Singles, Women

Michelle Kwan had a chance to be on the 1994 US Olympic team but stepped aside to allow Nancy Kerrigan to compete, after she had been attacked just before the US Trials. By 1998 she was the top female skater in the world, having been the most consistent since the last Winter Olympics. She had won the 1996 World Championship, placed second in 1997, and would win again in 1998. Placing 15th at the 1996 Worlds was an American prodigy, Tara Lipinski, and in 1997, she shocked Kwan by defeating her at the US Nationals, and then again at the World Championships, winning that at only 14-years-old. But in the 1997-98 season, Kwan had re-established her supremacy, defeating Lipinski at Skate America and then won the US Trials with the performance of her life. In Nagano, Kwan started out strongly, winning the short program to give her the advantage going into the free skate. Kwan could win the gold medal either by winning the free skate, or by placing better than Lipinski, if third-placer Mariya Butyrskaya did not win the free program. In the free program, Kwan went first and skated a solid program. She received all 5.9s for artistic impression, but her technical scores of 5.7s and 5.8s left a little room for Lipinski. Lipinski skated last, landing seven clean triple jumps, as had Kwan. But she had two triple-triple combinations, and her increased technical difficulty brought her the gold medal. She received all scores of 5.8 and 5.9 and was placed first in the free program by seven of the nine judges, making her the youngest ever gold medalist in the event, two months younger than Sonja Henie had been in 1928. Lu Chen repeated her bronze medal performance from 1994. One athlete who was not present was Tanja Szewczenko of Germany, the 1994 World bronze medalist, who had to withdraw because of the flu.