U.S. - China Issues

22 January 2007

U.S. Skater Calls Lessons of Being a Champion Athlete Universal

Martin Luther King Jr. legacy resonates with Chinese students, Michelle Kwan says

By Carolee Walker
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington – U.S. Public Diplomacy Envoy Michelle Kwan came to Beijing to share her experiences as a champion figure skater with Chinese students in the hope of making a difference in their lives. She told them what she learned on the ice is universal: hard work, discipline and dedication.

“I don’t have all [the] answers,” Kwan told students learning about Martin Luther King Jr. at the Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University on January 20.  “I’m still learning from my skating experiences.”

Kwan advised the Chinese students to get to know Americans as well as their own country’s neighbors and to look forward to sharing their Chinese culture with tourists and athletes visiting China for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

“We share a common value, whether you’re American or Chinese,” the envoy said. “Be passionate about what [you] want to achieve,” said Kwan, whose parents are from Hong Kong.

Kwan said although the sport of figure skating was not very ethnically diverse in the United States when she first started skating at the age of 5, as a Chinese American, she said she was grateful for the legacy of King because she received the same opportunity, encouragement and hope to become truly successful in the United States as did any other American. 

Kwan, a student at the University of Denver in Colorado, is accompanying U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes to Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Kwan and Hughes are visiting schools and youth organizations where Kwan has been speaking about her personal experiences and encouraging mutual understanding.

After the Chinese students recited King’s famous I Have a Dream speech and sang the chorus from “We Shall Overcome,” Kwan and Hughes encouraged the students to continue to build a bridge of understanding between the United States and China as well as to do their best in pursuit of their own personal dreams.

Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister and leader of the American civil rights movement, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968. (See Martin Luther King Jr.)

Hughes said King’s conviction that everyone is entitled to equal rights and opportunities regardless of socioeconomic status or race helped transform an American society tainted with discrimination into a nation where opportunities became open to all. 

On January 21, her last day in Beijing, Kwan joined Hughes at Beijing Sports University where the under secretary awarded medals to athletes at the Special Olympics Sports Day. Kwan visited with golf, basketball and tennis athletes and their families.

The Special Olympics is an international organization dedicated to sports training and competition for people with intellectual disabilities. (See related article.)

A native Californian, Kwan, 26, has won five world championships, nine national championships and two Olympic medals. She speaks Cantonese, a dialect used in Hong Kong and southern China, and is studying Mandarin, the official dialect of China.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named the champion figure skater the first U.S. public diplomacy envoy in November 2006. (See related article.)

Additional information on Kwan’s trip to China is available on the State Department’s Web site.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)