As you read this, Michelle Kwan is racing against time, training harder than she has ever trained in her life. After a U.S. Figure Skating committee approved the injured Kwan’s petition for a spot on the Olympic team late Saturday night, most casual fans assumed Kwan was Turin-bound. In fact, she’s battling fiercely for that Olympic berth – and her career.

Despite the controversy that circulated around Kwan’s petition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis (which doubled as the Olympic trials), the main issue was never whether Kwan would be confirmed. The stated procedures for the selection of the Olympic team clearly favored Kwan over the skater who was bumped off the team – 16-year-old Emily Hughes of Long Island, the third-place finisher. The real question was whether Kwan’s injuries would heal. Knowing this, U.S. Figure Skating officials made Kwan’s Olympic berth contingent on an in-person evaluation of her fitness, to be conducted by a team of experts on January 27.

Eight days from now, Kwan is slated to skate her Olympic programs in front of a panel of American judges at her home rink in Los Angeles. Though her preparations are shrouded in secrecy, it’s doubtful that she’ll be landing all the critical triple jumps by then. Since October, she’s been unable to train at full force, due to a pair of career-threatening injuries. First it was a strained hip ligament, which prevented her from jumping or spinning for weeks. She had just gotten back to the ice when, on December 17, she sustained a groin injury – possibly the injury skaters dread most, because it makes jumping so excruciating and is so difficult to heal.

After Saturday night’s announcement, Kwan told reporters via conference call that she had only started practicing triple jumps on January 13 – just two weeks before her do-or-die evaluation. Landing triple jumps is not like riding a bike. After a break, it takes time for a skater to find the rhythm, the timing, and the confidence.

Should she fail to qualify, Kwan would leave a gaping hole in the ladies’ field, for Kwan, who has won nine national titles and five world titles but never the Olympic gold, was expected to play out a consummate Olympic drama in Turin. Twice before she had been the favorite, but finished with only silver (in 1998) and bronze (in 2002). This time, she would to step onto the ice as the underdog. Like Chris Evert at the end of her career, Kwan was to be the sentimental favorite – the gracious, picture-perfect champion who everyone hoped could win one more.

Instead, Kwan’s Olympic hopes will be realized or crushed in a workaday rink in Los Angeles, with judges huddled around the hockey glass and a few folks in the bleachers. After losing almost three critical months to injury, Kwan has another eight days to get herself in some approximation of competitive shape. The task borders on the impossible.

Kwan has been so good for so long that we tend to think of her as being naturally brilliant. But her long run at the top has exacted a heavy toll. Tara Lipinski and Sarah Hughes, the young American phenoms who bested her under Olympic pressure, retired in high school. Kwan has been competing at the grueling elite level for a dozen years. She has not won a World title since 2003, yet she has continued to coax her battered body towards Turin, hanging on for one last Olympics.

Now, she has eight days to pull off the greatest challenge of her career. It seems inconceivable that Kwan’s epic career could end quietly, away from the television cameras and the fans, swallowed up by a season of devastating injuries. This is a distinct possibility. But as Kwan has proven over and over again in competition, her courage is not to be underestimated. If her body will cooperate one last time, if she can make it to Turin for two final, hard-won performances, expect something extraordinary.