The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

I really loved what the guys were doing more than anything, how high they jumped, how effortless it was.

The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.

It's a level of strength and character that few of us can imagine; a grace under pressure that few of us will ever attain. It's why an Olympic gold medal would not have made us love or admire her more.

I think skating helped me find myself.

Skating was the vessel into which I could pour my heart and soul

When the going got tough, I really had to draw on many of the same competitive instincts I did when I was skating. I really had to put my head down and stay positive. I had to fight.