Congratulations to Michelle for winning the silver medal at the GPF! It was nice seeing Ariane again for the "super-final", but I hope she goes back to Red Violin for the rest of the season. Michelle was her usual gracious self in the post skate press conference. She also said that she has to get more technical difficulty. Here are some quotes:

"I was impressed by Slutskaya's triple-triple combinations," she said. "I don't get to watch other skaters, but here I was able to and I thought she was incredible."
"I know how difficult it is to put in triple-triple combinations, especially in the long program," added Kwan.
"I know I have ... to push myself because the technical difficulty is getting stronger and higher," she said.

Also, you can watch the ABC interview of Michelle and Irina from after the competition from ESPN.com. Check out some articles, pictures, and results from the competition:

Check out these articles, pictures, and results from the first free skate at the Grand Prix Final:

Here is the skate order for the short program:

  1. Viktoria Volchkova (Rus)
  2. Julia Soldatova (Rus)
  3. Elena Liashenko (Ukr)
  4. Irina Slutskaya (Rus)
  5. Michelle Kwan (Usa)
  6. Maria Butyrskaya (Rus)
From the GPF official site (warning, results will appear on the site), here is the skate order for the first free skate:

  1. Julia Soldatova (Rus)
  2. Elena Liashenko (Ukr)
  3. Maria Butyrskaya (Rus)
  4. Michelle Kwan (Usa)
  5. Irina Slutskaya (Rus)
  6. Viktoria Volchkova (Rus)

Check out Sandrine's pictures of Michelle from practice!

Also, a reminder that the Grand Prix Final is different than other events this year. There will be a free skate on Jan 14, then a short the next day. Then the top 4 make it to the next round, with the top two going against each other, and #3 and #4 goind against each other. The skaters use a different free program than the first one they used. This is a few hours after the short. For more information, check out ISU's site.

Michelle won Skate Canada! Check out this article about the long program

Michelle is in first after the short program at Skate Canada. Check out an AP picture of Michelle!
Michelle's second Grand Prix event, Skate Canada, is this weekend. The practices started on Wed, but Michelle wasn't there. The ladies short is on Friday, Nov 5, and the long is on Sunday, Nov 7. Check out an article about the upcoming competition.
BOI's updates for October 31 had the following information about Michelle at Skate America:

Michelle Kwan wore the same dress she did when she skated her 'Red Violin' exhibition at the 1999 Worlds in Helsinki. "I have another costume made but it is heavier with long sleeves and I thought this was a better choice for the high altitude," said Kwan. The program is different with some different parts of the music changed for her competitive version of "Red Violin'. She completed six triples and fell on the seventh, her triple flip but still earned a 6.0 from the Austrian judge, Karin Ehrhardt. Kwan skated a mesmerizing performance and her other artistic scores included three 5.8's and five 5.9's.

Final Skate America info. Since the comp has aired, I can finally write results here. Michelle won, and did great! She received a 6.0 in both the short and long program. More articles from the event are posted in the Articles section. Also, check out this picture of the top three ladies, and a real video of the ABC Sports feature on Kwan's first year in college
Skate America is over. Don't forget to watch it Sunday on TV! Check out the following Michelle articles, pics, and movies from the competition (info containing spoilers is labeled).

The short program has taken place at Skate America. As always, I'm not writing the results here if you want to wait and watch the competition on Sunday on TV. However, if you want, you can check out the short program results. Also, you can check out the free skate starting order for Saturday. Check out the following articles and pictures from the competition:

Skate America practices have started! The ladies short program is Friday, with the long program on Saturday. It will be on TV on Sunday. There's lots of Michelle goodies from Skate America. Before you check them out, one piece of info I'm sure everyone wants to know...Michelle's long program will be Red Violin, according to reports, and Michelle's press conference. Now, check out the following articles, pictures, and movies from Skate America!

Michelle has confirmed that she is going for her 4th Skate America title!! For more info, check out Kwan Confirms Partcipation in National Car Rental Skate America '99. Also, check out the press conference notes for lots of quotes and info about UCLA and skating. Just a few things from the conference:

On college:
Michelle says that she scheduled classes Monday through Thursday, "so if I go to a competition, I can leave right after class on Thursday. I might arrive later than some other competitors, but it's going to be better for me school-wise not to miss too many classes." She is taking 3 classes, but hasn't decided on a major yet. Apparently, her roommate doesn't know who Michelle is (so I guess the roommate doesn't know how lucky she is!) Also, Worlds being pushed back a week helps her, because she can take her finals before leaving for France.
On skating:
Michelle will unveil two new programs to new music at Skate America (so does this mean she isn't skating to a revamped Red Violin?) She will do an interpretive free skate to "Romeo and Juliet" at the Keri Lotion Figure Skating Classic.

According to the article, "Kwan, Yagudin to compete at Skate Canada", Michelle is confirmed to be at Skate Canada! Another article states that Michelle will also be at Skate America. There still hasn't been anything from Michelle on whether or not she will be there, though. Also, the USFSA put their 1999-2000 International Competition Season Assignments on their site.
The USFSA's 1999-2000 Assignments have been announced. Included in the list:

GP Skate America, Colo Spr, CO - Oct 28-31, 99
Kwan, Hughes, Nikodinov
Weiss, Goebel, Savoie
Hartsell/Harsell, Ina/Zimmerman, Handy/Binnebose
Lang/Tchernyshev, Silverstein/Pekarek

GP Skate Canada, St. John, N.B., CAN - Nov 3-7, 99
Kwan
Zivanovic
Stiegler/Stiegler
Koegel/Fediukov

So, Michelle has been assigned to Skate America and Skate Canada. I don't think she has confirmed that she will be skating in Grand Prix events this year because of college, but at least she was assigned the two closest events. So maybe this will be a factor in her decision to skate? :-) I guess we'll see.

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Photo © Jay Adeff