Mike Celizic

It’s a sham and a travesty that Michelle Kwan is going to the Olympics after successfully performing in a private audition for the U.S. Figure Skating Association.

Kwan, whose Olympic career began in 1998, was nursing a groin injury when the U.S. Championships were held earlier this month. Traditionally, the top three finishers in the nationals are named to the Olympic team. And, since Kwan couldn’t start the competition, she couldn’t very well finish it. But guess what? She's going to the Games regardless.

If it were anyone else, that would be the end of it. Kwan couldn’t skate, so she shouldn't be allowed on the team.

But this is Michelle Kwan, who is to American figure skating what Michael Jordan was to the NBA, only without the ability to perform in the clutch and without the championships. She’s the face of American figure skating. She’s a nine-time national champion. She’s blown two Olympic tournaments, which makes her the battered old veteran trying to win the title she’s never been able to attain. She’s money in the ratings bank.

Nothing in the Winter Games draws American viewers like figure skating, and no event is as popular as women’s singles, the Winter Olympics’ answer to women’s gymnastics in the Summer Games.

And no skater is as popular as Kwan, who wants to go to Turin to try, at the advanced skating age of 25, to win the gold medal she’s twice managed to choke away.

I don’t think she should be on the Olympic team. In fact, I think she should have conceded her spot. But that doesn’t mean I’m immune to the charms of her story. It’s one of those you just want to see and write. And if I were making network decisions for NBC, the network of the Olympics and a partner with Microsoft in MSNBC, I’d want her on the team. She’s ratings points – a lot of them.

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Instead, I’m just writing this humble sports column, and the journalist in me says she doesn’t belong on the team. Her place should go to teenager Emily Hughes, who finished third legitimately and could be the future face of the sport.

If Kwan were at the top her game and the favorite for gold, I might be talked into the logic of naming her to the team. The association does reserve the right to change the line-up in extraordinary circumstances.

The association cited precedent. In 1994, Nancy Kerrigan couldn’t compete in the nationals due to injury and was placed on the Olympic team anyway, bumping a 13-year-old third-place finisher off the squad. That 13-year-old was Kwan.

But Kerrigan was knee-whacked before the competition by goons hoping to improve the chances of their skater, Tonya Harding. That was an extraordinary situation. Kwan’s isn’t. It’s rather ordinary, actually, a pulled groin. What’s more, it’s the type of injury Kwan has suffered increasingly from the accumulated effects of the tens of thousands of practice jumps and falls she has taken over what has been a long and great career.

Kwan missed most major competitions last year. She can’t do certain jumps anymore because it hurts too much to do them. It’s not even certain she can pull off a triple jump anymore.

She has had her day, and glorious days they were. Nine national titles is an impressive resume, whether it’s the Coney Island hot-dog eating contest or figure skating.

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But she couldn’t win in the Olympics, not even in 2002 in Salt Lake City, where the judges were begging her to simply spend two minutes in an upright posture so they could give her the gold. Instead, she crashed and burned.

She’s no longer the best in the world. Irina Slutskaya is the gold standard in the sport and everyone else is probably skating for silver this year. And if Kwan doesn’t have a legitimate shot at the top, there’s no argument to send her other than that she’s good for the ratings, and that’s not an acceptable reason in the Olympics.

American figure skating isn’t as healthy as it’s been in the past. It needs fresh faces and fresh skates. Hughes wouldn't have won gold, either, but if she was to go, she’d at least gain the experience that could help her grow into a champion by 2010 in Vancouver.

Kwan’s future is behind her. She has graced her sport as few others have. But it’s over. You can’t make exceptions for her. It’s time to move on.