PORTLAND, Ore. — The link was invisible but strong, connecting Maribel Vinson Owen to Michelle Kwan to Kimmie Meissner, uniting the dim past with the glorious present and offering a tantalizing peek at the future.
Kwan kept her date with destiny Saturday at the Rose Garden by winning her record-tying ninth U.S. women's figure skating title, matching Vinson Owen's accomplishments of the 1920s and 1930s with a performance as alluring as her form-fitting golden dress. But Meissner, a stick-figured 15-year-old from Bel Air, Md., whose brilliant smile was all the makeup she needed, made history, too.
Meissner became the first U.S. woman to land a triple axel jump in competition since Tonya Harding in 1991 and the sixth ever, helping her steal two second-place votes from a shaky Sasha Cohen and leapfrog Jenny Kirk into third place. Meissner is too young to compete at the world championships at Moscow in March and relinquished that honor to Kirk, but she will turn 16 in time to be eligible for the 2006 Turin Olympics, adding intrigue to the upcoming year.
Saturday night, however, belonged to Kwan, who broke one tie with Vinson Owen by claiming her record 12th consecutive medal at the U.S. championships. For the Torrance native, that stirred memories of being a little girl with big dreams, as Meissner was on Saturday.
"It's incredible. Nine. It's like, oh, wow," Kwan said after her five-triple performance to "Bolero" brought her four perfect 6.0s for presentation, likely the last awarded at the U.S. championships before the advent of a new scoring system, and seven for the competition. "I just remember trying to win my first one. I got a diamond pin.
"To get my ninth title I never thought it would be possible.
"Nine incredible national championships. Every one is different and unique."
The triple axel is particularly difficult because it requires 3 1/2 revolutions. The first woman to land it in competition was Midori Ito of Japan, in the 1989 world championships. In addition to Harding, it has been landed by Yukari Nakano and Mao Asada of Japan and Ludmilia Nelidina of Russia.
"It's amazing for skating, because you see all the triple-triples but not a lot of triple axels for American skaters," Kwan said.
Meissner, whose scores included a 5.9 for technical merit and went from 5.4 to 5.7 for presentation, mastered the jump only last week. "It's really cool. It feels so awesome," said Meissner, who tenaciously held the landing of the jump during her performance to "Daphnis and Chloe."
