updated 4:40 p.m. ET Jan. 27, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Michelle Kwan’s task is simple.

Prove she’s healthy enough to skate, and her quest for that elusive Olympic gold medal can continue. Appear to still be hobbled or ailing, and that dream is likely over.

The “should she or shouldn’t she” debate that’s swirled around U.S. figure skating all month was finally being resolved Friday. A five-person monitoring committee watched her do her short and long programs on her home ice in Los Angeles to determine whether she’s fit and healthy enough to compete.

U.S. Figure Skating will announce its decision on Kwan at a 3:30 p.m. news conference near Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles Times reported.

If she is, she’s on her way to Turin. If not, she’ll have to watch again as someone else gets that gold medal she’s sought for so long.

“If I feel that I can’t be ready, I will pull myself off the team,” Kwan said earlier this month. “I’ve said that before and I’m sticking to it. If I don’t believe I can be 100 percent and at my best, I don’t believe it’s good for me to go.”

Kwan was the gold-medal favorite for both Nagano and Salt Lake City, but wound up beaten by an American teenager both times. She won a silver in Nagano in 1998 and a bronze in Salt Lake City in 2002.

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Now 25, she’s stuck around the last four years for one more shot at an Olympic gold medal.

But the five-time world and nine-time U.S. champion had to ask for a medical bye onto the team after withdrawing from nationals with a groin injury. Her petition was granted — with the condition that she prove to the monitoring committee Friday that she’s ready to compete in Turin.

Though she’s set the gold standard for the sport for a decade, she missed almost the entire season with injuries and didn’t jump from mid-December until Jan. 13. At her only competition, a made-for-TV international, she didn’t complete a single triple jump.

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The monitoring committee wanted to see that she can jump and spin, as well as do her short and long programs.

The session lasted slightly more than a half-hour at the East West Ice Palace in Artesia, Calif. Kwan started with her long program, hitting various triple and double jumps and combinations, and then the short program, where she fell once on a double axel.

The session was conducted by U.S. Figure Skating international committee chairman Bob Horen; technical controller Charlie Cyr; world judge Paula Naughton; international judge Lorrie Parker; and athlete representative Brittney Bottoms. Though she won’t be scored as if in competition, Horen said she wouldn’t be given a pass, either.

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“I will assure you, the monitoring committee will be as tough as the judges were (at nationals),” Horen said.

If the committee decides Kwan isn’t healthy enough to skate, she will be replaced by Emily Hughes, the younger sister of 2002 Olympic champion Sarah Hughes. Emily Hughes finished third at nationals.

The sessions were closed to the public.

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