KITCHENER, Ontario -- For someone with four world titles, Michelle Kwan has found it difficult in the Grand Prix final -- especially against Irina Slutskaya.

	A stumble going into her triple Lutz dropped Michelle Kwan into second place after the short program at Skate Canada.

Now Kwan has to finish the Olympic season with a new short program and without a coach.

So Kwan looks to return to the past. She brought back her short program from the last Olympic season, when she won a silver medal at Nagano, hoping it will lead not only to a victory here, but also to a gold medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics in February.

The Grand Prix final brings together the top scorers from the six major events during the season. All of the gold medal prospects are here, so it is looked upon as a tune-up for the Olympics, even with its altered format.

There are short programs and free skates on Friday that count for 50 percent of the total score. Then everyone comes back Saturday to perform another free skate, worth the final 50 percent. At the Olympics, it will be simply a short program followed by a free skate program, separated by a day off.

Most of the skaters are using routines from last year as the additional program for this meet only. Kwan has gone further in bringing back a different short program. She used the program with music by Rachmaninoff to near perfection in 1998.

"I looked at the tapes the other week and I wanted to bring it back. I saw Rachmaninoff, and it's been one of my favorites," Kwan said. "I thought it would be fun to bring it back."

In practice Friday, Kwan worked at the short program she used to score seven 6.0s at the national championships. She won that portion of the event in Nagano, too, before Tara Lipinski beat her in the free skate for the gold medal.

As if the switch in programs wasn't enough, she is still coachless since she dismissed Frank Carroll in October.

With her father Danny at the boards giving an occasional encouraging word and wearing a coaching credential, Kwan was the only skater to do her entire short program. The other five women skated through parts of their routines at various times.

Kwan wanted to change from the "East of Eden" program she used earlier this year and shifted back to the nearly 4-year old routine saying she liked the excitement of the music.

"It was the Olympic short program. I had a lot of luck with it," Kwan said. "And it's a lot of fun to skate to it, so I figure 'Why not?' "

She needs something to break out of her losing streak at the Grand Prix finals. Kwan has lost in her last three, twice to Slutskaya and in the 1997 finals to Lipinski. Kwan also missed the Grand Prix finals before the Nagano Olympics because of a stress fracture in her toe.

In fact, she won only in 1996, the first year of the season-ending event (then known as the Champion Series finals). However, after losing to Slutskaya twice in the finals, she came back to win world titles in 2000 and 2001 to go along with her crowns in 1996 and 1998.

The GP final format consistently has changed. In the last two editions, it had been a head-to-head final to determine placings. Now the final long program can shuffle the complete standings rather than just two places.

Additional problems for the skaters are caused by needing two free skate routines for the competition.

"The most difficult thing is the timing," said Robin Wagner, the coach of Sarah Hughes, ranked third in the world behind Kwan and Slutskaya. "To do two longs when everyone is looking ahead to nationals is difficult."

Kwan, Hughes, Slutskaya and Maria Butyrskaya traded victories against each other during the Grand Prix season. Butyrskaya won the 1999 world title over Kwan. However, the 29-year-old Russian recently had minor surgery for chronic appendicitis.

She is here practicing the Olympic routine she plans to unveil and has three small scars on her abdomen.

The men's competition has a Russian-American flavor. The Russians _ Yevgeny Plushchenko and Alexei Yagudin -- own the last four world titles, with Plushchenko the current champion. The Americans are Todd Eldredge and Tim Goebel, with six American titles among them, Goebel being the current champion.

The pairs event has three world champions among the six couples, including the current ones, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada, and two Russian entries.

The ice dance features Italians Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio, the current world champs.