Figure skater Michelle Kwan was once on top of the world,
but after she dropped out of the 2006 Olympic games, her career started to cool off.
Here are some of the reasons you don't hear much from the supreme figure skater anymore
Following her successful runs at the 1998 and 2002 Olympic games,
Michelle Kwan seemed likely to win big at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy. However,
she ultimately dropped out of the competition just days before it would begin, citing continued pain
from a groin injury. And with that, her career paused at just 25 years old. She told People TV,
"There's no easy transition for professional athletes, Olympians,
because you focus your whole life — for 20 years of my life, it was all about skating."
She went on to say,
“And then, when I finished it was like,
'Now what?' I think athletes struggle with [their] identity."
Kwan's family, who supported her during her Olympic career,
also helped guide her in the right direction after her time on the rink.
Immediately after she withdrew from the 2006 Olympics, she enrolled in college at
the University of Denver and worked as a volunteer State Department diplomat.
Kwan found a second passion for diplomacy during her time with the government.
Instead of trying to stage a comeback for the 2010 Olympics,
she went on to earn a Master's Degree from Tufts. Kwan told The Boston Globe,
"It didn't feel like it was a hard choice, but it was the right one for me at this time. Grad
school, new experience, everything that I've always wanted. It's a new path.'"
Being thrust into the international spotlight can put a lot of pressure on a young woman,
especially one whose figure is such an essential element of her success.
For Michelle Kwan, she quietly battled with body image and self-esteem issues when she was younger.
In 2017, she opened up to Cosmopolitan about her silent struggle, telling the magazine,
"I was a teenager and going through puberty very publicly,
it was tough. You're on [magazine] covers, being interviewed,
and just trying to be the best — and there's a lot of pressure that comes with that."
Kwan credits her mother's devotion and care in helping her overcome self doubts. And,
she has decided to be that source of strength for others who might need it. She said,
"Whether it's competition, setbacks, fear of failing,
or body image. I hope that [younger skaters] know I'm here for them to give honest advice."
She added that the social media generation can only serve to heighten that intense self-scrutiny.
While Kwan maintains an energetic digital presence, she doesn't get
too personal with her posts and is certainly not scoring any headlines as a result of them.
Another reason Michelle Kwan doesn't make as many media waves as she did during her
time on the ice is that she has declined to continue her supposed feud with Tara Lipinski.
In January 2018, Kwan denied that there was ever really any bad blood between them. She told NBC,
"I think what the media likes to play up is this, like, rivalry between athletes. When in fact,
you're only competing against yourself and you're trying to do your very best. In figure skating,
you have four minutes to do your best. It's your time, you do your best."
However, Kwan has admitted that she did have a minor rivalry with Russian skater Irina Slutskaya,
against whom she competed throughout her youth.
Kwan told the Chicago Tribune,
"We were both able to be very serious; in the locker room, there was always a very thick tension
because we were so focused and in our zone. But we were able to be on tour together and joke around.
We definitely rooted for one another. It was like, 'Let the best person win.'"
The conclusion of her competitive skating career isn't the only difficult ending
Michelle Kwan has had to endure. In 2017, her husband of four years,
Clay Pell, filed for divorce from Kwan, citing irreconcilable differences.
Pell, a former Obama Administration staffer who once ran for governor of Rhode Island,
told People,
"It is with deep regret that I share that Michelle and my marriage is coming to
an end. This is a sad and difficult turn of events for our family. I love Michelle,
and wish her the very best as her life takes her in a new direction."
While that may sound like standard fare when it comes to divorce statements,
there was a lot more to it than that.
Court documents later revealed that Kwan was caught completely off guard by Pell's filing,
and in fact had only found out that he was ending their marriage through Twitter.
Kwan later filed for divorce, as well, and the whole ordeal marked an unusual
moment of messiness in the media for Kwan, who'd otherwise maintained a steady image.
In addition to working with the State Department and supporting her ex-husband's career in public
service, Michelle Kwan has also done a lot of political work behind the scenes. In 2016,
she began working for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign,
even running a phone bank for the former secretary of state.
Kwan's title for the campaign was "surrogate outreach coordinator."
This meant that she was on hand to help bring in other celebrity
voices to support Clinton's bid for the White House. She told New York Magazine,
"There was no way that I could sit on the sidelines and watch
it without getting involved. It was a very quick decision."
Kwan added that,
for her, supporting Clinton was a no-brainer, given her family's own immigrant history.
"I think of my parents, and as I look around the room,
we probably share similar stories, of how [we] might have immigrated to the U.S.
It's so the next generation of Americans have the ability to dream that dream."
Alas, Clinton was not successful in winning the 2016 race,
and two years later, Kwan was still not ready to publicly discuss the loss. She told Mic simply,
"Let's not talk about that. I don't think there would be enough time to talk about that."
Although 2017 was difficult for Michelle Kwan on a personal level,
she did get the chance to return to the rink and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.
She shared a video of herself performing a few key moves on the ice and captioned it,
"I need to ice skate more often, I forget how fun it is!!" She's since shared more glimpses
of herself getting back to business, including shots of her completing some impressive jumps.
She told W magazine that she decided to lace up her skates once again
after watching other youngsters like Mirai Nagasu prepare for the world stage, saying,
"I said, 'You know, I should do it before I'm 40.'
You don't realize how quickly age crawls up to you."
Of course, it's not been so easy for Kwan to slip right back into her old routines. She said,
"Once you're on the ice, there are so many things:
It's rhythm, once you're up in the air, and falling [...] I fall, and I'm like,
'Wow, that hurt.'" As Kwan told Time,
"You fall every day, whether it's in a job, or you miss something else,
but you learn how to do it better next time. You learn it in sports. That's a life lesson."
Olympians, particularly figure skaters, gravitate toward "Dancing With the Stars" these days,
but Michelle Kwan doesn't seem to want that kind of attention. Although she is reportedly
in high demand for the show, with audiences showing a significant interest in seeing her
dominate the world of dance, she has politely declined on multiple occasions. She told Forbes,
"I've been asked a few times, but each time I was either going to school or touring."
Part of the reason Kwan has been hesitant about doing a reality
competition series like that, as so many of her peers have done,
is that she's reticent to re-approach the spotlight. She told ESPN,
"It just doesn't come naturally to stand up and speak in front of people.
And that's kind of crazy since I skated in front of thousands of fans for years.
It takes a lot of effort for me to come out of my shell."
Although Kwan has admitted that such an opportunity looks "fun,"
she also knows that it would require a lot of personal investment. She added,
"I just don't know if I can find the time right now, moving to Los Angeles for the show,
I love all these new challenges I'm facing. I still need to see what I can do with this life."
Michelle Kwan's history as a diplomat has served her well in recent years, as she has exhibited
a passion for promoting humanitarian causes. In May 2018, she was part of the Coalition of
Asian Pacifics in Entertainment's campaign to promote American and Pacific Islander
Heritage Month, recalling her own family's journey that informed her own. She said,
"My parents immigrated to the United States in their early twenties with
nothing in their pocket but a seed of hope to build a better future for their children."
She's also worked with the Women's Sports Foundation for years in hopes of supporting
other ambitious young women who may benefit from the same
grant that helped to fund her own early athletic work. She told New York Live,
"My parents struggled to make ends meet, let alone pay for skating bills. Whatever Women's Sports
Foundation needs, whatever I can do to empower young girls to participate in sports, [I'm in]."
While Michelle Kwan hasn't taken to the ice professionally in years, her legacy
is always there. Case in point is Alysa Liu, the 15-year-old Chinese-American figure skater
who is blowing up the junior circuit. In a 2020 profile on Kwan in the Los Angeles Times, Liu's
father credited the figure skating legend with introducing his daughter to the sport. Kwan said,
"I always knew the responsibility of being looked up to by young girls and boys who watched me
closely, watched my every move. The backstory of my family and my upbringing, I think, really
connected with the Lius. I feel very honored that they thought of me as somebody to look up to."
Revealing that being so open about her life helped others relate, she noted,
"I was never afraid to emote. I feel like the people who partook in [my]
journey experienced a lot of emotional moments during those 20 years with me,
and looking back, I was a part of their lives."
Michelle Kwan add ed another political post to her resume when she joined Joe Biden's
presidential campaign as a surrogate in April 2019. Democratic strategist, Adrienne Elrod said,
"She comes in with a lot of relationships that maybe people on the Biden team don't have.
She knows celebrities. She's known people at the State Department for a long time.
She's going to gel very well with the people over there."
While campaigning for Biden in New Hampshire,
Kwan revealed why she was supporting the former vice president.
"I had the opportunity to figure skate. That was beyond what parents could dream of.
But that's the American Dream. And that's, to me, what's at stake. And that is why I proudly
support Joe Biden. He always is a fighter for everyone — not just those at the top."
The figure skating legend, who turns out to have been a Biden fan from day one of his campaign,
added, "Joe Biden, to me, has our best chance of winning."
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