Michelle Kwan won't compete in 2009-10 season

Michelle Kwan's magnificent figure skating career will end without an Olympic gold medal.

The Torrance native, a nine-time U.S. champion, five-time world champion and two-time Olympic medalist, announced Friday she will not compete in the 2009-10 season. That means she won't be in Vancouver in February to try to add a gold medal to the silver she won in 1998 and the bronze she won in 2002.
In a statement released by U.S. Figure Skating, Kwan said she will attend graduate school full time at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and pursue a master's degree in international affairs. Kwan, 29, last competed in 2005. She got a medical bye onto the U.S. team for the Turin Olympics, but a hip injury led her to withdraw before the competition began.

"Skating will always be a part of me," Kwan said in the statement.