Donny Osmond: She won an unprecedented 28 perfect marks in her ice skating career.

Marie Osmond: Unbelievable.

DO: And all by the age of 18. Would you please welcome World Figure Skating Champion Michelle Kwan!

Michelle comes out waving to thunderous applause. She is wearing a green pantsuit with a white top.

MO: (While hugging Michelle) How are you?

Michelle Kwan:Good, how are you?

MO: I’m fine.

DO: (While hugging Michelle) Nice to see you again! How are you doing?

MK: (Has to yell over the audience’s applause.) I’m doing very well. (Waves again to the audience.)

DO: (Clapping) Yea!

Michelle blows a kiss to the audience. The audience doesn’t stop screaming.

DO: They love you! (Michelle laughs.)

MO: Yea, they love you Michelle.

MK: That’s so sweet! Laughs.

MO: It’s so great to have you here.

MK: Thanks!

MO: We have a lot in common. Besides the fact that we used to ice skate when we were kids. (Smiles, laughs.) But, uh, Champions Across America.

MK: Yep. CMN!

MO: That’s right, Children’s Miracle Network. And, what we do is we will get together and we will get, uh..

MK: Telethon...

MO: ...a great kid from every state, the 50 states, cancer, whatever it might be, and we take them to Washington DC, meet the president, and then onto the broadcast for CMN. So...

MK: Yep.

MO: ...we’ll be seeing you again really, really soon.

MK: Yea...can’t wait!

DO: I remember going over to CBS when you were taping your, uh...

MK: Mulan special!

DO: Mulan special. And I was in Mulan. I did some of the music for that. (Audience screams and applauds, and Michelle claps.) But you, I got to tell you. You know, you make it look so easy.

MK: Oh, thank you.

DO: Did you enjoy skating to that music?

MK: Oh, it was so much fun! We had so much fun taping the TV special for Mulan. And when you were there, when you showed up I was so nervous.

DO: Oh, come on.

MK: I was like oh no!

MO: Did you skate to his song, “Let’s get down to business?”

MK: No, Philippe Candeloro did. I didn’t have a chance to. But maybe... (She points.) See, this new thing that I’m doing...I’m celebrating the 75th anniversary of Disney.

And audience member screams “Yea!” Michelle laughs, rest of audience screams.

MK: The great is...(stops while audience calms down.) The great thing is the people can participate in the TV special by going online, um, with www.disney.com

DO: OK.

MK: And they can vote on the best, their favorite Disney song.

DO: Everybody, you’ve got to vote, you’ve got to vote.

MK: (At the same time Donny was speaking) Everybody has to vote. (points to Donny.)

DO: You’ve got to vote...”Let’s get down to Business.”

MK: Yes.

DO: OK?

MK: (Smiling) Yes.

DO: You’ve got to skate. I would love to see you skate to that.

MK: I know! I’ll skate to the number one song. (Pointing towards the audience.) So all of you out there, vote for him!

DO: (While audience is clapping) I would love that! I would love that.

MO: Everybody would feel like they didn’t get...We have to watch you skate. We have a clip. We have to see this.

MK: Ew.

DO: Art in motion. Watch this. (Michelle ducks her head)

(A clip of Michelle skating to “Reflection” during her Mulan special is shown. Audience cheers.)

MO: Michelle,we see that, it looks effortless. What do you think about, personally? What goes through your mind when you skate?

MK: Know the...think...the...(at a loss for words.) The weirdest pops up to head, you know? Sometimes I’ll be going up into a jump, and I’ll think of a pink elephant, or something, and I’m like, What am I doing? Concentrate! Focus! I just, the next thing, just what I have to think about. Do the jump. To prepare for every element (Bangs her hands together) . The spins, the artistic, the skating. The main thing is to enjoy yourself when you are out there.

DO: Do you have any idea how many skaters out there are now going to be thinking about pink elephants before they jump?

MK: No, don’t think about pink elephants! (Laughs)

MO: Did you always want to skate?

MK: Yea. When I was 7 years old, I watched the ‘88 Olympics, and right from that moment, I knew I wanted to go to the Olympics.

MO: But, you know, you look at...because you were a child, and you were so young. There are parents out there that say did you loose your childhood. Do you regret any of that?

MK: What is a normal childhood anyway?

MO: Well, that’s...

DO: Exactly

MK: You had a normal childhood. (Laughs)

MO: (Sarcastically) Oh yea, really normal.

DO: Well, it depends on what your childhood is like. You know, yours was skating.

MK: My dream was to be a figure skater, and go to the Olympics. And travel around the world. And I’ve been lucky enough to be able to do that.

DO: Right.

MK: And so I feel, I can’t change my life. It’s so perfect the way it is. Thank God.

DO: And you make so many people happy with your skating.

MK: (Smiling) Oh.

DO: You know. Congratulations on everything you’ve done.

MK: Thank you.

(Audience screams again, and the following is hard to hear.)

MO: You a great example to so many people. (Marie shakes Michelle’s hands.)

DO: It was great to have you here.

MO and DO: Michelle Kwan! (Donny shakes her hand. Then, Michelle waves to the audience.)

Listen to the interview.

Thanks to Jenny for the audio clip.