Michelle Kwan, who has been skating since she was seven, has worked hard at skating throughout her career and eventually became an Olympic champion. Ever since she began skating, she has had a love and passion for it. She always had a dream to go to the Olympics and after being there, is still trying to return. She always tried to do her best to be better at the things she needed to improve on. Although she was impatient, she always listened to advice other people gave her, like her family and dearest friends. She cared about skating so much that skating took over most of her thoughts. She would sit at school and daydream about her next skating lesson at the rink.
She used to wear skating shirts to school, too.
Michelle had big Olympic dreams. She got her first trophy when she was seven. She was always counting down the years when she would be in the Olympics. First she would have to get used to listening to her coach. Then she would be able to move on to harder and more fun things. The first thing you have to do is learn how to fall. Michelle thought that was a silly thing to learn. Later on, though she would be glad to have learned that. Michelle always wanted skating to be a fun sport for her. Her motto was always "work hard, be yourself, have fun".
Michelle improved a lot throughout the years. She went from being a cute skater to being a mature, champion skater. She had decided to try out for senior skating while Frank (her coach) was at a coaches meeting. Frank told her not to, but she did it anyway. She had passed the test, now all she had to do is to tell the news to Frank. She new it probably would not go well, and she was right. He was furious that she had gone and disobeyed him like that. After he had gotten over it he explained that senior skating was very challenging and hard, especially for her age. They would have to work harder and more often. Michelle said she would do whatever it takes. She was always up for a challenge.
Now that Michelle was a senior, she had skated a lot in nationals and worlds skating competitions. She was having fun, but she wanted to win. She new it was just a sport, she had big Olympic dreams. She knew that in every competition she was in that she could do better. Then, at one competition, she skated the best she could. She new she could not have done any better than she had done then. Everybody thought for sure she was going to win. She came in fourth. Then afterwards she did some serious thinking. She figured out that the judges knew that she was just a kid. They didn't really take her seriously. Everybody took her as Michelle the cute little skater. She knew she needed to change. She needed to change from Michelle the kid to Michelle the lady skater. A Michelle the kid, she had gone as far as she could go.
The next year, Michelle surprised a lot of people. She looked so grown up that people hardly even recognized her. She looked so grown up and different. When she did her skating competition to the song and act Salome. People were commenting on how elegant and grown up she looked. When she skated at Skate America, she beat Lu Chen, who was the winner at Birmingham. She had had the most fun time of her life. She competed as Salome a lot during the season and she grew more and more comfortable with it. Finally, Nationals came. Nationals were in San Jose and again she was competing as Salome. After she had done her program, she watched her sister Karen do her program. Karen had gotten fifth place over a lot of other more experienced senior skaters who did more jumps. Michelle had gotten first. Their mother and father were so proud. After National came Worlds in Canada. Michelle was very confident to win the gold. She was very close to Lu Chen. When she skated her long program, the judges had given her a better score than Lu. Michelle had gotten the gold again.
During all of this triumph and victory, Michelle's parents were behind her every step of the way. Michelle had a great support group. Her parents were at her every skate competition and always were there to give her advice on what she needed to improve on and always comforted her when she knew she had done a bad performance. Michelle also had her sister older sister Karen and her older brother Ron. Karen was also a skater and took skating lessons at the same place Michelle did. Since Karen was older than Michelle, Karen was usually at a higher level than Michelle. Michelle usually caught up. Michelle did finally pass Karen when Michelle tried out for seniors and Karen decided to stay in juniors. Karen and Michelle were very close and always shared skating advice with each other. They always watched each other's programs when they could. Ron was also a big supporter to Michelle. Ron was a hockey player, but never really did figure skate. None the less he was always cheering Michelle on. There was also Frank, Michelle's coach. Frank always gave Michelle his words of wisdom and never let her down. He always told Michelle when she did a bad performance and always was honest with her. He was always very proud of her when she did a wonderful performance. He always went over what she did wrong in a competition. They had their fights and disagreements sometimes, but they usually got along. Nicole was also a very important person in Michelle's life. She was Michelle's choreographer. She made all her programs prettier and flow better. She pushed Michelle on and always gave her confidence. When Michelle fell, she always helped her get back up again. All these people will help her with the following events.
Michelle had some hard times after her great season before. She had to have a determined personality like she did in the past, if she wanted to win. She couldn't always have to think about all the bad things that might happen to her. Plus, her sister, Karen had gone off to college, so she really had no one to talk to about her skating. She really missed her.
She also had to get new skates that year. They were a nightmare. Whenever she wanted to go one way, the skates would make her go another way. They were very irritating. The season was not getting off to a good start. Then she went to her Dad for help. He said she needed to start appreciating things more and to remember that skating is just a sport and not her whole entire life. She decided to buckle down and work hard for the rest of the season. She was trying to have fun with it, but she had started to have this voice in the back of her head that said she was going to fall. She was trying to make it go away but it didn't work. She had won six gold medals since her competition at St. Jose. Then at her next competition, she fell three times in one program. She was very upset. Her Dad was right, she was skating for all the wrong reasons. She wasn't skating to have fun, she was skating so she wouldn't lose. After the competition reporters wanted to know what had happened to Michelle. She needed to get back to the feeling that she was having fun again, instead of making skating work. Worlds were coming up and she really needed to improve her skating. She did a great job at Worlds. She made one little mistake in the short program, but she did a great job in the long program. She made second place over all.
Michelle had made big contributions to the United States. She had followed her dream to the Olympics. After she had done that, she wanted to pursue a new dream. Her new dream is that she will win at the Olympics. She is still trying to pursue her dream. She has won second place in the Olympics and she made the United States look good. She also loves to donate to charity.
I think Michelle Kwan's life needed to be put into words because she has achieved so much at such a young age. She has worked extra hard just to pursue her dream. I think she has done a great job making the United States look good.
I chose this Michelle Kwan to do my book report on because she is young woman that is still alive. She is very interesting because she is still trying to pursue her dream. I think someday she will get first place in the Olympics.