It would be shocking if U.S. Skating doesn't grant Michelle Kwan's request to be added to the Turin Olympics team. It might be more of a shock to see her on the medals podium.

When Kwan announced Wednesday she was bypassing next week's national championships because of a groin injury, it was the latest in a series of setbacks for America's most accomplished figure skater.

This has been a wasted season for the nine-time U.S. and five-time world champion, and it comes at the worst time possible. After all, she stayed around after her bronze medal performance at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games in hopes of finally grabbing the gold in 2006.

And while it is unwise ever to discount her completely, Kwan will have very little going for her in Turin.

"I believe I will be 100 percent for the Olympics and I feel that I have a shot to win," she said. "That's why I put this petition in. And I wouldn't otherwise."

But Kwan barely has any experience under the new judging system instituted by the International Skating Union after the Salt Lake City scandal. Indeed, she's never won a significant event under it.

That system rewards stretching the technical limits in a routine. While Kwan is possibly the most artistic women's skater ever, at 25 and with so much wear and tear, she can't jump with her younger opponents. Indeed, she is not as dynamic a jumper as world champion Irina Slutskaya, her longtime rival and the favorite for the Olympics, who is older than Kwan.

Few judges have seen her routines for this season, so any feedback she's received is minimal.

She also has no momentum heading toward Turin. Even in other years when she has been injured, particularly 1998, Kwan recovered well. The '98 nationals in Philadelphia saw Kwan at her very best after a foot injury sidelined her for much of that season.

Now, older and worn down by more injuries, including a hip problem that she said has healed, Kwan herself can't know what she is capable of in the sport's grandest setting.

Her best performances haven't come at the Olympics, either. In 1998, she was too conservative in her free skate. Although it was a strong program, it didn't match up with Tara Lipinski's.

Four years ago was worse. Kwan, a big favorite, was mediocre in the free skate, and both Sarah Hughes and Slutskaya passed her in the medals race.

Turin was going to solidify her legacy, though, as one of America's greatest athletes. To her everlasting credit, Kwan remained in the sport well beyond when most women keep competing. She has graced skating with her buoyant personality, her respectfulness to fans and her supreme artistry.

The final step would be to the top of the podium to wear that elusive Olympic gold.

Some will question whether Kwan even deserves to be in Turin. She said Wednesday of the U.S. Skating committee that will evaluate her fitness: "If they say, 'OK, Michelle you're ready to go,' and I don't feel I'm 100 percent, I will pull myself out of the team, because I want to be 100 percent at the Olympics."

Unless Kwan drops out, though, she will be in Italy. U.S. Skating owes her that much, and the skater who loses a spot to Kwan most likely won't be a medals contender.

And how would NBC, which spends so many millions on Olympics coverage, feel about a Kwan-less team? The network already is using Kwan in its advertising for the Turin Games. If NBC executives have to fly her there in a private jet and provide an around-the-clock medical staff to ensure her health, they'd probably do so.

What a ratings bonanza it would be if Kwan came back from the edge of Olympic oblivion to win the showcase event of the games. It would rival Nancy Kerrigan's recovery in 1994 from being whacked on the knee by an assailant just before nationals. She went on to a silver medal at Lillehammer, capping the Tonya and Nancy saga.

The skater Kerrigan bumped from that Olympic squad was none other than 13-year-old Michelle Kwan. What perfect symmetry a Kwan resurgence would provide.

Just don't count on it.