L E T T E R F R O M T H E E D I T O R


Always an Olympian, Meissner uses experience in life’s pursuits


Former World champion Kimmie Meiss-


ner is in Sochi, Russia, this month, working for NBC as a research analyst at the Olympics. It’s a job the Towson University student is excit- ed about as she approaches her senior year at the Baltimore-area institution. The 2006 Olympian and 2007 U.S. cham-


pion is an English major with a concentration on writing and will use this experience to help her decide on a career. She started at the Uni- versity of Delaware in Newark, majoring in ex- ercise science. Both professions remain on the table, she said. One thing she knows for certain, though,


is the experience that members of the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team have this month will re- main with them for the rest of their lives. Meissner earned her Olympic berth by


placing second at the 2006 U.S. Champion- ships in St. Louis. The then-teenager from Bel Air, Md., said she felt no pressure when she embarked on her trip to Torino, Italy, with all eyes focused instead on U.S. champion Sasha Cohen and Michelle Kwan. Kwan was nomi- nated to compete, but an injury right before the Games forced her to withdraw, opening the door for Emily Hughes, who had fi nished third in St. Louis. “Honestly, I didn’t have any expecta-


tions,” Meissner, 24, said. “I was going in feel- ing like the underdog. I just fi gured I’d go skate and wherever I ended up, I ended up. I got to cruise under the radar.” Meissner and her coaching team, as well


as her mother, Judy, arrived in Italy as the Olympics got under way. However, the ladies short program wasn’t set to begin for a couple of weeks, so she stayed and practiced in Cour- mayeur on the country’s border. “I wasn’t necessarily surrounded by all


the craziness of the village and everybody who was fi nishing up and partying,” she said. “When I came back to Torino, it was all busi- ness.”


The magnitude of the Games, though,


hit home when Meissner practiced for the fi rst time on the Olympic ice. “It was incredibly surreal,” she said. “It


blew my mind. Skating over the Olympic rings and seeing the logo, I just had to pinch myself. I was like, ‘I’m actually here, this is real, I’ve made it.’ I was so overwhelmed with pride in myself and being able to represent the U.S.” By the time Meissner took the ice for the


short program, her entire family had arrived, including her father, Paul; brothers, Nate, Adam and Luke; grandmother, Amelita; and cousin, Heidi. For the short program, Meissner skated


second overall which meant a three-plus hour wait for her to fi nd out where she stood head- ing into the free skate. When the scores were fi nally tabulated, Meissner had fi nished fi fth, which meant she would skate in the fi nal free skate group. That realization took her breath away.


4 FEBRUARY 2014 “I remember going out before my music


started playing and realizing, ‘OK, I’m actually at the Olympics, I’m about to go and do this program and everybody is watching,’ “ Meiss- ner said. While the short program was her best of


the season, her “Belkis, Queen of Sheba” free skate was a struggle. “My legs were literally shaking before


it started,” she said. “I started right off with a little mistake and I had two small bobbles in there, but for the rest of the program I had to fi ght the whole way through and didn’t have another mistake after that. I was really proud of myself for regaining my composure and not letting it get to me.” Meissner fi nished sixth overall, which


was a major accomplishment, especially con- sidering she was a high school junior and the youngest athlete at 16, on the U.S. Olympic Team. “When I saw my mom, she started crying


a little bit,” Meissner said. “They (her family) were probably a little bit more nervous for me than I was. I think they were just overwhelmed with the feeling of the competition being over and everything we had to go through to get there.”


Meissner, meanwhile, was happy with


her performance but thought she might have been able to be a little smoother on a couple of her landings. “My parents and brothers were able to


put that in perspective for me, because as an athlete you are always trying to be perfect,” Meissner said. A month after the Olympics, Meissner


capped the magical year by winning the 2006 World title. The Olympic experience, she said, has


changed her life forever. “I was talking about this to a fellow Bal-


timorian who is going to Sochi in luge,” Meiss- ner said. “It’s like once you make the team, you don’t really consider yourself and Olympian quite yet. You kind of go and have your expe- rience, and when you come home you realize that you are always going to be an Olympi- an and you are always representing the U.S. That’s kind of how I look at it. “I feel like it’s changed the way I think


about a lot of things. I realize that if I work hard I can get to a certain level, so I’ve applied it to a lot of diff erent things in my life. I also try to remember, ‘You are a role model to young- er people and you have to carry yourself that way.’ ”


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