NAGANO, Japan -- She figured the whole planet was watching, so Michelle Kwan floated into her own world.

It's a world of pure beauty, sheer joy - a world where champions soar.

If she stays there for one more performance, Kwan will be an Olympic gold medalist.

Tara Lipinski is going to give Michelle Kwan a difficult time in the long program Friday. (AP)

"Before I started, I heard people cheering and I thought, `I'm in heaven,"' Kwan said after she won tonight's short program, which is worth one-third of the total score. "People clapping, billions of people watching on TV and I'm skating. It's just me and the ice.

"When I'm on the ice, I don't think anybody can stop me."

TARA LIPINSKI, ONE OF KWAN'S two American rivals, couldn't stop her from finishing first with eight of the nine judges. Lipinski took second heading into Friday's free skate, while Maria Butyrskaya of Russia was third.

The third American, Nicole Bobek, skating next-to-last, fell once, stepped out of another jump and cut short a third. She cried while awaiting her marks, never looking up, as she fell far back out of medal contention.

Kwan, 17, skated majestically through her routine to piano music by Rachmaninoff. As she spiraled across the ice, a smile lit up her face. She'd already lit up the White Ring arena with her grace.

The jumps are almost like an afterthought with the two-time American champion. She does them so effortlessly that you only notice when she misses.

Kwan didn't miss anything.

NEITHER DID LIPINSKI. THE 15-year-old defending world champion looked nervous when she took the ice, but she quickly turned into a beaming ballerina. By the time she'd finished her jumps, with 45 seconds left in the program to music from the film Anastasia, she was smiling from ear to ear.

"It was the best program I thought I've done, ever," Lipinski said. ``This is the first time I felt like I wanted to cry. This is not the most happy but ... I can't even describe the feeling.

"It's that feeling it seems so hard at the moment, and when you do it, it's like a miracle."

Miracles on ice seem commonplace for these two. Kwan won the world championship in 1996, then lost it to Lipinski last year. Same thing at nationals.

But this year, Kwan has dominated the meetings between the cordial but not particularly close rivals. She punctuated her return to the top with 15 perfect marks at the U.S. championships, including seven in the short program.

There were no 6.0s here, but a sweep of 5.9s for artistry as only the French judge had Lipinski first.

"I didn't see anyone skate," said Kwan, of Torrance, Calif., who seems fully recovered from a stress fracture in her left foot that kept her out of competition for two months last fall. "I thought, `I'm here for my own. It's an individual sport, focus on yourself. I kind of knocked some sense into myself."

AND SHE KNOCKED OUT THE competition, except for Lipinski. It would be stunning if Butyrskaya or anybody else stole the gold from either of the Americans.

Bobek's performance was a disaster as she dropped to 17th. She didn't complete any required jumps and left the ice clearly distressed and in tears.

Nearly all the members of the U.S. figure skating team were on hand, with five-time men's champion Todd Eldredge, Lipinski's training buddy, offering her encouragement in the warmup room before she took the ice in the 11th spot.

Lipinski had no trouble with the triple flip that plagued her at the U.S. championships. When she completed her final spin, the 15-year-old from Sugar Land, Texas, seemed about to burst with joy. Her mouth wide open, she held her head in stunned ecstasy, then turned to acknowledge the crowd.

"She looked like she was on a mission," coach Richard Callaghan said.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. AFTER BEING fourth in the short program at nationals and needing the free skate of her life just to assure an Olympic berth - she leaped to second overall -- Lipinski now is right there in Kwan's shadow.

Still, it is in Kwan's shadow, and Kwan's free skate program is breathtaking; she received eight 6.0s for it at Philadelphia.

Butyrskaya was first up, an unenviable position. She was somewhat listless and two-footed her triple lutz in combination.

But the judges were kind to the European champion.

China's elegant Lu Chen, back on the international scene after a series of ankle injuries and illnesses - along with a feud with the Chinese federation - skated a crisp but relatively simple program. The bronze medalist at Lillehammer and 1995 world champion punctuated her final moves with a huge smile, too, and came in fourth.

"LAST YEAR WAS NOT VERY GOOD and everybody wants to see me," she said. ``I just want to have a performance for everyone and tell them I'm back."

Irina Slutskaya, having a poor season after rising to the top of Russian skating, did only a double lutz-double toe loop in combination. That dropped her to fifth, even though her spins were superb.

Vanessa Gusmeroli of France, the surprise world bronze medalist last year, was eighth after cutting short her combination jump, doing only a double lutz.

Surya Bonaly, the French veteran who has fought injuries and poor coaching since a run of three straight seconds at the world championships, received the strangest range of marks. She went from 4.9 for artistry from the Australian judge to 5.7 for both technical merit and artistry from France.

She ended up sixth, almost certainly out of the medals chase -- and frustrated with the panel.

"BECAUSE I AM FRENCH AND THEY prefer the other ones?" she said when asked why she got such inconsistent marks, despite doing a triple toe-triple toe combination. "After 10 years, I am used to it. I am tired of crying and crying and crying.

"I was happy with my work. You can't control the judges."