Michelle Kwan is a retired American figure skater. She has won a total of 43 championships from a combination of national, international, and Olympic competitions making her the most decorated U.S. figure skater in history. She was born in Torrance, California in 1980 to immigrant parents from Hong Kong and grew up speaking Cantonese and English. Watching her older sister Karen figure skate and her brother Ron play ice hockey inspired her take to the ice as well.

At the age of 13, Kwan won the World Junior Figure Skating Championship. In 1998 she won the Silver medal at the Nagano, Japan Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the subsequent 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. The rest of her skating career was marred by injuries and she has not competed in another Olympics. As a result she decided to broaden her talents by attending Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and International Diplomacy, where she received a graduate degree in International Relations in 2011. Her off-the-ice accomplishments include supporting Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign as an outreach coordinator in 2016 and served under President Obama as a council member on the Council of Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition, which strives to help Americans lead healthy, active lifestyles.