Michelle Kwan was so distracted by figure skating's new scoring system that the five-time champion struggled to her worst showing in more than a decade in the world championships' qualifying round yesterday in Moscow.
Her tentative performance was just seventh best. And she wasn't helped by an unassuming program not geared to maximizing the points awarded for technical challenges.
Michelle Kwan reacts after the women's qualifying free skating at the World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow on Wednesday. Kwan sits in seventh place.
(Alexander Demianchuk - Reuters)
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_____ 2004 Summer Olympics _____
• Look back at the Athens Games, highlighted by Michael Phelps's eight medals and marked by unfounded worries over terrorism.
• Photos
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"I got thrown instead of getting into the ice," she said, adding that she was uncomfortable with the new system.
Irina Slutskaya, a Russian who often has been defeated by Kwan at the world championships, this time was at the top after an assured qualifying skate that was all the more impressive because she's still battling heart problems.
In the first medals of this year's competition, Russians Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin capped a remarkable comeback by retaining their championship in the pairs event.
The victory came a few months after a near catastrophe, when Totmianina fell on her head at Skate America in Pittsburgh and was unconscious for several minutes. At the end of their program, both seemed overwhelmed, raising their hands to their faces and taking several seconds before acknowledging the cheers.
-- From News Services
