Brian Boitano, Michelle Kwan talk up skating's worlds

Brian Boitano, still lithe and graceful nearly 21 years after his figure skating triumph at the Calgary Olympics, glided onto the ice at Staples Center on Thursday for a news conference promoting the upcoming World Figure Skating Championships.

As he went around a mat and turned to face an audience of reporters, he stumbled, certainly a rare sight. Michelle Kwan, another featured guest, couldn't resist making a joke.

"That's a little preview of what you'll see at the world championships," she said, drawing a round of laughter.

The occasional misstep aside, the 225 athletes who are scheduled to compete here March 22-29 will put on a good show. Besides the prestige of being crowned a world champion, they'll be earning spots for their respective countries at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Single tickets are scheduled to go on sale Friday. All-event and other packages also remain available. Some tickets will be available at $20, a good move in bad economic times. 

Boitano, a four-time U.S. champion and two-time world champion, said he expects the U.S. women's placements at worlds to be good enough to guarantee three spots for U.S. women at the Winter Games. The U.S. will be represented in Los Angeles by Alissa Czisny -- whom Boitano works with -- and Rachael Flatt of Del Mar.

"That's what's really important about the ladies' event, not only for the individual accomplishments but getting three ladies on the Olympic team," Boitano said.

Overall, he said, "I think it's a really strong U.S. team. I think it's probably the strongest that we've had in years."

Kwan, a five-time world champion, nine-time U.S. champion and two-time Olympic medalist, said her competitive instincts flowed when she stepped onto the ice Thursday with Boitano

and U.S. world team member Evan Lysacek.

"Just being on the ice, it's like, wow," she said, smiling. "Usually I just go to Staples Center for the Lakers games. Now I'm like, it feels like nationals and worlds all over again."

Kwan, pain-free after hip surgery, said she's doing physical training but not skating training. "I will," she said.

She told The Times recently that she's skating but hasn't decided whether it will be to compete again, to skate in shows or simply to skate around with her young nieces.

"I just got back into doing the whole thing," said Kwan, 28. "Slowly. It's easy to jump right into it and abuse your body, but I'm going to slowly get on and not get frustrated, just take it easy."

Lysacek, third at last week's U.S. championships and a two-time world bronze medalist, said he's going to adjust his schedule to allow himself more of a life than he had before the national competition.

Lysacek, who trains in El Segundo, had intensified his training, strictly limited his diet to foods recommended by a nutritionist, and worked so hard that he saw his family for only one day over Christmas and rarely saw his friends. His third-place finish at nationals has him rethinking that strategy.

"For it to not go as well as I wanted to, I was really crushed," he said. "I felt more prepared for it than I had been for a lot of competitions where I'd done much better and wasn't as prepared. I think it had something to do with that carrot being dangled in front of me for two months and not really seeing anything else. It wasn't the right approach.

"I'm trying to just forget it. It's stuff like this that makes you look at your own heart and ask, 'Do I have the heart of a champion athlete, to be the best, to pick myself up and dust off and move on with my head high? It's kind of what I'm trying to do now. It's taking some soul searching because it's only been two days. but it was right back to training for me.

"I became a very one-dimensional person. I know that's what it takes, but I've been there and it doesn't have to be living in seclusion and as regimented as I was. It was something I tried and it didn't work for me. I'm going to try and get those dimensions back ... try and just live a little more."

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: Michelle Kwan and Brian Boitano at a World Championships news conference at Staples Center on Thursday. Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[rose]

Typical Evan Lysacek comment, spinning the truth as always. Only Evan would claim that his failure at Nationals happened because he just WORKED TOO HARD TO GET READY and FOCUSED TOO MUCH.

Yeah, right, sure Evan. You forgot to mention all the shows and performances you've been doing for money during the season when you should have been training. The truth is that you should have been focusing more on preparation and less on publicity and making money. Like we don't know you are making these comments now in order to deflect the criticism you might get because you are planning to go on TOUR with Stars on Ice before the World Championships.

I just don't get how Evan can make statements like these and never get challenged by the media. I laughed pretty hard after he withdrew from Worlds last year with a supposedly serious injury but then went on tour with SOI only ten days later - and THEN he gave interviews this season talking about how the devastating injury nearly ended his skating career and how GRATEFUL he is just to FINALLY be able to skate again! The fake image and PR for himself that he spouts is so obviously false that you would think some journalist would notice the holes in his stories at some point.

[ariana]

I can't wait till WORLDS!!!! I think Johnny Weir should be on the team, but other than that, I am so excited about this.

[Monk]

Evan has been scheduled for his upcoming Stars on Ice tour dates since long before he did badly at Nationals, and he did do several shows around the country this fall when he claims he was "single mindedly" focused on preparing for competition. It does seem apparent that he is not being entirely truthful about the circumstances of his preparation.

I suspect he was underprepared for Nationals due to spending too much time doing paying shows and TV specials and now thinks he can avoid being criticized for it by claiming that he was in fact working so hard he was doing nothing else. Most likely, he also figures to avoid the inevitable criticism that will come his way if he does poorly again at Worlds after doing shows with Stars on Ice when he should have been training if he says now that he is only doing it to keep from getting too over-stressed by single mindedly training.

Evan should stop worrying so much about spinning for the media and put more time into getting prepared for competitions. He does seem to get a free pass from the media no matter how poorly he performs (and how often) while other skaters like Johnny Weir are thoroughly bashed for a single bad competition, though.

[WeirANDLysacekFan]

Johnny Weir fanatics are starting to sound bitter. Grow up. Even earned his money and Johnny messed up. As a fan of both of them the one sided Johnny fans need to grow up.

Michelle Kwan is well, Michelle Kwan. Skating needs her and she needs to come back.
I want to watch this sport again and that only happens with Michelle skating

[anna]

Brian Boitano simply does not age and Michelle Kwan also looks very good in the picture :)

I am surprised at the above comments about Evan Lysacek. Or maybe I shouldn't because with all the focus on image and media and what the media thinks, they definitely reek of bitterness from Johnny Wei fans... I thought Evan's words on his training and the US Nationals results were very balanced and it was good to hear what he thought after that disappointing bronze medal. He has not had a very good season, hopefully he will have a better competition at Worlds. We need him at his best.

[Leonora Bigelow]

I only watch skating hoping to get a glance of Michelle Kwan. Like the last National, I was hoping to see her as part of the audience, but it did not happen. If the skating federation knows what they doing, they should always include Kwan to get audience like me to participate in any figure skating event.

I will watch the world in March just because of Michelle, and hopefully she will be there. If not for her, I would not care less about this sport anymore. Hopefully, someday this sport can produce another Kwan.

[david]

I wish Kwan would at least just sit in the audience at competitions. It would making watching skating more exciting if there were familiar faces to watch