4/18

Michelle attended the Billie Awards on April 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in California. The Billies, hosted by the Women's Sports Foundation, are named for Billie Jean King, and recognize media excellence in women's sports and physical activity while simultaneously raising funds for the Foundation. Sir Elton John performed, and others in attendence included Sharon Osbourne, Aisha Tyler, Master P., Drew Lachey, Doug Savant, Julie Foudy, Tony Gonzalez and Tracy Austin. Check out the official site of the Billie Awards, which has a picture of Michelle, and the press release, for more information. Also, be sure to watch this you tube video of Elton John performing, taken by someone at Michelle's table at the awards. About 20 seconds in, you can see Michelle singing along.

Check out the following pictures of Michelle at the event:

You can also check out the MK Gallery for many pictures from the Billie Awards.

On March 29, Michelle was one of the winners at the "You Bring Charm to the World", the 2007 World Influential Chinese Persons awards ceremony in Beijing, China. Held at the Beijing University Century Hall, it honors 12 outstanding Chinese from the fields of Science, Sports, Culture and the Arts. Other winners include actress Gong Li, actor Jackie Chan, and agricultural scientist Yuan Longping. Check out the Official Awards site. You can read the translated Michelle part of the transcript for the award ceremony. You can also watch a streaming video clip of Michelle receiving the award during the ceremony!

There are several articles in Chinese about the awards. Check out the awards thread on the MK Forum to see translations of the interviews & articles.

Finally, check out the following pictures of Michelle during the awards ceremony:

There were lots of pictures and other media from Michelle's trip to Argentina as the US Public Diplomacy Envoy! Check out the following youtube video clips of Michelle during the trip:

Pictures from the trip:

Finally, some articles & blog entries about the trip:
3/18
More information about Michelle's trip to Argentina as as the US Public Diplomacy Envoy. Here is a schedule that Grace has put together from several Argentina website articles: Monday March 17:

9:15 Meeting with athletes and Paralympic SPECIAL NEW OLIMPIADAS, who made demonstrations of inline skating and tennis in wheelchairs. (CENARD)

11:00 Meeting with the press.

14:00 (ICE PLANET FLOWERS - Av. Rivadavia 7431) Clinical / Demonstration of Michelle Kwan with youths from the Argentine Federation of Ice Skating and youth from low-income guests, followed by a talk on "Youth and Leadership - Concreción Dreams Sports "for all.

Tuesday March 18:

HEADQUARTERS OF CLUB ATLÉTICO INDEPENDENT - Av.
Mitre 470, Avellaneda.

10:00 Meeting with young athletes, coaches, sports leaders, students and municipal and provincial authorities. A talk on "Youth and Leadership - Concreción Dreams Sports."

11:30 Meeting with the press. With the presence of Ambassador Wayne.

ICE PLANET AVELLANEDA - Av.
Hipólito Irigoyen (former Pavón) 1475, Avellaneda.

13:30 Clinic / demonstration with youths from the Argentine Federation of Curling. A talk on "Youth and Leadership." Then there will be another meeting with the press.

Thursday March 20:

She will be in Parana. 9:30 and 11 hours: will provide a talk this Thursday and then a press conference, organized by Grow Productions, which will be held in the conference room Maran Suites Hotel and Towers.

Translations of articles from Argentina:

Check out the following pictures of Michelle holding a skating clinic at 'Ice Planet Flowers' rink in Buenos Aires on March 17:

Be sure to check out the MK Gallery's Argentina trip album for up to the minute pictures from Michelle's trip. Also, Grace posted this video from infobae.tv, an Argentina news site. It's a montage of clips throughout Michelle's life & career so far. It's a must see! Check it out! (Thanks Grace!)
3/14

Michelle's third trip as the US Public Diplomacy Envoy is to Argentina! She will travel to Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Parana, Argentina starting March 15. From the press release, Kwan headed to Argentina on envoy mission:

As an American Public Diplomacy Envoy, Ms. Kwan promotes cross-cultural dialogue with international youth to increase understanding of America by sharing her story and life experiences. Kwan's activities in Argentina will include holding skating clinics for Argentine youth, meeting Special Olympic and Paralympic athletes, meeting and speaking with students, teachers, coaches and aspiring youth entrepreneurs working on Junior Achievement projects. Kwan will also share her experiences with women leaders as well as have an open dialogue with Argentine athletes. Hopefully we'll get lots of articles and pictures coming out from this trip, as we did with the China & Russia trips!
1/27

Michelle was shown on Saturday during the NBC coverage of the ladies short program at Nationals. It was a piece about Michelle being a mentor for Caroline Zhang. Michelle was interviewed next to Caroline, and they also showed her skating at her rink! You can watch the video on youtube. Also, check out some screencaps of the piece, made by Angie and another widescreen screencap by skatefan20. (Thanks Angie & skatefan20!)

In the January 24 edition of USA Today, the color graph they had on the front page of the sports section was about number of US figure skating National titles. Of course, Michelle is #1. I actually didn't even look at the graph at first, but I saw the graphic of a skater doing a spiral, and I knew that was Michelle. That made me look to see what the graph was actually about! I scanned the graph in, check it out!

1/16

Phil Hersh wrote about the possibility of Michelle being a commentator at Nationals in the article Kwan could heat up figure skating coverage. Here is what Michelle had to say about it in the article:

"I'm definitely interested," Kwan said in a telephone interview.

That is a change from Kwan's attitude after she withdrew from the 2006 Olympics because of an injury.

Then, she declined an opportunity to work for NBC because she would have felt uncomfortable commenting on skaters she had been preparing to compete against. Now Kwan feels she has enough distance to be an objective observer.

"You have commentators that can be really critical and really mean, and I'm not that type of person," Kwan said. "You can say, 'Her leg was at an odd angle, and it doesn't look right,' or you can say, 'This looks ugly.' I will never be that kind of person that will criticize in a very negative way." Later in the article: Unlike any of the commentators NBC will use, Kwan has experience trying to compete with and train for the sport's new scoring system.

"I could give the insight about what the process is," Kwan said.The article also says that Michelle plans to get her degree next December.

Carrie Ann Inaba said the following in the article Dancing with the Stars' Olympic Dreams about who she would like to see on a future Dancing With the Stars season:

So, who else would Inaba like to see? Olympic figure-skating champ Michelle Kwan. “A skater—that would be kind of awesome,” she said. However, Kwan said she’s not ready to put on her dancing shoes yet. She’s too busy with school and work to think about it right now, but she said, “I never say never. So, don’t be surprised to see me on the show one day.”
1/15

My 10 year anniversary posts for January 9, January 10 - the day of the long program: Lyra Angelica - January 11, and the recap are so long, I decided to put it on a separate page. You'll find 17 videos and 13 pictures there. Check it out! (I'll move the rest of the days' reports there later.)

And if you want to see all my reports & pictures in one place, check out my 1998 Nationals page. I hope you enjoyed this walk down memory lane!!

1/8

My 10 year anniversary posts for January 7 & January 8 - the day of the short program: Rachmaninoff. (Hope you are enjoying this walk down memory lane!)

I've moved the recaps to a separate "Looking back at 1998 Nationals, 10 years later" page. Check it out!

1/6

10 years ago this week, January 3-11, 1998, the 1998 Nationals took place at the Corestates Center in Philadelphia. 1998 Nationals was the first real competition I attended. There were so many things that made it special to me. Back then, I actually wrote detailed reports each day on my site (which was only 6 months old at that time.) I thought I would relive each day on my site when we hit the 10 day anniversary of each practice/short/long/etc of Michelle's. Hopefully you'll enjoy this trip back down memory road.

I've moved the recaps to a separate "Looking back at 1998 Nationals, 10 years later" page. Check it out!

skatefan20 posted the following sighting on the MK Forum: (Thanks skatefan20!)

ESPN, Best of 'This is Sportscenter' Haven't seen a post regarding this....is this old news?

Anyways, this special has been airing several times over the ESPN networks since the 11th. And MK's commercial from 2000 was featured, along with a brief clip of Michelle reflecting on the ad.

Here are some screencaps from skatefan20:

I was able to catch this on New Year's Eve, and made a clip of it for you to download. The clip is about 7MB wmv file, uploaded to sendspace. Check it out.

If you forget about Michelle's SportsCenter ad, check out the ESPN Commercial page in the endorsement section of my site.

Also related to ESPN, I watched ESPN's "Year in Review" special on ESPN2 on New Year's Eve, and they showed the full Michelle Make a Wish story with Dani. They only chose one of the Make a Wish stories to show, and it was this one. They also promoted it before the break with lots of Michelle clips. It was nice to get a good cry again from watching. After showing the piece as it originally aired, they said that the family got good news in October. Dani is cancer free for the 3rd straight year, and they said that the 3rd year is the most important with her cancer, so this is GREAT news for Dani.
12/25

Michelle posted on the MK Forum on December 24! Check it out! Here is what she wrote:

Happy Holidays MKF!! xoxo

Hi MKF!
I hope that everybody is having a wonderful holiday. This month has been really fun. I have spent quality time with my adorable neices Olivia and Sophia. They are growing up so fast. Olivia has already fallen in love with figure skating!! Last year I bought her a pair of skates, and she has definitely made good use of them. My sister and brother-in-law are celebrating the holidays in Tennessee. And my brother is in Denmark. So...this Christmas it will be me, my parents...and three doggies!!!
I head back to Denver for Winter Quarter soon. School has been a real good experience for me. Physically I am feeling 120%. I have been running, swimming, and yes...skating! I have been traveling a bit for the State Department. My next trip will be to Argentina!
I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Miss you xoxo
MK

youngatheart posted on the MK Forum with a quote from Michelle in the the Jan/Feb 2008 American Girls magazine (Thanks youngatheart!):

My young granddaughter received her Jan/Feb 2008 issue of American Girl magazine on Saturday. There is a feature story on a 10 year old skater named Sami P. (last names are never used in the mag.) There is a sidebar on the last page of the article entitled ProAdvice and it's Michelle giving 'her advice for staying positive and spirited, either on the ice or in life.'

Michelle's advice: "You can't get anything done when you're frustrated. The emotion overwhelms you instead of being something that can help you. You have to channel that energy into something positive. If you stay positive, you're going to be able to fix that problem or that jump or the issue that you have. Instead of worrying about the negative, focus on the things that you can actually change. And if it's something that you can't change, then you know what? Realize it, and deal with it, and move on." This is accompanied by a gorgeous photo of Michelle doing her spiral. The dress (purple) looks like one from her last season - I can't be sure.
12/19

On ESPN the Weekend's site, they have a video with 2007 highlights of the weekend on the main page. About halfway through the video, there's Michelle in a race car! When watching the video, you'll see the ESPN Sports Zone section. After the MLB part, is Michelle's clip. It's really short, but still Michelle!

When they had clips of last year's event on the site earlier this year, they did not have Michelle in any of the videos, even though she was there. So at least they have her in the video this year!

Even though it's a really short clip, I made a few screencaps of Michelle from the video. Check them out!

Last month, Michelle attended an art unveiling at the Pasadena Branch of East West Bank, which will later move to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. A few pictures of Michelle at the event on November 7:

Also, check out this article, translated from Chinese, about Michelle at the event: Kwan attended the unveiling Chinese modern art.

Michelle attended New Orleans Hornets vs Lakers game in LA on November 6. Check out this great picture of Michelle at the game.

babyoscar posted the following sighting on the MK Forum: (Thanks babyoscar!)

I was just watching National Geographic the other day. In this documentary thing called The Incredible Human Machine, they played a jumping pass of MK in her blue Lyra Angelica dress for few seconds. I thought people might be interested in this information.

The Incredible Human Machine site

michellesmom posted the following sighting on the MK Forum: (Thanks michellesmom!)

Some of y'all know I coach youth cheerleaders. So I'm reading an article about strength training in my new Cheer Coach and Advisor magazine, and did a doubletake when I got to:

These were ordinary school-girls, only marginally athletic, who had no interest in becoming “weightlifters,” any more than Olympic skater Michelle Kwan, shown curling a dumbbell on the cover of NEWSWEEK in 1998, wanted to become a bodybuilder.

She's everywhere!

The rest of the article is here

Not necessarily related to Michelle this year, but since she has such a history with the tour, I thought I would post that the Champions on Ice tour has been cancelled. What a sad time for skating. Check out Champions on Ice tour cancelled and Figure skating's ice gets thinner for more information.

11/3

I wrote earlier that Epcot has added Michelle to it's American Adventure show final photo montage. Well, I just got back from from Disney, and went to see this show again just to see Michelle. The company that she's with in this film is phenominal. It's Rosa Parks, Jonas Salk, JFK...Michelle (and a bunch of others, but you get my drift!) We knew she was going to be in that final photo montage, but it was still a shock seeing her on that big screen like that, with such amazing people. And when they showed her, she glided across the whole screen, they didn't do that for anyone else. I don't really know who else was shown after her because my mom and I basically just kept saying "Michelle!!!" It was really amazing.

When we were leaving, we heard several people mentioning Michelle. One example: Someone behind us said "oh, they updated the film! I know Michelle Kwan wasn't in it last time." They added a bunch of people & events, but she mentions Michelle.

Check out my picture of Michelle on the big screen (not the best pic, sorry!) Also, I found a video of the montage on youtube, though the sides are sort of blacked out, you can still get the idea.

10/17

Michelle received another huge honor on Monday! She won the Billie Jean King Contribution Award at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports. The event took place on October 15 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, where Billie Jean King presented the award to Michelle. The Billie Jean King Contribution Award to given to the athlete who has made significant contributions to the development of women's sports and has demonstrated lasting commitment and dedication to the growth of women's physical activity. From the award's press release:

Olympic gold medalist Michelle Kwan's history with the Women's Sports Foundation began in 1999 when she received a Travel & Training grant from the Foundation so that she may continue pursuing her passion. Almost a decade later, Kwan is now the most decorated figure skater in U.S. history and has continued to achieve off the ice. In 2006, she was named the U.S.'s first Public Diplomacy Envoy by U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. Her accomplishments have earned her the Billie Jean King Contribution Award, given to an athlete who has made significant contributions to the development of women's sports and has demonstrated lasting commitment and dedication to the growth of women's physical activity.

And from the WSF's site:

The Billie Jean King Contribution Award went to the most decorated figure skater in U.S. history, Michelle Kwan. Kwan was recognized for her significant contribution to the Women’s Sports Foundation and to the development and advancement of women’s sports by inspiring girls and women to become healthier through sports, fitness or physical activity. Always a forward thinker, Kwan proclaimed her continued commitment, “I look forward to working with the Foundation to provide more opportunities in sports.”

Check out the following pictures of Michelle arriving to the awards & receiving her award:

You can also check out all these pictures at the MK Gallery. Others in attendance at the award ceremony included Sheryl Crow, Holly Hunter, and Laila Ali. For more information, check out the following articles:

This AP article has some positive news about Michelle's health and possible skating future:

The two-time Olympic medalist and five-time world champion is studying political science at the University of Denver with an emphasis in international studies.The 27-year-old Kwan said she'll decide in 2009 if she'll compete in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She's running, swimming and skating to stay in shape.Kwan had hip surgery about a year ago."It's the first time in four years I've skated pain free," she said. "I haven't made a decision about 2010 — I'm keeping my options open."

Michelle was named to the U.S. Presidential Delegation for the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai, China. The members of the delegation attended the Opening Ceremonies on October 2.

The U.S. Presidential Delegation was led by Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education. Along with Michelle, the other members of the delegation were: Ernie Banks (Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame), Clark T. Randt, Jr. (US Ambassador to the People's Republic of China), John H. Hager (Former Assistant Secretary of Education, Special Education and Rehabilitative Services), Dr. Lynn Fuchs (Professor of Special Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University), Eunice Kennedy Shriver (Founder, Special Olympics), Dr. Timothy P. Shriver (Chairman of the Board, Special Olympics), Anne Sweeney (Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks and President, Disney-ABC Television Group), and Jennifer Polk Wardlow (International Global Messenger and Special Olympics North Carolina athlete.)

On October 1, the day before the opening ceremonies, Michelle was one of several celebrities to open the new Sports Experience Center. Other celebrities in attendance included WWE Stars Mick Foley and Torrie Wilson, Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver, Special Olympics Founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Coca Cola CEO Mutar Kent, Vanessa Williams, Bianca Jagger, and Brenda Song.

Watch this cute video of Michelle, from ABC.com, in China on October 3. Also, here are a few pics of Michelle while in China:

Check out some translations from Chinese articles about Michelle from KwanKat on the MK Forum, including the following quote from Michelle:

I was in China early this year in my capacity as goodwill ambassador for the international Special Olympics committee, my goal was to engage in dialogue with youths, sharing with them some of my experiences from skating. I would like to tell all the Special Olympians that I believe that as long as you work hard towards your dreams, you can be successful.

For more information, check out the following articles:

Michelle is on the cover of the October 2007 issue of Blades Magazine. Check it out! Also, debbwin from the MK Forum scanned in the Michelle pictures from the magazine, check out her slideshow of the pics! There are 8 other pictures of Michelle in the magazine, including: Fields of Gold Spread Eagle, East of Eden Spiral, Aranjuez end pose, Salome pose, Romanza #1, Romanza #2, 98 profile pic, and 99 profile pic.

There is a new book out about women athletes that includes Michelle, titled How to Be Like Women Athletes of Influence: 32 Women at the Top of Their Game and How You Can Get There Too. Michelle is one of 4 athletes featured on the cover, along with Serena Williams, Annika Sorenstam, and Mia Hamm. Michelle's chapter is subtitled "Flawlessness." You can find the book on Amazon.

Check out Michelle's ultimate playlist, courtesy of SI.com

Michelle attended a few sporting events this summer! On August 11, she attended an AVP volleyball tournament in Manhattan Beach. Check out a picture of Michelle at the 2007 Manhattan Beach Open Women's Final.

The next day, she attended the East West Bank WTA Classic at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. She presented the trophy to the winner after the match. ESPN also showed her sitting with the CEO of EastWest Bank during the match between Ana Ivanovic & Nadia Petrova. Check out a picture of Michelle with the trophy, along with a few screen captures during the match, at the MK Gallery.

s0nginmyheart posted on the MK Forum that there is a picture of Michelle in the Disneyland BackstagePass:

So I have an annual pass to Disneyland and as a perk they send out these little booklets/mags and I finally got a chance to sit down and thumb through the latest issue. To a nice(!) surprise I find a picture of MK on one of the pages. It's only a small pic with a brief caption "MK is one of the familiar faces hosting Disney Travel On Demand", no article though. I've scanned the page for all you to enjoy!

Check out the scan!

A few Michelle mentions on CNN recently!

On October 3, Dorothy Hamill was on Larry King, and she mentioned Michelle. Check out a transcript of the interview (scroll down about halfway through the transcript.) Here is the section about Michelle:

KING: An e-mail from Rex in Philadelphia - "What is your opinion on the U.S. ladies who won Olympic gold medals after you, Kristi, Tara and Sarah? And what do you think of Michelle Kwan not giving up her eligibility?

HAMILL: Oh, boy, that's a tough one. Kristi, beautiful. Sarah Hughes, she was the star that night, absolutely.

KING: Tara?

HAMILL: Tara Lipinski. Yeah. She's been injured. I think of the moves the girls have to do today, they get injured so quickly.

KING: And Miss Kwan.

HAMILL: And Michelle Kwan. Talk about a woman who has really sort of changed the face of finger skating. It was Michelle. And she's injured. She hasn't given up her Olympic eligibility status but, you know, she's professional, so she's not ever going to have to worry about making a living.

littlelamb posted on the MK Forum that Michelle was mentioned on CNN on October 5:

I was watching CNN earlier today. The newscasters were talking about the Marion Jones fiasco. One female reporter mention how people like Michelle Kwan and Billie Jean King being sports figures to look up to. Because not only have they had great success in their sport, but also do great things outside of sports. I agree whole heartedly. Michelle is great even without an OG. I love that young woman.
8/4

As posted earlier, Michelle lit the torch at the Opening Ceremony for the State Games of America. The event took place on Aug. 2 at the World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Check out some pictures of Michelle before and during the ceremony:

Two Colorado television stations have video of Michelle on their sites! KOAA has footage of her lighting the torch, as well as an interview with Michelle before the event. Check out the KOAA video!

KKTV has an interview with Michelle before the event. Check out the KKTV video! (The video should be on the right hand side, just click on it for it to play. If it isn't the current video anymore, you should still see it listed below the current video.)

Also, C# Minor was lucky enough to attend the ceremony, and posted a recap on the MK Forum! C# Minor's report, over 3 posts in the thread (Thanks C# Minor!):

I just had to join after tonight. I just got home from the State Games opening. There was a record crowd for the World Arena, the arena only has 7,500 seats, but we packed in 10,007 tonight! I wonder why that was...

Michelle was beautiful (when is she not?) She talked for awhile about dreams and hopes, and how it was an event like this that was her "springboard" back in 1993.

The athletes marched in Olympic-esque. There were some "important" people who spoke, some really cool trampoline acrobats, a band, and the Broncos Cheerleaders, but I think that all of them were just filler!

Michelle came out near the end, and the crowd gave her a standing ovation! She talked for 5-10 minutes about events like this. She remembered the Olympic Festival in 1993, and said that it was the biggest event of her life. She said there were 25,000 people in attendance, and that she was really scared. But she went out, did her best, and did well. She went on to say that she hoped that the athletes taking part in these games would be as excited as she was way back then.

After her speech she got in the line for the torch. Unlike the Olympics, this event has all of the Presidents, CEOs, and important people representing the sponsers line up in the middle of the arena floor, and all of them get to pass the torch to the next person (really exciting... ...not).

Someone who did something last year (yeah, my memory's shot, Michelle does that to me) ran the torch into the arena, and then handed it off to be passed down the line. What was really cool was watching Michelle, she looked really excited! She was jumping up and down a little at the beginning, then she just stood there waiting as all the guys in suits waved to the crowd.

She got the torch, ran to the cauldron, and lit the flame. The crowd was going nuts at this point. It seemed like they would never stop cheering! It took a few minutes before you could even hear the emcee talking!

It was a great night! I've attended two of these State Games openings, and this one was by far the most energetic, and I swear that's Michelle's effect on people.

Be sure to check out the following articles about Michelle from the event:

I wrote earlier about several "The Simpsons Movie" articles that mentioned Michelle since she was on the show in Feb 2005. Well, Michelle attended the premiere of movie on July 24 at The Mann Village Theatre in LA! Check out the following articles & pictures of Michelle at the premiere!

Check out a ton of pictures (including those linked above) from the premiere at the MK Gallery.
7/25

Be sure to watch this great interview with Michelle from Russian Today. Thanks to Kathy Sullivan for posting the link to the interview on the MK Forum! Also, skatefan20 made the following screencaps from the interview: (Thanks Kathy Sullivan & skatefan20):

7/23

With the Simpsons movie coming out soon, there are a few articles talking about the show & sports, and they all mention Michelle! The article Eat my sports: athletes and `The Simpsons' is about athletes in general on the show. A few quotes from the article about Michelle:

"When my brother saw it, he said, `Now you've finally made it,' " figure skating champion Michelle Kwan said.

While athletes don't get rich - well, richer - from "The Simpsons," it is inaccurate to say that they walk away empty-handed. Guest stars get one of the coolest gift bags in Hollywood. The big prize is a Simpsons leather jacket, with patches of all the characters."That jacket is among my most prized possessions," said Mike Scioscia, the Los Angeles Angels manager, whose possessions include two World Series rings.

Kwan said she has never touched her gift bag from the show. It remains in a cellophane wrap, and she joked that one day she would sell it for a billion dollars.She does make an exception for one Simpsons item though - she uses the TV tray."I think it's important to be able to eat while watching TV, just like Homer would," the skater said.

The second article, The Raider and the skater, is about Michelle & Warren Sapp taping their Simpsons episode together. I'd quote the whole article if I could, so be sure to check it out. This is my favorite quote from the article:

"When you're sitting there with a re`sume` that reads off seven straight Pro Bowls, you think it's pretty impressive," [Warren] Sapp said. "Until you look across the room and there's someone with nine U.S. championships and five worlds. I'm like, holy smokes. I thought I was doing a good job, but that's nothing compared to what that girl has done."

Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes had an online chat on the White House website earlier this month, and in one of her answers, she mentions Michelle & her diplomatic trips:

I believe public diplomacy is a dialogue, not a monologue, and I have actively continued my "listening tours." During the last two years, I have visited close to 40 countries to reach out, listen and show America's respect for different people, culture and contributions. My first trip this year was to China, and I traveled with Olympic skater Michelle Kwan, who we named as our first public diplomacy envoy. Michelle is a wonderful representative for our country and has a real gift for relating to young people. She just finished a similar successful trip to Russia.

A survey by the HSBC, “Successful Youth Development: The Contribution of Sport,” explored the link between the values adults believe children need to develop in life and ways sports can best teach those values.The survey also identified the top five male and female athletes considered to be the best role models for young people. Michelle was one of the top 5 female role models! The others were Mia Hamm (soccer), Jennie Finch (softball), Kaitlin Sandeno (swimming) and Maria Sharapova (tennis.) The male role models are Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Peyton Manning and Phil Mickelson. So, Michelle is in pretty good company!

The survey was conducted online among men and women in the United States during May and June 2007 among a sample of 600 adults (aged 18+) which was nationally representative of the U.S. adult population. For more information, check out the press release.
7/17

Michelle will light the torch at the Opening Ceremony for the State Games of America on Aug. 2 at the World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado! Information on attending can be found on the State Games of America official site.

A few quotes about her appearance:

"We’re thrilled, said Tom Osborne, president of the Colorado Springs Sports Corp., which hosts the event. "She is just a terrific Olympian. She will ignite the crowd...It’s great for someone like Michelle to give back to the kids. She’s just a perfect pick for us this year with all these figure skaters. I can’t wait to see those figure skaters when we introduce Michelle."

Osborne said Kwan will attract more fans to the Games. "There’s no question the torch lighter is the highlight of the evening. To bring in Michelle, we set the bar high. She’s such a great name and a great representative."

"We are thrilled and honored that Michelle Kwan will take part in the Opening Ceremony," said State Games of America honorary co-chair Bill Hybl. "She is not only one of our nation's greatest athletes, but a young woman who has inspired our nation with her grace, passion and performance."

Also, annie94 posted on the MK Forum that, "SGA sells a recap DVD after the event is done. There will be some of the opening ceremony on the DVD."

For more information, check out the following articles:

7/7

Happy birthday Michelle! Michelle is 27 years old today, July 7, 2007. Check out my birthday page for Michelle

7/2

Epcot has added Michelle to it's American Adventure show! From the article Epcot updates salute to U.S:

Epcot's American Adventure has entered the 21st century, adding Michelle Kwan, Tiger Woods and the firefighters who raised the flag at the World Trade Center's ground zero to Walt Disney World's show of American history and inspiration.The update, which adds images from America's most recent 14 years of history, was completed and debuted a couple of weeks ago. This is the second time that American Adventure has been updated since the show, in the World Showcase American Adventure Pavilion, premiered when Epcot opened in 1982.
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Last Updated April 18, 2008

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