Michelle Kwan is sounding like someone with more than these Olympics in her future.

The six-time U.S. champion and four-time world winner didn’t declare her intentions Friday when asked about turning professional after the Salt Lake City Olympics. But the 1998 silver medalist appears to have made up her mind to compete well beyond this season.

“I can’t guarantee anything,” Kwan said. “I’m still only 21 and I might be a veteran, gone to two Olympics, but skating is such a wonderful sport. It’s a lot of fun competing, though competition is stressful, there’s a lot of pressure.

“Who knows, maybe I will be in Italy in four years. Maria Butyrskaya is 29 and at her prime.

“You never know.”

Kwan knows competing in three successive Olympics is almost unprecedented for women figure skaters, although this nearly was her third games.

In 1994, she was an alternate to the U.S. team as skating officials pondered barring Tonya Harding from going to Lillehammer. Kwan went to Norway and trained for an Olympic appearance that never came when Harding was allowed to compete.

By 1998, Kwan was the Olympic favorite.

“My second time with the Olympic experience in Nagano, it was all new and exciting,” she said, “and now here I am in Salt Lake. It’s always exciting. This doesn’t last for the rest of your life. You have to understand that, you have to enjoy when you can.”

So much so that it appears she will be around for the Turin Games in 2006. Kwan simply can’t give up the sport just yet.

She sees how Todd Eldredge took a two-year hiatus from the grind of the Olympic-eligible circuit, then returned to win a bronze medal at last year’s world championships, and his sixth U.S. title last month. That earned Eldredge a spot in his third Olympics.

She sees Russia’s Butyrskaya, who has been on the international skating scene even longer than Kwan. And she looks at the younger skaters, including teammates Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes, and draws strength from their challenges.

Most of all, Kwan remembers the journey.

“When I first watched the Olympics on TV and saw Brian Boitano win, I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to the Olympics.’ I was not aware of what it takes,” she said.

“I can’t justify training four years for just these six minutes. There’s got to be more. It’s definitely the process. How can I say the last four years I have been training for this moment? It’s everything: the training, falling, being crazed those are the moments and things that make skating so special.”

Last month’s nationals were one of those special times as Kwan, overcoming a mediocre season, skated superbly to win her fifth straight title. She re-established herself as the Olympic favorite with that performance.

“At nationals, skating as well as I did, those are the moments you always strive for,” she said. “You say you always want to be in a zone. To see it and the process of getting there, and knowing what it feels like it’s just incredible.”

Still, it seems somewhat implausible that Kwan, who has studied at UCLA, has dozens of endorsements and is worth millions, would go through the training, falling and being crazed for another four years.

Then again, it also seemed unlikely she would remain in Utah for the entire games.

“I thought I would want to go home after the opening ceremonies, but people have been so nice and I feel really comfortable and I decided to stay,” said Kwan, who didn’t stay in the village in Nagano, skipped the opening ceremony and arrived several days into the games. “It’s hard, the ladies is the last event.”

And the spotlight event, in which Cohen’s coach, John Nicks, expects two of the three American women to win medals.

Kwan’s reaction to his prediction?

“Not three?” asked Kwan, who marched in the opening ceremony this time.