Kwan: 'I can keep head high'

SALT LAKE CITY -- Maybe someone at the Salt Lake Ice Center had a cruel sense of humor.

As the crowd filed out after Sarah Hughes stunned Kwan to win the figure skating gold medal Thursday night, the P.A. system played U2's Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.

Kwan might never find that elusive gold despite accomplishing almost everything else in the sport. Her Olympic medals collection consists of a silver behind Tara Lipinski in 1998, and now a bronze behind Hughes and Kwan's Russian rival and friend, Irina Slutskaya.

"It's a bummer, but it is competition," Kwan said. "I can keep my head high and I guess the color medal doesn't matter to me. I just had to remind myself, it's okay, it's okay."

Leading after the short program on Tuesday, Kwan never really got started in her long program. She two-footed her triple toe loop jump, the opener of a combination, and crashed to the ice on her triple flip.

Her tricks weren't as tough as Hughes' jumps, and she didn't have the 16-year-old's energy either.

"I made an early mistake, on the triple toe, and it kind of shook me up a little bit," Kwan said.

Kwan doesn't want to make a practice of Olympic underachievement, but she has hinted she intends to be in Turin, Italy, in 2006.

"I haven't decided yet, a lot of people asked me what my decision was," she said. "I enjoy competing, I do love the sport a lot and it gives me a lot of pleasure, a lot of joy."

Kwan was incredibly gracious in defeat. She clapped when Hughes was introduced as the Olympic champion, and she hugged the girl who only a few years ago looked up to Kwan as one of her idols.

"I've experienced much the last four years," Kwan said. "I've realized it doesn't matter the color of your medal."

But her puffy red eyes said differently. Her bronze medal was buried beneath a thick black sweater, the ribbon obscured by the scarf wrapped around her neck.

Hughes was just as gracious toward Kwan. "Michelle has always been an idol for me, now more than ever," she said. "I hope my career will be as bright as hers."

And what comes next for Hughes? "My next goal is to get high 1500s on my SATs," said the high school junior from Great Neck, N.Y.

Fame and fortune will be secondary to keeping up her books in school. She has a sister at Columbia Law School. Two brothers are at Ithaca and Cornell.

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