Searching for funds to continue my skating career when I was 17, I called the Women's Sports Foundation in New York. The intern who answered the phone suggested that I might be a great candidate for the Travel and Training fund, and she sent me an application form. I applied for a grant. With the funds I was awarded, I bought a new pair of skates and a plane ticket to the 1988 National Championships, where I achieved my highest national finish. Four years later, I won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games.

Training for the Olympics was a lifelong endeavor and took many years.

I feel like I missed out on the regular high school social life, but that's the way I chose to be.

One of my mottos not only just in skating but in life in general and I try to enforce it as well, is like no regrets and just like going for it.

Skating was something I really wanted to do; my parents knew nothing about it. They said they'd support me as long as I was trying my hardest and enjoying it.

Once you have a child, your heart is forever outside your body. I totally understand that now.

Figure skaters have awful perceptions of hockey players.