NBC Sports is considering hiring former figure skating star Michelle Kwan for its broadcast team covering the U.S. championships and Skate America, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday, citing unnamed sources.

NBC and the USFSA, the national governing body for skating, announced Monday that the network will broadcast the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in a deal that involves no rights fees. Instead, the USFSA will split the sale of ad time with NBC and will sell its own sponsorship packages.

Kwan, a five-time world and nine-time U.S. skating champion, would be a huge boost because of her appeal to younger audiences, the Tribune reported.

Kwan is studying at the University of Denver and hasn't officially retired from competition, but she hasn't competed since the 2005 world championships. She withdrew from the 2006 Olympics on the eve of competition, citing a groin injury.

Kwan, 26, won silver at the 1998 Olympics and the bronze in 2002.

Her agent, Shep Goldberg, declined comment, the Chicago Tribune reported. NBC spokesman Mike McCarley said the network hasn't "discussed talent yet," the Tribune reported.

Skating ratings have diminished in recent years, and ABC ended its 43-year partnership with the skating organization after the contract ran out this month. The USFSA was collecting $12 million a year in rights fees from ABC and ESPN, which shared programming on the national championships and Skate America.

Both of those events are part of the three-year contract with NBC, which will televise 10 hours of competition and plans to carry live all the finals at nationals. That includes the women's final in prime time.

Under the contract, all finals at nationals will be rescheduled to occur on the weekend. In the past, pairs and men's finals often have been on Thursday or Friday nights.

Skate America will be held Oct. 25-28 in Reading, Pa., and the national championships will be in January in St. Paul, Minn., with NBC airing finals on Saturday, Jan. 26, and Sunday, Jan. 27.

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The USFSA was left to scramble for a television partner and must make up for nearly two-thirds of its budget that came from the TV rights. But the tie-in with NBC makes sense because the network has the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and figure skating is among the most-watched events in the Winter Games.

NBC also will have other media rights to the USFSA events.

"This new partnership with NBC is a perfect fit for U.S. Figure Skating,'' said U.S. Figure Skating president Ron Hershberger said. "Figure skating on NBC will be live, prime time, high definition and treated as premier programming.''

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