Kwan puts skating career on ice

By John Powers, Globe Staff  |  February 2, 2010 SOMERVILLE - She will be walking through Davis Square at lunchtime, having dinner in the North End, or sitting courtside at a Celtics game and she’ll see the heads turning. That face, that smile. Is that her? Naww, couldn’t be.

“She’s from LA,’’ Michelle Kwan says, laughing. “Why would she be here?’’

Kwan has been in the vicinity since last summer, studying for a two-year master’s degree in law and diplomacy at Tufts’s Fletcher School. The most decorated figure skater in American history (two Olympic medals, five world titles, nine national championships) now totes a backpack crammed with books, a computer and a Kindle.

“My friends here know me as Michelle the Student,’’ she says.

Kwan, who’ll turn 30 in July, hasn’t retired from skating, and there were times last year when she pondered going for an unprecedented fifth Winter Olympics. But once the Tufts acceptance letter arrived, she knew that she was at a crossroads. (story continues)

Michelle and me downtown skiing, in matching coats. Too funny. She IS super sweet, down to earth and was great at keeping things light hearted in our econ class last semester  :)