Everything Falls Into Place on Ice

ST. LOUIS — This wasn’t a skating championship, it was a Sno-Cone convention, the contestants’ costumes covered in ice chips stained purple and blue and orange.

America’s best skaters became frozen sculptures, dropping into various poses more suited for a Sunday buffet than an Olympic qualifier.

This wasn’t Savvis Center, it was Rockefeller Center. These weren’t Olympic hopefuls, they were curling stones.

On the final night of the national championships Saturday, the mighty fell. And fell. And fell.

And, in the end, the Kwan-troversy disappeared faster than third-place finisher Emily Hughes.

Even though Hughes finished in the customary Olympic trio, that third spot was given instead to injured Michelle Kwan, who, on this night anyway, possessed the most important requirement.

A pulse.

Blunders by virtually all of the top skaters in the long program gave the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. every excuse it needed to add Kwan to a group led by winner Sasha Cohen and runner-up Kimmie Meissner.

It may not be the fair move, but it was the skating world’s only move, particularly after dismayed television viewers probably spent the night turning the channel to something less violent, like the NFL playoffs.

“The committee felt that Michelle has a better chance at winning a medal,” said Bob Horen, chairman of U.S. Figure Skating’s international committee.

Even though Kwan has essentially skated in one competitive event in the last year, and even though officials have not seen her skate in a month, Horen is probably right about that.

If these skaters can’t put on their best performances when they are faced with only the ghost of a champion, how will they skate next month when they are surrounded by real champions?

They needed brilliance to overcome the bias. They were two blue lines away.

“A lot of people are getting a lot of personal improvement,” said Cohen, showing her best spin of the night.

Kwan has a better chance?

Better, indeed, than Hughes, who fell so hard it sounded like she had been tackled.

“Ice is slippery,” she said.

Better too than Meissner, who was eight seconds from an amazing performance when she took an amazing spill.

“My legs were kind of dead,” she said.

Kwan doesn’t have a better chance than Cohen, whose performance was something less than a beautiful redemption, as she stumbled out of one jump and finished with a giant shrug.

“It definitely would have meant more to win nationals if Michelle was here,” said Cohen, a first-time winner, trying to hide her smile.

Hughes could not be reached for comment after the announcement, but earlier she admitted, “Whatever decision they make is a good one.”

It was hard for her to argue while lying on the ice on her stomach.

It became a good decision beginning with the first skater in Saturday’s final group, Alissa Czisny, one of the heirs to Kwan’s throne.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Three falls and she was out.

“I don’t know if I was a little shaky out there,” Czisny said, making her the only one.

The next top competitor was Meissner, who fumbled just five yards short of a memorable touchdown run.

“I gave it everything I had,” Meissner said, which is part of the problem.

Cohen survived, Hughes fell, and then Bebe Liang, in a final attempt to put the pressure on the committee and Kwan, stumbled and sprawled.

The three winners were announced, then everyone waited for the 23-person committee to render its decision.

Even if the top women had all performed wonderfully, Kwan was probably going to get a spot, if only because she brings her sport more money than every other skater combined.

Once it became obvious that only Cohen was ready for prime time, that choice became an easy one.

The final vote was 20 to 3. The final determination will be made in a couple of weeks after a five-person group, including three judges, evaluates Kwan’s short and long programs.

As long as her program doesn’t include, say, digging a hole in the ice and fishing through it, she’s probably in.

Will she earn a medal in Turin? That barely seems possible, considering she has struggled in the Olympics during her prime, always falling just short of her potential.

Will she be seen on TV a lot from Turin? Probably more than any other U.S. athlete, a factor that has become more important than anything.

“I’m feeling really well,” Kwan said in a conference call late Saturday.

Good thing somebody around here is.