No Olympics: Kwan says she won't return to skating

For Michelle Kwan, more school has trumped more spirals.
Kwan announced Friday she will not try for a return to competitive skating and an attempt at making the 2010 Olympic team.

Goodbye Vancouver. Hello, Tufts University. The five-time world champion, who graduated from Denver University in June, plans to pursue for a master's degree in international affairs at the Boston-based school.

 

Despite the fervent hopes of her fans, Kwan's Olympic legacy is all but sealed at one 2002 bronze medal and one 1998 silver. She will go down in history as the sport's most popular and accomplished skater never to have won Olympic gold.

 

Credit Kwan, 29, for being OK with that and moving on with her life. Recently, she has taken trips as a State Department envoy, and traveled to Beijing during the 2008 Summer Games.

 

"Skating will always be a part of me,” Kwan told The Associated Press. “But in the bigger picture of my life, I have always wanted to find a career that will allow me to make a positive contribution and difference in the world. Representing the United States as an American Public Diplomacy Envoy the past three years has been very rewarding, and I want to do more. Furthering my education will bring me closer to that goal, and I don’t want to wait any longer to continue the journey.”

 

Kwan, the nine-time U.S. champion, tantalized her followers by returning to the ice early this year to train for a possible comeback attempt. Inspired by swimmer Dara Torres, who won three Olympic medals in Beijing last summer at age 41, Kwan raised hopes for a return to competition. She signed up to skate in Kim Yu-Na's charity ice show, set for next month in Korea.

 

That would have been her first on-ice appearance before an audience since 2006, the year she was named to the U.S. Olympic team. She withdrew from the Turin Games because of injury.

 

Unlike Sasha Cohen, who won 2006 Olympic silver and announced a comeback of her own after two years away from competition, Kwan would have had to qualify through regional competition to make the field for the U.S. championships, set for January in Spokane, Wash.

 

Now, new adventures await.