Editing Michelle Kwan (section)

===Early competition===
In 1991, Michelle Kwan and her sister [[Karen Kwan|Karen]] began training with [[Frank Carroll (figure skater)|Frank Carroll]] in Lake Arrowhead, California. After one year of coaching by Carroll, 11-year-old Michelle placed 9th at the junior level at the United States Figure Skating Championships. At the age of 12 in 1992, Michelle passed the gold test to become a senior-level figure skater despite the disapproval of her coach. In 1993, Kwan finished sixth at her first senior U.S. championships. The next season, she won the [[World Junior Figure Skating Championships|1994 World Junior Championships]].

In 1994, Kwan finished second to [[Tonya Harding]] at the U.S. Championships, which ordinarily would have placed her on the U.S. team to the [[1994 Winter Olympic Games|1994 Olympic Games]] in [[Lillehammer]], Norway. That place was instead given to 1993 national champion [[Nancy Kerrigan]], who had been sidelined by an [[Olympic Games scandals#1994 Winter Olympics|assault and battery]] (eventually connected to Harding's ex-husband [[Jeff Gillooly]]) after a practice session at those championships. The 13-year-old Kwan went to Norway as an alternate but did not compete. Kerrigan and Harding both dropped out of eligible competition before the 1994 World Championships. Because of this (and teammate [[Nicole Bobek]] not making it out of the qualifying round), Kwan had the sole responsibility to ensure two entries for the U.S. at the [[1995 World Figure Skating Championships|1995 World Championships]] by placing in the top ten. Kwan had an unusual mistake in the short program and placed eleventh in that portion of the competition, but skated a strong freestyle program and finished eighth overall.

At the 1995 U.S. Championships, [[Nicole Bobek]] won the gold medal, while Kwan again placed second after struggling with her [[lutz jump]] in both the short program and free skate. At the [[1995 World Figure Skating Championships|1995 World Championships]], Kwan was in fifth place after the short program. She skated last in the free skate, giving the best performance of her career up to that point, completing all seven of her triple jumps, and "exuding joy and enthusiasm".{{Sfn|Kestnbaum|2003|p=48}} She finished in third place in the free skate, behind [[Chen Lu (figure skater)|Chen Lu]] from China, who came in first place, and French skater [[Surya Bonaly]], who came  in second. Kwan came in fourth place overall, behind American [[Nicole Bobek]], who came in third place overall, even though she came in fourth place in the free skate and despite Kwan's successful execution of her jumps, which were second in difficulty behind Bonaly's.{{Sfn|Kestnbaum|2003|p=48}}