| | LYON, France--As a college freshman, Michelle Kwan is getting around and earning lots of money.
Two weeks ago she was in Japan. This week, it's France. And she has earned more than $100,000 in prize money since October.
Yet she is still missing something. An Olympic gold medal in 2002 would fill the void nicely.
Maria Butyrskaya of Russia beat Kwan for the world title last March. Kwan gets another chance against Butyrskaya in the International Skating Union Grand Prix Final starting today.
The final brings together the top point scorers in the four events from a six-meet series between October and December. The final is worth more than $700,000, $50,000 going to the event winners.
| |  | | | Kwan is finding the balance between school and competition. |
At the world competition in Helsinki, Finland, Kwan was ailing with the flu and made some technical mistakes that allowed Butyrskaya, at 27, to become the oldest woman to take an individual world title. Russian skaters took all four world titles.
Since then, Kwan has beaten Butyrskaya three times in pro-am open competitions, where the technical rules are less stringent.
Now Kwan has a chance to beat the Russian under ISU regulations, allowing more triple jumps than the lucrative, but less demanding, pro-am events.
The women's event between the past and present world champions highlights the competition that ends with a unique head-to-head duel. The men's, pairs and ice dance are also being contested.
After the long and short programs, the top four skaters go against each other Saturday in a super final, executing different programs.
Kwan was world champion in 1996 and 1998 and the Olympic silver medalist in Nagano, is trying to balance competition and classes this year.
In between courses at UCLA, she won Skate America, Skate Canada and three pro-ams, including one two weeks ago in Japan, and earned well over $100,000 in official prize money.
The men's event lost some of its luster when two-time world and European champion Alexei Yagudin withdrew because of foot problems.
According to his coach, Tatiana Tarasova, his boot split in training in Moscow on Monday, and Yagudin slightly stretched a tendon in his foot.
The Russian Federation asked for a medical release and replaced him with another Russian, Alexander Abt.
Without Yagudin, who won three of the Grand Prix events, the favorite is now Yevgeny Plushchenko, who won the other three and beat Yagudin for the Russian title.
American hopes are on Tim Goebel, who became the first skater to do three quads in a program at Skate America, where he was second to Yagudin.
Goebel appears ready for another historic feat. In practice, he did a quad-triple-triple combination, outperforming Plushchenko, whose best was a quad-triple-double combination.
Pairs competition has reigning world champions Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze trying to rebound from a relatively poor autumn.
Russian teammates Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov have won three events this fall.
In ice dance competition, France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat are favorites in their hometown. World champions Angelika Krylova, suffering from a back injury, and Oleg Ovsiannikov of Russia are not competing this season.
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