Danny Kwan

Michelle Kwan is a world-class figure skater. Her father is a world-class pacer. When she skates, he looks like a man who needs a cigarette. No, he says, never again. Danny Kwan has quit smoking. Michelle would like to take credit, but she can't. Four years ago, when they were in Nagano for the Winter Olympics, she fined him $20 for each cigarette he smoked. "I figure I owe her about $60,000," he said then. The tab was approaching $600,000 by last year. But then came some real motivation for Danny.

Michelle Kwan is a world-class figure skater. Her father is a world-class pacer. When she skates, he looks like a man who needs a cigarette. No, he says, never again. Danny Kwan has quit smoking. Michelle would like to take credit, but she can't. Four years ago, when they were in Nagano for the Winter Olympics, she fined him $20 for each cigarette he smoked. "I figure I owe her about $60,000," he said then. The tab was approaching $600,000 by last year. But then came some real motivation for Danny.

Too nervous to sleep in the hours before his youngest daughter made her debut last winter among the "senior ladies" in the U.S. figure skating championships, Danny Kwan decided that pacing was preferable to tossing and turning and had almost worn a path in the hotel carpet when he heard mumbling coming from Michelle's bed. Stopping to listen, he heard his still-sleeping daughter reminding herself, "It's nothing. It's nothing."

The Dawg Pound doesn't do figure skating finals, and Gund Arena hadn't seen anything in mascara and burgundy velvet since Dennis Rodman's last swing through, but the locals roared their approval for Michelle Kwan on Saturday night, because her victory at the U.S Figure Skating Championships was purely Cleveland On Ice. Kwan brought this title home with ice shavings on her back.

Danny Kwan's father, Ho Yuen, was sold when he was 4 years old to a farmer in Canton, China, who needed someone to watch his cows, then bought back when he was 10 by a rich uncle. Ho Yuen went to Hong Kong in 1949 to look for work in a restaurant, leaving behind a wife, Yang Chun, who was seven months pregnant. He said he would send for them when he had enough money, but, within a few months, China's borders were shut.

Asked if he felt pressure in the NBA slam-dunk contest Saturday in Cleveland, Kobe Bryant responded not at all like the young man who brashly genuflected for the television cameras after his victory. Instead, he recalled a poignant moment with his father, who had told him he would love him even if he missed a dunk. How could he feel pressure after hearing that, he asked.

The Dawg Pound doesn't do figure skating finals, and Gund Arena hadn't seen anything in mascara and burgundy velvet since Dennis Rodman's last swing through, but the locals roared their approval for Michelle Kwan on Saturday night, because her victory at the U.S Figure Skating Championships was purely Cleveland On Ice. Kwan brought this title home with ice shavings on her back.

Moments after Michelle Kwan had won Skate Canada International in October, a reporter asked how she planned to spend the $30,000 in prize money. The 10th grader from Torrance seemed startled by the question, then amused as she said that she had not given the money a moment's thought. "Maybe," the reporter suggested, "you could buy a bike." Six months and about $800,000 later, Kwan could buy a garage full of Porsches, although, at 15, she is not old enough to drive one.

Timothy Goebel wants to become a figure skater who does great jumps, not a jumper who skates a little. He moved a step closer to crossing that threshold Friday. Goebel, the defending U.S. men's champion, blended a perfect quadruple salchow-triple toe loop combination into a program that displayed his advancing artistry. Although his "Danse Macabre" routine had a stumble and two imperfect landings, Goebel was the class of the shaky Skate America field.

Maria Garcia is in pain only when she skates or breathes hard. As a short-track speedskater, that means she's in pain almost constantly. Ligament and muscle damage related to a back injury often have her doubling over in agony on the ice, but the 20-year-old Carson native accepts that as the price she must pay to be an Olympian. She'd been expected to qualify for the Salt Lake City team until a knee injury knocked her out of contention and relegated her to watching the Games on TV.

Danny Kwan's father, Ho Yuen, was sold when he was 4 years old to a farmer in Canton, China, who needed someone to watch his cows, then bought back when he was 10 by a rich uncle. Ho Yuen went to Hong Kong in 1949 to look for work in a restaurant, leaving behind a wife, Yang Chun, who was seven months pregnant. He said he would send for them when he had enough money, but, within a few months, China's borders were shut.

Asked if he felt pressure in the NBA slam-dunk contest Saturday in Cleveland, Kobe Bryant responded not at all like the young man who brashly genuflected for the television cameras after his victory. Instead, he recalled a poignant moment with his father, who had told him he would love him even if he missed a dunk. How could he feel pressure after hearing that, he asked.

Too nervous to sleep in the hours before his youngest daughter made her debut last winter among the "senior ladies" in the U.S. figure skating championships, Danny Kwan decided that pacing was preferable to tossing and turning and had almost worn a path in the hotel carpet when he heard mumbling coming from Michelle's bed. Stopping to listen, he heard his still-sleeping daughter reminding herself, "It's nothing. It's nothing."

Figure skating judges occasionally get it wrong. Even when they get it right, people think they got it wrong. France's Surya Bonaly repaid them for an eight-year international career of perceived slights during her freestyle program, performing an in-your-face illegal back flip right in front of them. It was the most elaborate expletive in Olympic history.

There are three words that give one pause when spoken by Danny Kwan. "Michelle, you drive." Then he hands his recently-licensed daughter the keys to the family's Toyota van, climbs into the seat on the passenger's side and gives a visitor a buckle-your-seat-belts smile. This short trip, from the Ice Castle International rink where Michelle Kwan trains at Lake Arrowhead to the quaint village for lunch, should not be an adventure.