”

Far from the madding crowd inside the CoreStates Center and the glitter-painted banners of “We Love Michelle” and raucous chants of “Six! Six! Six!” Carroll has replayed the performance and claims to have found room for improvement.

“The toe loop was done at the end with caution and care, but it wasn’t as free as it could have been,” Carroll says. “[The short and long programs] were two record-breaking performances in the marks, and we’re very, very happy with it. Coming home, I was very tired but very elated at the same time. We are very, very pleased with how it went.

“But of course, it’s my job to criticize and it’s Michelle’s job to evaluate very objectively what’s happening and what she can do better. . . . There’s always something that could have been better.”

Still Just a Kid

The Great Skate has yielded handsome returns for Kwan, such as an appearance on “The Tonight Show” and a seat between Jay Leno, Burt Reynolds and “Titanic” star Kate Winslet.

Kwan, an avowed action-movie fan, told Winslet breathlessly that “Titanic” was “awesome,” flashing two thumbs up, before turning to Reynolds and politely informing him that she was too young to get in to see “Boogie Nights.”

In those few seconds, the realization hit home millions of times across the country:

The poised and polished two-time American champion, the world-traveled sophisticate who won the 1996 world title and is the prohibitive favorite for the women’s Olympic figure skating gold medal in Nagano is still, beneath it all, just a teenage kid from Torrance.

Kwan talks excitedly about attending the Hollywood premiere of “Titanic” with Carroll, thrilling to the fact that “we walked out on the red carpet” and were able to meet actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

“I’m a big fan of Leonardo,” Kwan says. “I was in awe. There was, like, so many people around him.”

Kwan was sincerely impressed, yet which of these stars of ice and iceberg are better known in Switzerland and Poland, Hungary and Austria, Russia and Japan?

Little girls on the other side of the planet who never heard of the Titanic know that Michelle Kwan won the women’s world figure skating championship in 1996 in the role of the biblical temptress Salome.

“I think Michelle is very down-to-earth and normal,” Carroll says. “She talks to the kids, takes time to be nice to everybody. I’m very, very proud of her. She has a great family and I think they’d slap her down the minute she got too frisky.”

Growing up in Southern California, among the sun-tanned wannabes and restaurant waiters with Hollywood agents, has helped in that regard.

In celebrity-starved Detroit, where Lipinski trains, a costume change is front-page news. In and around Los Angeles, Kwan says she blends in with the crowd, bursting out in laughter when asked if she is mobbed at shopping malls.

“I’m fine in malls,” she says. “I don’t get recognized that much. It’s not like I’m mobbed or anything. Maybe one in a hundred people recognize me when I’m walking down the street. . . .

“A lot of people say, ‘How do you deal with it?’ It’s not like I have interviews every day. It’s not like I talk to a million people a day.

“I try to stay normal. . . . I guess a lot of people would think that I wouldn’t be normal, but I always ask myself: What is normal?

“I’ve created a life surrounded by figure skating. All I’ve ever dreamed of or wanted was the Olympics. It was always an Olympic goal or a figure skating goal--never like, I want to be in movies, nothing outrageous like a normal teenager would dream of.

“But I can’t complain. I mean, I’m 17, I’m sitting here a world champion, I’ve traveled around the world. This is the life that I’ve always dreamed of. And it’s all coming true.”

Difficult Last Lap

Next act: Nagano, and the culmination of a dream that was cultivated in front of a television screen in 1988, as a 7-year-old Kwan watched Brian Boitano win the Olympic men’s figure skating gold medal.

“My Olympic dream came from him,” Kwan says. “I watched him in ’88 win the Olympic medal and said, ‘I want to be in the Olympics too.’ So I kind of pursued my dream and followed in his footsteps.”

The last lap has been the most difficult. This time last year, Kwan had already been conceded the Olympic gold medal. She was coming off a 1996 season in which she entered six individual international competitions and won five. She was reigning world and U.S. champion, seemingly invincible and infallible, with Lipinski just a speck on the distant horizon.

After a spotless short program at the 1997 U.S. championships, Kwan fell three times during her long program. Lipinski, then 14, skated cleanly and whisked the U.S. title away from Kwan.

Confidence dashed, Kwan stumbled again during her short program a month later at the world championships. Kwan rallied in the long program, skating with a mature elegance that underscored the artistry gap between her skating and Lipinski’s. But because of the advantage she built in the short program, Lipinski held on for the gold medal.

Looking back, Kwan says she was guilty of skating not to lose in early 1997, instead of trying to push her performances to a higher level.

“I had a rush of fear when I was competing at the [1997] nationals,” she says. “I was afraid to lose. I wasn’t going for anything at all. I was holding back, like I had something to lose. I wasn’t an athlete, I was a big chicken. I held back a lot, and I think it cost me a lot.”

Carroll cites another factor: a 16-year-old girl triple-leaping blindly into the natural calamity known as puberty.

“I think Michelle’s body changed tremendously last year,” Carroll says. “She has a woman’s body, a very beautiful body, when before last year, she had a kid’s body. She was just flat everywhere. Then, suddenly the next year, she wasn’t so flat anymore. I mean, she’s very lovely, but this all happened in a year. . . .

“I just feel Michelle felt uncomfortable and didn’t know why. She couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong. Whatever it was, her balance or her body changing, but she was not at ease. Every time she put it on the line and competed, there was fear involved.”

After a summer to regroup and retool, Kwan opened the 1997-98 skating season with a resounding triumph over Lipinski at Skate America in Detroit. On Lipinski’s home ice, Kwan swept the judges’ scorecards, receiving all nine first-place marks.

Two weeks later, Kwan won again at Skate Canada--but not without tumbling to the ice because of a shooting pain in her left foot.

A stress fracture first diagnosed in August had worsened beyond the grimace-and-bear-it point. Doctors sat Kwan down, told her to stop skating for a month and, just to make sure, put her left foot in a cast.

Kwan resumed practicing on Dec. 1, but was still doubtful about participating at the U.S. championships as late as Christmas.

“I remember her saying something at Christmastime like, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ ” Carroll says. “So how do you respond to that as a coach? Do you fall into a shell--’Oh, poor little darling, this is happening to you?’ No. Psychologically, you have to loosen someone up. ‘OK, today wasn’t a great day. Tomorrow will be better.’ ”

Tomorrow, as it turned out, against all foreseeable expectations, was almost perfect.

The next step would figure to be the top step of the medals podium in Nagano, although Carroll insists the subject is verboten in all Olympic discussions with Kwan.

“We don’t mention gold,” Carroll says.

Listening to this, Kwan only smiles.

“We dream of gold,” she says.