Singles, Women

Michelle Kwan won the World Championships in 1998-99 and 2001, and placed second in 2000. She had been the best skater in the world since Nagano, and was favored to finally add Olympic gold to her list of titles. Her biggest rival was Russian Irina Slutskaya, who had placed second to Kwan three times at the Worlds, but had won four European Championships by 2002 – she would eventually win that title seven times. Kwan got off to a good start, narrowly winning the short program with Slutskaya second, five first places to four. Young American Sasha Cohen was third after the short, followed by another young American, Sarah Hughes. Cohen was only 18 and Hughes 16, but both were thought to have great potential for the future. In the free skate, Hughes would show how close the future was. She was the first leader to skate in the free program and was solid, but not spectacular, receiving all scores of 5.7 and 5.8. Kwan was next and when she nearly fell early on a triple flip, putting down both hands, she was finished. Her technical scores were mostly 5.6 and 5.7, and better artistic scores could not undo the damage. Slutskaya was the final skater and the title was hers if she could skate cleanly. She almost did, but a few of her landings were less than her best, and her scores were variable, ranging from 5.6 to 5.9. The free skate went to Hughes, five first places to four for Slutskaya. They then tied with 3.0 factored placements, but the free skate was the tiebreaker, giving the gold medal to Hughes, with Kwan winning a bronze medal. Slutskaya was very upset with her artistic scores, as were several of the Russian skaters, and the Russian Federation filed a protest, which was disallowed. Because of injuries in 2006, Michelle Kwan would not make the Olympic team. Her Olympic career ended in 2002, and she is likely the greatest skater never to win Olympic gold.