Salt Lake City will miss seeing figure skating champion Michelle Kwan on two Olympic-related accounts next month — in competition at the Four Continents Skating Championships and as a Salt Lake Organizing Committee guest at ceremonies to announce the Olympic torch relay route.
Kwan, the silver medalist in ladies singles at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and one of the favorites for the gold in the same event at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, will not compete in the Four Continents event Feb. 7-10 at the Delta Center. She is citing a sore back as the reason for her absence.
After winning the women's title at last week's U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Boston, Kwan is one of several leading national and international skaters opting to forego the Salt Lake event.
A factor in their absences is that the Four Continents will be contested only a week before the Grand Prix finals in Tokyo, creating a hectic schedule for not only competition but the demands of traveling, training and climatizing in Japan for the Grand Prix season finale.
Timothy Goebel, who like Kwan is coached by Frank Carroll and who also won the men's U.S. title in Boston, is another who is opting out of the Four Continents event.
SLOC officials had hoped Kwan still would be the featured guest at Feb. 8 ceremonies at the Gallivan Center, as the Utah route for the Olympic torch relay is announced. SLOC had circulated a press release earlier this week, touting Kwan as the headline athlete appearing at the ceremonies.
However, Kwan has withdrawn from that appearance as well, with her doctors recommending that she avoid air travel while resting the ailing back, said SLOC media manager Mark Walker.
Had Kwan been involved with the torch-relay announcement ceremonies, she would have been at the Gallivan Center — just a few blocks southeast of the Delta Center — about the same time her figure skating counterparts would be warming up for the ladies free skate competition.
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com