LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Michelle Kwan won her sixth national title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships Saturday night and set her sights on next month's Olympics.
All nine judges placed Kwan first in her long program and two of them gave her a perfect score for presentation.
With the home crowd behind her, Kwan will be favored in Salt Lake City to grab her first Olympic gold in what should be a duel with Russian Irina Slutskaya.
Kwan, 21, will be joined at the Olympics by teen-agers Sasha Cohen and Sarah Hughes, who finished second and third Saturday night.
Her six national crowns places Kwan in a tie for second on the all-time list behind Maribel Vinson, who recorded nine titles. It was Kwan's fifth straight U.S. championship.
Earlier in the day, Peter Tchernyshev and Naomi Lang won the championship dance portion of the event, earning their first trip to the Olympics.
Tchernyshev and Lang floored the Staples Center crowd. They finished their routine with an incredible move as Tchernyshev balanced his partner on his chest without holding her.
"Our main direction is to turn the ice dancing into a spectacular event and please the people that come to watch us," Tchernyshev said.
"For us to skate like this in front of an audience at nationals, we're just so happy with how the crowd responded to our program," said Lang, who was born in California and lives in Michigan. "We just really felt good out there."
While the 23-year-old Lang is American-born, Tchernyshev is not, making his trip to the Olympics that much more special. It took him nine years to gain citizenship after leaving Russia.
"I'm just really overwhelmed by the fact that we are going to the Olympics," he said. "That's going to be my first Olympic Games as well, and it's going to be representing this country. It's a long-awaited dream."
Tchernyshev turns 31 on Feb. 6 -- nine days before the dance competition begins at the Salt Lake City Games.
Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto finished second, followed by Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov. Neither team will go to the Olympics, however, since neither Agosto nor Petukhov are American citizens.
Beata Handra and Charles Sinek -- the only married couple competing for the United States -- will represent their country after placing fourth.
It's been a long road for the 33-year-old Sinek, who had a blood clot following knee surgery in August and suffered through a difficult recovery.
"This moment is worth it for us," he said. "A lot of years, a lot of time, a difficult injury which kept me out for 2 1/2 months."
