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Michelle Kwan's Life And Accomplishments

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Michelle Kwan once said, “When I was younger, I always dreamed of being a legend, to be remembered in figure skating.” Kwan has been a champion since the beginning. She started figure skating when she was five years old (Kwan 7). She was born on July 7, 1980 in Southern California and has lived there her whole life (Ramback 16). Kwan has won many national, international, and world competitions. At the age of seven, Kwan knew that she wanted to become a champion (Kwan 18). Michelle Kwan is an inspirational U.S figure skater starting with her early life, to how she never gave up, and through her many awards. Ever since a young age, Kwan has always been a fierce, competitive figure skater. Kwan has two siblings, Karen, who was also a competitive …show more content…

Carroll started coaching Kwan and Karen when they were at the junior level. There are eight testing levels in figure skating. The levels are pre-preliminary, preliminary, pre-juvenile, juvenile, intermediate, novice, junior, and senior. In order to compete with the top skaters in the world, a skater needs to be at the senior level (Kwan 37, 33). When Kwan was at the junior level she was only eleven years old and was the youngest in her level. As a matter of fact, when Carroll started coaching Kwan he knew that she would be a star and become a champion. The first thing that she learned from Carroll was that you have to always keep going during a program and that you cannot give up after making a mistake (Kwan 44, 37, 42). Kwan was Carroll's perfect student and star skater (Brennan 132, 125). He also taught her how to smile and perform while she skated (Brennan 131). Kwan then moved up and started to compete with the best skaters in the world at the senior level. She started her senior career at the age of twelve and she was only four feet and nine inches tall (Kwan 47) (Ramback 20). Kwan made the decision to move up to the senior level on her own even though once you take the senior test you cannot go back to any of the earlier levels. Since she took her senior test without Carrol knowing, he was furious and did not talk to the Kwans for days because of it (Kwan 49). Kwan thought that she was ready and that she could …show more content…

Kwan has been a champion since the beginning of her career. She has won nine United States Figure Skating Championships (otherwise known as Nationals) at the senior level which is the most out of any United States figure skater (Milton 103). She won her titles in 1996 and from 1998-2005 (Michelle). She was fifteen years old when she won her first title (Ramback 7). Also, Kwan is the fourth youngest and the tenth oldest United States champion is history (Milton 101). She competed at her first United States Championships at the age of twelve in Phoenix, Arizona in 1993 at the junior level after winning Regionals and getting third at Sectionals. At her first Nationals she forgot to polish her skates, which is a very important thing to do at Nationals especially. Not only did she forget some major steps in competing at Nationals, but both of her programs were a mess and she ended up getting ninth place (Kwan 45). Kwan has earned a total of forty-two 6.0 marks at the United States Championships which is three times more than any other United States figure skater (Milton 103). A 6.0 mark was a perfect score from the judges up until 2004 when the federation changed the judging system. Not only did Kwan win many National Competitions, but she won many International Competitions as well. She has won a total of nine World Championship medals which are five gold, three silver, and one bronze (Milton 103). Kwan was

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