Miki Ando was, just a short time ago, the face of Japanese figure skating. A spate of recent stumbles, literally and figuratively, mean the teen ice queen now has little face left at all, according to Shukan Jitsuwa (5/4).

Less than a year ago, 18-year-old Ando was the darling of the ice as far as most Japanese were concerned. Lauded for her looks, talent and the fact that she was -- and remains - the only woman to have ever completed a quadruple Salchow jump in competition, the teenage was the hottest property in the ice world.

After years of being designated as one of the country's top skaters, Ando's status in the oft-brutal, glamorous world of figure skating dropped as the Japan Skating Federation recently formally downgraded her from being a "special strengthening athlete" to merely a "strengthening athlete."

There's a hell of a lot more involved than mere semantics in the move.

"For athletes awarded the 'special strengthening athlete' status, the Japan Olympic Committee will pay about 80 percent of their expenses, with virtually no strings attached. If Ando's status has been downgraded, the amount of money she receives will naturally decline," a reporter for a sports newspaper tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "I've never heard of another case where an athlete has been at the highest rank for funding only to be dropped down to a lower level."

Ando didn't have the most successful Olympiad in Turin in February. She was determined to perform her quadruple Salchow in competition once again. Instead, she fell to the ice as often as she jumped off it and finished a dismal 15th, the worst she has ever placed in open international competition. To make it worse for the ice world's teen queen, Ando's teammates excelled themselves, with Shizuka Arakawa lifting the prestigious gold medal and unfancied Fumie Suguri just pipped for a podium spot in finishing fourth.

Federation officials say they still have faith in Ando.

"Funding decisions the Japan Skating Federation made were decided purely on the results achieved," a federation spokesman says. "Ando was the sixth best athlete, but special funding is only awarded to the top five."

Some have suggested the funding slur may prompt Ando to hang up her skates for good. But the endorsements and other commercials opportunities that may have made retirement an attractive -- and lucrative -- option not too long ago, also appear to have fallen the way of Mikitty's form -- downward.

On April 10, Ando had been due to release "Torino 2006 Miki Ando's Challenge," a DVD that followed the young skater's every step from her training through to competition in the Olympics. But release of the DVD was cancelled at the last moment.

"Even the TV broadcasting committee on the International Olympic Committee had given its permission to release the DVD. The DVD was supposed to be all about Miki Ando trying to do a quadruple Salchow in the Olympics, but when she couldn't make the jump and then had her status downgraded, the whole project suddenly went up in smoke," the sports reporter tells the men's weekly. "Some people are saying, though, that the real reason for canceling the DVD's release was because her popularity has slumped so low that nobody would buy it."