The Mitch Albom Show is a radio show based in Detroit, which is broadcast weekdays and nationally syndicated. Michelle appeared on the show to promote the Marshalls World Cup of Figure Skating, which take place in December in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Mitch Albom: (Intro to Marshalls) Hi Michelle!

Michelle Kwan: Hey Dave (I think she said Dave here, which confuses me since this is the Mitch Albom show.) How are you?

MA: I'm doing just great. Don't you get tired of skating after awhile?

MK: I've been skating since I was five years old. 19 years, but I've had fun.

MA: Wow, 19 years... Obviously there would be some point when you won't do it professionally, but do you think when you are 60 years old you'll still be skating, you will be one of those people who just dazzles people at the local rink?

MK: Oh I'm sure I will be skating when I'm 60, probably with grandkids though.

MA: Yeah well that's good (missed what was said here), not great grandkids! In between the Olympic years, what is the skating world like, are people more calm when people aren't jocking for a position on an Olympic team.

MK: Well we are always fighting for position on the World team. You have to qualify, be in the top three at Nationals, to qualify for both Worlds and Olympics. The Olympic year is a little more stressful because you know, you have to get everything organized, all your eggs in one basket, you know, correct everything you possibly can and at that moment just skate well.

MA: Do people start arriving, you know, get really good, on the scene one year before the Olympics, all of a sudden you start hearing about this hot young skater somewhere around the world, who's going to be a threat for a medal?

MK: Well, it happened the last two Olympics so you just never know, I mean there's a lot of great skaters out there and it seems that the year before it just happened that they spark and they have the fire in their eyes and they've improved the last couple years. So you never know and you always have to work hard, keep at it, you know working on those triple jumps, triple combinations, spins, and speed and everything.

MA: Do you think there’s an advantage when it comes to the real type international competition of the pressure, of being too young to know that you're suppose to be afraid?

MK: Hmmm… well I started competing at the world level when I was 13. And I didn't really know what was going on around the competition, but I think it's easier in a way, now that I am more experienced, but also like you said it's also a little easier when you're 13, 14, or 15, that you don’t have that much pressure on you.

MA: So nobody's telling you that this could be your last Olympics.

MK: Well, I'm just taking one thing at a time, who knows after Turino, Italy there might be a chance that I stay until 2007, which is because I love skating and you can't get a thrill like that, performing in front of thousands of people. Where else can you get that? You get people applauding…

MA: You can join the Rolling Stones?

MK: Yeah that’s true I could be a rock star, that would be the next best thing.

MA: So the next best thing to being a skater is being a rock star?

MK: Yeah, sometimes I imagine myself being a rock star out on the ice.

MA: Well you know between the music and the clapping you are not all that far from it but I haven't seen too many rock stars that could actually do a salchow.

MK: Yeah that would be true. I've skated to Alicia Keys so I was just pretending that I was singing.

MA: She was on the program not too long ago. Well we wish you good luck with this, let me tell you Michelle Kwan will be at the Marshalls World Cup of Figure Skating on December 3, it's a one day invitational event at the Palace of Auburn Hills, 7:30 at night is when it starts. Go out and see Michelle Kwan because she's only going to keep skating until she's 60 and then that's it…

MK: Exactly I only have 34 more years!

MA: You have only 30 or 40 more years and that's it. Michelle good to talk to you, stay well.

MK: It was nice to talk to you.

MA: Michelle Kwan here on the Mitch Albom program…

Note from transcriber: The actual time of the interview was 3:45 minutes. I’m not sure if that was Mitch or not, but I assumed in the transcript that it was, even though I thought Michelle said Dave.

Huge thanks to KwanPassion for this transcript!