Even now I can’t describe why I love skating so much.

I think it’s a lot harder for the pros to have a long career in ice dance and in pairs. It seems the singles have a little bit of a longer career.

But it seems that the judging maybe they shouldn’t at least see the practices all week long. That can taint the way they go into the judging and the outlook of what’s going to happen, instead of just watching those four minutes and judging on those minutes alone.

Falling down became second nature and it really didn’t bother me.

But after a few minutes of convincing myself that I really wanted to go – telling myself that I love skating and that my coach is there waiting for me – I would get up and go. And my mother would always get up and eat breakfast with me!

My life has been a whirlwind since the ’94 Olympics.

I was thrilled one year when I was younger when not only did my brothers get hockey sticks for Christmas – but I did too!

People would ask me why I was doing what I was doing – but I always told them that I just loved to skate. There was no other explanation.

It wasn’t always easy getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning to go to the rink. Sometimes I wanted to just go back to sleep.

Even now, my husband Jerry, our son Matthew and I live only five minutes away from my parents home, and my brothers live about ten minutes away. It’s been great having such a supportive family.