michelle kwan

A hero to me is someone who is hard working, encouraging, and inspirational. Michelle Kwan is exactly that. She seems to be very competitive in what she does. She is an amazing figure skater that has worked hard to get all the awards she’s received.

Michelle started figure skating when she was very young and I see how all that hard work has paid off. She started figure skating at age 5 and won her first competition at age 7! She had to work extremely hard before and after school every day. Eventually, her family had to sell their house so they could afford a coach. In 2005 she had a bad injury in her hip and she couldn’t compete for a while. But she got back in the 2006 Olympics. She says she won’t retire until after the 2010 Olympics when she’s 29 years old.

Michelle Kwan is Chinese-American and she is a very hard working person. She would wake up very early before school started and went to practice and right after school she would go. She eventually was home-schooled because of all the practicing. She is best known as the five-time world figure skating champ. She’s also one of the three Americans in the sport’s history to have won five world figure skating championships. She has won several awards such as the Dial award in 1997, Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswomen of the year in 1998, Sullivan Award Winner in 2001, 2002 and 2003 Kids’ Choice Award for America’s favorite female athlete and plenty of others.

Michelle is very inspirational. She wrote an inspirational book for kids called The Winning Attitude: What it Takes to be a Champion and she wrote an autobiography called Heart of a Champion. She and her family also opened an Ice Palace in California. She does charity work as a spokesperson for the Children’s Miracle Network and she makes time to visit hospitals in the Los Angeles area where she donates stuffed animals. For her to get injured and come back to skating, I think that would take a lot of work and inspire people. You can tell she didn’t want to give up just yet.

I am glad I chose Michelle Kwan because she seems very hard working, inspirational and encouraging. She fits the definition of what a hero is to me. Even though she will be retiring soon after the 2010 Olympics, she’s deserved all of the awards and I will be able to look back and see that she’s my hero.