Michelle Kwan's first performance as an American diplomat was almost flawless.

Figure skater Michelle Kwan of the United States listens to a question during a media conference after pulling out of the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, February 12, 2006. Kwan, a five-times world champion, sustained a groin strain during practice on Saturday. [Reuters/File Photo]

In two hours Thursday at a hardscrabble school for migrant children,and two more at one of Beijing's most prestigious high schools,America's most decorated figure skater turned on the charm.

"She skates, she's Chinese, she's Disney and she's magic," said Zheng Hong, principal of Dandelion School, an abandoned cinderblock factory converted into a middle school that has 380 students on the southern edge of the capital.

The dusty concrete-floor classrooms and attached dormitories have virtually no heat. It was colder inside than outside, where the temperature hovered around freezing. Minimal warmth in a few rooms came from an ancient furnace, spewing sulfur and coal dust just outside the school auditorium, once the factory's dingy warehouse.

Kwan seemed unfazed as America's first "Public Diplomacy Envoy," a position created to try to improve the U.S. image abroad. Greeted by students two- to three-deep, Kwan waded into the crowd and surprised a young boy, Luo Haoming.

"Hi. How are you? Nice to meet you. Give me five," Kwan said.

The boy smiled and instantly responded.

"It's a bit of a scrum," U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt said.

By the end of the visit, Kwan's ankle-length black coat was smudged with white dust, and she nearly cried when a girls choir sang the school's anthem:

"Dandelion, dandelion flying to the east, flying to the west; floating in the breeze around the world; landing on the ground without a sound ... making friends wherever we go, sending down roots wherever we are."

"I got teary-eyed," Kwan said. "I had to look around and just compose myself."

The setting was worlds away from the glittery world of figure skating.

Kwan is a five-time world champion and has won Olympic silver and bronze. She underwent right hip surgery five months ago and will skip this season.

Kwan got the diplomat job last year. Sitting at a White House dinner with Chinese President Hu Jintao, U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Kwan told Rice she was studying political science at the University of Denver.

1

2