By Barry Wilner
AP Sports Writer
Thursday, Oct. 25, 2001; 2:44 a.m. EDT

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –– Frank Carroll sat by the sideboards and patiently gave instructions to his U.S. figure skating champion. Everything was going as planned for coach and skater at the practice session for Skate America.

Except for one thing: Carroll was working with men's champ Tim Goebel, not five-time U.S. women's gold medalist Michelle Kwan. The days of Carroll coaching Kwan apparently are over, although Carroll still can't figure out why.

"If I'd had some indication she was miserably unhappy ..." Carroll said Wednesday, his voice trailing off, the uncertainty about why Kwan dropped him still obvious. "I offered to come here and put on a good show supporting her, but she said, 'I can't do that to you, Frank. You're better than that.'

"It's not an issue of not caring about each other. You don't go through what we have gone through – it's a very special relationship you develop."

So special that Carroll guided Kwan to four world championships, including the last three, and a silver medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Kwan has been the dominant skater of the last six seasons, perhaps the most accomplished of all American women who have not won Olympic gold.

With that objective on the horizon, Kwan's decision was even more stunning.

"I told her this is bad timing and that people will not understand," Carroll said several hours after Kwan skated in her practice session – sans coach. She competes Thursday night in the women's short program, which is preceded by the compulsory dance and pairs short program at the first major event of the season.

"I think both of us are going through some pain right now," he said. "Part of it is the withdrawal from each other.

"This is not a nasty separation of ways. We'd go out and have lunch together or sit backstage together and have a laugh.'

"At this point, I would not be surprised about anything. If you told me Michelle was not going to do Skate Canada (next week) or not go to the Olympics, or have her sister coach her or her mother ... I thought I had seen it all, that there could be no surprises for me. I was wrong."

Kwan's father, Danny, barely spoke to his daughter and didn't appear to be doing any coaching during the morning session. Whether Michelle missed Carroll couldn't be ascertained – she was not available for comment.

But she did fall four times during the workout, including twice while attempting a triple-triple combination.

There also were flashes of the brilliance. And she did hit the triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination later in the session.

"Everybody in the world is searching for something and searching for answers, some that you'll never find," Kwan said Tuesday, when she announced the split. "I feel at this moment, this is the right decision. I don't know if this going to answer all my prayers."

Carroll hopes she doesn't plan to go it alone this season, particularly with the intense spotlight of the Salt Lake City Games less than four months away.

"I hope she will take someone else in," Carroll said. "I think she needs someone to share the pressures."