COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The building was nearly deserted as Michelle Kwan skated onto the ice. Still, there was one glaring absence: Frank Carroll.

Kwan began her practice Wednesday for Skate America with her father seated at the sideboards, a spot where Kwan's longtime coach normally would be.

The previous day, Kwan announced she was splitting with Carroll, who guided her career since 1992.

Danny Kwan barely spoke to his daughter and didn't appear to be doing any coaching leading to Thursday's start of competition. Whether Michelle missed Carroll couldn't be ascertained -- she was not available for comment.

But she did fall four times during the workout, including twice while attempting a triple-triple combination.

There also were flashes of the brilliance that has made Kwan the dominant figure skater of the last three years. And she did hit the triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination later in the session.

Carroll, who also trains Tim Goebel, came to the rink five hours later for the U.S. men's champion's practice. He remained puzzled by the split and said he hopes Kwan won't go it alone.

"I hope she will take someone else in," Carroll said. "I think she needs someone to share the pressures."

Asked if a new coach might be Danny Kwan, Carroll responded:

"At this point, I would not be surprised about anything. If you told me Michelle was not going to do Skate Canada (next week) or not go to the Olympics or have her sister coach her or her mother ... I thought I had seen it all, that there could be no surprises for me. I was wrong."

When Kwan skated off the ice, the few people in the World Arena were busy discussing the strange timing of her decision, with the Olympics less than four months away.

"It was surprising and shocking," said John Nicks, a contemporary of Carroll's and coach of rising U.S. skater Sasha Cohen. "It has been such a wonderful, successful, mutually beneficial partnership for so many years.

"On the other side of the coin, it disturbs me that championship skaters can now do without coaches. It makes my future in doubt."

Nicks, like Carroll, has coached his share of Olympians. Robin Wagner, who works with Sarah Hughes, the world's third-ranked woman, has yet to have an Olympian. Considering the amount of work that goes into preparing for the games, she found Kwan's decision stunning.

"Changing coaches is a difficult and emotional experience, and the timing is even harder," Wagner said. "If the relationship is not good between a student and a coach, a piece of paper does not bind the relationship. All coaches give their students their hearts and souls, but, as with any job, we can get fired."

Kwan insists she did not fire Carroll and that they parted amicably.

"I don't usually change coaches. I've been with Frank for almost 10 years now," she said Tuesday. "I think you just have to make decisions.

"Right now, I feel as a skater I've evolved and have different philosophies and how to get to where I want to be. It's not saying Frank is wrong and I'm right, just that we have our differences."

Kwan also had differences with longtime choreographer Lori Nichol, and they split at the end of last season.

"With Lori and everything, I don't feel I fired her," she said. "As a student, you hire who you think is the best for you right now. At this time, I just want to have sort of the space so I can get myself together again. It's nothing against Frank or Lori. You have to make the decisions that are in the best interest for me."

Carroll hopes she has done that.

"I think both of us are going through some pain right now," he said. "Part of it is the withdrawal from each other.

"This is not a nasty separation of ways. We'd go out and have lunch together or sit backstage together and have a laugh.

"What do you do if somebody doesn't cherish their time and moments with you and not believe you're really able to help them? Then, it's an impossible situation."