Kwan Scores an Old-Time Win

Michelle Kwan wins the Marshalls U.S. Figure Skating Challenge on Tuesday, an event using the old 6.0 scoring system. (Robert Azmitia - AP)

TAMPA, March 29 -- Figure skating's fast-disappearing 6.0 scoring system received Michelle Kwan like an old, dear friend. Kwan, who had her worst performance in 10 years at the recent world championships under a new, technical-oriented system that will make its Olympic debut at next year's Winter Games in Turin, Italy, surprised no one at the Marshalls U.S. Figure Skating Challenge on Tuesday with a resounding victory.

But after a relaxed and nearly mistake-free performance that brought the spectators at the St. Pete Times Forum to their feet, Kwan said she was prepared to embrace the new system despite her frustrations with her first foray into it.

"I have no choice whether I like the system or not," said Kwan, a five-time world champion who finished fourth in Moscow two weeks ago. "I've had a lot of luck with the 6.0 system, but it's time to move on. Things change and you have to change as well, otherwise you're going to stay retro or old fashioned. I don't want to be that."

This competition, a made-for-television event in which six men and six women performed only their long programs for $200,000 in prize money, is one of the few remaining International Skating Union-sanctioned events that has not adopted the new system. Created in response to the judging scandal at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the new system requires that judges evaluate each skater on an element-by-element basis.

The old system is considered more subjective because it calls for each judge to give each skater only two marks on a 6.0 scale. Kwan, however, has fared better than any other skater under the old system, earning a record 50 6.0s.

I was "much more at ease" Tuesday than at the world championships, she said. "I had to adjust to the new system and I wasn't really comfortable with it yet in Moscow. It was really a learning experience. It's something I have to learn from because that's the way they are going to judge the Olympics."

Sasha Cohen, who finished second to Kwan at the January U.S. championships, landed in second here after a tentative performance that she said was hampered by a groin problem she developed late last week. Bel Air's Kimmie Meissner, third at the U.S. championships, finished fourth after a shaky effort that included two falls. Jennifer Kirk was third.

Kwan's only mistake came when she doubled a jump near the end of an expressive, emotional program to Ravel's "Bolero." Kwan, who before this year had finished among the medal winners at every world championships dating from 1995, received marks ranging from 5.6 to 5.8 for technical merit and all 5.9s for presentation.

Unlike Cohen, who has competed many times -- and with much success -- under the new system, Kwan seems far less enamored of it. When asked about its effect on putting programs together, she struggled to find the words.

"It's very methodical as opposed to lyrical," said Kwan, who decided not to compete in a number of events that would have exposed her to the new system as early as two years ago.

Cohen, second at the world championships to Russia's Irina Slutskaya, offered a different view after discussing Tuesday's performance, in which she put a hand down on a double axel attempt and received marks ranging from 5.5 to 5.6 for technical merit and all 5.8s for presentation.

"I really like being able to see how I am judged for each element," she said. "To know one number [on a 6.0 scale] doesn't break down a performance."

Cohen said she could barely walk Friday after suffering the groin injury and was pleased with her effort here considering the strain.

"In the situation I was in," she said, "I was just trying hard to put on a respectable skate."

Lysacek, 19, did far more than skate respectably in the men's event. Though he has never won a U.S. title in senior skating -- in fact, his third-place finish this January was a career best -- Lysacek showed again why he might be the best hope for a U.S. medal among the men at the 2006 Winter Games. He hit eight triple jumps without so much as a wobble to edge reigning U.S. champion Johnny Weir in the men's event here just two weeks after claiming a bronze medal at the 2005 world championships.

"It's definitely a strong way to end the season," said Lysacek, who finished behind Weir and reigning Olympic bronze medal winner Tim Goebel at this year's national championships. "It definitely gives me a lot of inspiration . . . I really would love to come into the Olympics as a national champion. That's going to take a lot of work, obviously."

Tim Goebel, who trains in Fairfax with Audrey Weisiger, finished third and Stanford graduate Derrick Delmore of Alexandria finished fifth overall.