U.S. Figure Skaters Trivia Quiz

Answer: She was over the allowed time-limit

At the time, skaters were allowed a maximum of 2:40 to complete their short program. The time started from when the skater made their first movement and ended when they hit their final position. At the 2:40 second mark, Michelle was in the final revolutions of her combination spin and did not stop her movement for another 3 seconds.

Other that this, she skated a flawless program with no mistakes. When asked about the deduction, Michelle said "I could understand taking a deduction if I had made a mistake but I don't feel that I made a mistake". Now during the short program, skaters are allowed 2:50 to complete their elements.

This change was made to accomodate the new ISU judging system.

Answer: 2

Michelle won nearly every short program at the US Nationals for each title that she won. However, there were two competitions where she had to come from behind to win the title. The first time came in 2000. During the Short Program, Michelle fell on her solo Triple jump(a Toe-Loop).

However, the rest of her skating was strong enough to keep her in 3rd place, behind Sasha Cohen(1st place; this was her debut at the Senior Nationals) and Sarah Hughes(2nd place). During the long program, all of the ladies in the top 3 had a fall on a jump during their programs, but Michelle had the presentation marks to compensate for the lack of technical prowess.

In 2004, Michelle had a small correction on the landing of her Double Axel where she had to circle her arms to save the landing.

This small bobble would be just enough to give Sasha Cohen the lead after the Short Program, with Michelle in 2nd. During the Long Program, Sasha Cohen had a fall in her Free Skate which opened the door for Michelle. Michelle, however, really did not need it. That night, Michelle delivered one of her greatest performances ever, earning 7 6.0's for presentation.

Answer: Scott Williams

Scott Williams was her coach for the 2002-2003 season. In an interview from Skate America 2002, he said "When Michelle asked me if I would coach her, I looked at it as if I was receiving a beautiful piece of artwork. There's really not much that needs to be done with it. You only have to adjust the lighting a little bit".

After winning her 5th World Title in 2003, Michelle started working under Rafael Arutunian.

Answer: Rush by Eric Clapton

Michelle did skate to both "Breathe" and "Hands" as exhibition programs. Going into the 2001-02 Olympic season, it was rumored that both of these pieces were so comforting to her while she skated that she was considering using a specially composed instrumental version of one of these songs as her Olympic Long Program music. She chose the music "Scheherazade" instead.

Answer: 5

After the Olympics in 1994 up until her final competition at the 2005 World Championships, there were only 5 American women that finished ahead of Michelle Kwan at an international competition. The 1st US skater to finish ahead of Michelle would be Tonia Kwiatkowski, winning silver at Trophee Lalique in 1994, while Michelle would win the bronze.

The 2nd was Nicole Bobek, who won the bronze medal at the 1995 World Championships; Michelle would place 4th. In 1997, Tara Lipinski defeated Michelle at the Champion Series Final & World Championships; Michelle finished 2nd in both of those competitions. Tara would defeat Michelle again at the 1998 Olympics to become the youngest Olympic champion ever. Michelle finished in 2nd place.

In 2001, Sarah Hughes would have her first and only Grand Prix gold medal at Skate Canada, beating Irina Slutskaya(2nd) and Michelle Kwan(3rd).

This was a result that would repeat itself at the 2002 Olympic Games, where Sarah Hughes shocked the world by climbing from 4th to 1st with a history-making Free Skate. Finally, Sasha Cohen would finish ahead of Michelle for the first time at the 2003 Campbell's Classic and again at the 2004 World Championships, winning a silver medal to Michelle's bronze.

This would be Michelle's 1st and only bronze medal at the World Championships and her last World Championship medal ever.

Answer: Swan Lake

She used Carmen for her short program during the 1998-999 season. Scheherazade was used as her music for the 2001-02 season. Tosca was the music she used for her long program during the 2003-04 season.

Answer: 3

At the 1996 World Champsionships, Michelle Kwan won her 1st title, beating the defending World Champion Chen Lu in one of closest finishes in World Championship history. She won all 3 phases of the competition here. She would do it again in 1998 as the over-whelming favorite to win the title(both Tara Lipinski & Chen Lu opted not to compete).

In 2003, she again won all three phases of the competition on her way to her 5th World Championship gold medal in front of a boisterous American audience.

Answer: Triple Lutz/Triple Loop

At Skate Canada in 2001, Michelle was in 3rd place going into the Long Program after a fall on her jump combination during the Technical Program. She trailed her countrywoman Sarah Hughes(1st) and Fumie Suguri of Japan. Her top rival, Irina Slutskaya, had also made major errors and was in 4th place after the Short Program. Having won Skate America the previous week, Michelle decided to use Skate Canada as an opportunity to try new jumps and new choreography as she had not yet worked out some of the finer details of the program at this point.

Her first jumping pass was an attempt at the Triple Toe-Loop/Triple Toe-Loop combination, but she fell on the first jump. She then skated around the rink and built up speed for her 2nd Triple-Triple: a Triple Lutz/Triple Loop combination.

She under-rotated the Triple Loop by almost a full half turn and fell to the ice again. At the 2001 World Championships, she was landing the combination of Triple Salchow/Triple Loop in practice and in the warm-up prior to the Free Skate, but she opted to leave it out of her performance.

Answer: Tiffany Chin

Tiffany Chin won her 1st and only U.S. National title in 1985, becoming the 1st Asian-American woman to win the title. She also was the first woman of color(non-caucasian) to win the championship. Debi Thomas would become the first African-American to win the title the follwing year in 1986. Kristi Yamaguchi won her National title in 1992, the first Japanese-American to win.

Answer: Nicole Bobek

In 1997, Nicole Bobek returned to Lake Arrowhead to train with legendary coach Carlo Fassi. Fassi was her coach when she first made a name for herself in 1991. At just 13 years of age, she won the US Olympic Festival in an upset victory over Tonia Kwiatkowski.

Afterwards, she would change coaches 11 times before returning back to her original coach. Tragically, after just a few short months back and winning the bronze medal at the 1997 US Championships, Carlo would pass away. His death would come at the 1997 World Championships, just days before the women's competition began. Nicole stayed on to be coached by Carlo's wife, Christa, during the 1997-98 season, where she qualified for the Olympic Games, along with Michelle Kwan & Tara Lipinski.

However, she would finish in a very disappointing 17th place. Sarah Hughes was coached by Robin Wagner in Hackensack, New Jersey. Sasha Cohen, while originally from Southern California, did not train at the Ice Castle. She first trained in Costa Mesa with John Nicks before moving to Simsbury, Connecticut after the 2002 Olympics to train under Tatiana Tarasova.

She would switch soon afterwards in late 2003 to Robin Wagner and even lived with her for a short while. She would eventually return to train with John Nicks during the winter of 2004 after not being able to keep up with the training regimen that Wagner believed was necessary to become an Olympic champion.