Injury may force Kwan out of Games

TORINO, Italy — Michelle Kwan's disappointments usually start when it's time to hand out Olympic medals. This time, she might be out before she even skates.

Kwan left open the possibility of withdrawing from the Torino Olympics after a sore groin forced her to cut short her first practice Saturday.

"I really have to pay attention to how I am feeling these days," said Kwan, who missed the U.S. nationals last month with a groin injury. "It is important that I'm in touch with it right now and being serious about it and how I'm skating and feeling.

"Dropping out, it's not something I want to do," she said, "but I have to listen to what my feelings are."

Kwan is a five-time world and nine-time U.S. champion, and no one has defined figure skating more in the past decade. The only place she's faltered is at the Olympics. She went to Nagano and Salt Lake City as the favorite and came home with a silver (1998) and bronze (2002).

Now 25, she hung around the past four years for one more shot at that elusive gold medal. But her hopes seem to be fading fast.

She missed the Grand Prix season with a hip injury, then needed a medical bye onto the Torino team because of a pulled groin. She looked sharp during the Jan. 27 monitoring session that solidified her spot on the team, doing back-to-back run-throughs of her long and short programs.

But the long plane ride to Italy, followed by marching in the opening ceremony, apparently took a toll. By the time she returned to the Olympic village, she was starting to hurt. When she woke up Saturday morning, it wasn't any better.

"I was debating whether or not to rest today," she said. "I just wanted to get out, get my legs under me and feel the ice. Sometimes you don't need to do run-throughs."

But she didn't do much of anything else, either.

Most of the practice was spent on footwork. At one point, Kwan did her footwork from her free skate, and team leader Roger Glenn and U.S. judge Charlie Cyr seemed to be checking the levels of difficulty.

Her first jump, a smooth triple toe loop, didn't come until almost 14 minutes into the workout. She did a single flip, landed on two feet on her first triple flip, and fell hard on her next attempt at the jump. Kwan also cut another try into a double flip.

At times, she looked downright despondent. With coach Rafael Arutunian still in transit, Glenn was seen holding Kwan's hand or arm several times, as if to comfort her.