“What I love the most is getting on the ice and just popping in a fabulous CD and skating - all by myself, the rink completely empty, just me and the music,” As Michelle Kwan said about figure skating. In the Leaving a Legacy unit, many influential movements and people were analyzed. Some people are still leaving a legacy; Michelle Kwan is one of them. Michelle Kwan is one of the greatest figure skaters of all time that left a great impact on the skating world.
Michelle Wingshan Kwan was born on July 7th, 1980 in Torrance, California. She began figure skating in 1985 after her older brother and sister introduced her to the sport. Her older brother, Ron, was a hockey player and her older sister, Karen, was a figure skater. According to Wikipedia,
…show more content…
Little did she know that she would win 4 more titles. 1998 was the biggest season for Michelle, Olympic season. She was heading into the Olympics in Nagano with 2 national titles and 1 world title. But she was still favored for the gold. But, sadly she did not win and had to settle for silver as her teammate, Tara Lipinski, took gold. This was arguably one of the biggest upsets in figure skating, and it is still talked about today. After the Olympics, Michelle went on to win another world title. After the Olympics Michelle still accomplished a lot in her figure skating, 7 more national titles, 4 more world titles, and another Olympic medal in 2002. She also has achievements outside of her skating career such as, winning the Teen Choice Award for America’s favorite female athlete, winning the International FIgure Skating Magazine’s Most Influential Skater Award, winning 2003 Sportswoman of the year (USOC), and winning USFS Skater of the year, a record 7 times, which led to the award being named after her. But something that makes Michelle successful as she is, is her educational success. She decided to take a break from figure skating, which ended with her retiring, so she could focus on her education. She now currently works at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural