BOSTON - - Fighting back pain might be the least of Michelle Kwan's worries. Battling to keep artistry in figure skating is a much tougher chore these days.

If anyone is up to that challenge, it would be the three-time world champion. Kwan goes after her fifth U.S. Figure Skating Championship and fourth in a row this week.

Kwan isn't completely healthy and probably will scale back the jumps in her free skate.

	Battling to keep artistry in figure skating is a much tougher chore these days for Michelle Kwan.

But considering the lack of experience, depth and health in American women's skating, if she holds off teen-ager Sarah Hughes, Kwan should join the likes of Olympic gold medalists Peggy Fleming and Tenley Albright as a five-time titlist.

"When my back started hurting (last month), I thought it was not worth it right now and I eased up," Kwan said Wednesday, two days before she begins competition. "I can see that there's a point where you don't know how hard to push yourself when preparing for a competition and you can overdo it.

"There's a lot of demands for triple-triples and it can be a little much on your body. I think when you are younger, you don't know the limitations. `You say, `I can do it, I'm strong."'

While Kwan, 20, has been stronger than most skaters of her generation, she has been more artistic than nearly all of them. But she and coach Frank Carroll expressed some concern that presentation can get lost in the flurry of triple jumps by women and quads by men.

Kwan has had a triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination in her programs for years. But that has been the extent of her triple-triple combos, and those are the easiest triple jumps.

She knows she must raise the bar and has been practicing various other combos. But they aren't likely to be part of her free skate here, which disturbs Kwan.

"This is the year before Olympics," Kwan notes, "and, of course, nationals and worlds and the Grand Prix finals are big competitions and you want to test things out. That's why I'm disappointed not to be doing all the triple-triples I was planning.

"You're setting the foundation for yourself, so if this year I can do the triple-triples, I'd have more confidence going into next year. I know that I can do it, but it's not been at a competition yet."

She and Carroll just wish it wasn't necessary to concentrate so much on the jumps.

	Coach Frank Carroll has been a primary reason in Kwan's success.

"I guess everyone sort of thinks triple-triples are where the whole ballgame is, but I disagree," Carroll said. "I'd rather see them focus on the beauty of skating. ... But if they want to go in that direction, why not call it figure jumping?"

Carroll always has emphasized Kwan's artistry through her music, programs and costumes. And while Kwan lost the gold medal to the more athletic Tara Lipinski at the 1998 Olympics, Lipinski won just as much for her improved presentation as for her technical merit.

Also remember that Kwan was doing triple lutzes when she was 12.

"I always say go with the flow. Right now, they are being hard with the technical marks," Kwan said of the judges. "They see the men all doing quads. They look at us and I can see it in my marks - they want me to up the ante. I'm trying to perfect it."