School isn't a Backup Plan. It is a Life Plan. Olympic Figure Skaters

The ice dancing competition is now over at the 2010 Winter Olympics and the Canadians (Virtue and Moir) received a gold medal with the US (Davis and White), the silver, and the Russians (Dominina and Shabalin), the bronze. The renowned and magnificent ice dancers, Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, placed fourth but are still Olympians.

Tonight the short program of the women's figure skating competition takes place in Vancouver. The media coverage has been fascinating in print, TV, and online.

To achieve greatness in sport (and in anything, frankly) hard work, discipline, focus, and dedication are number 1 (but some talent and luck help as well). In figure skating, it is not uncommon for skaters to be homeschooled so that they focus entirely on their chosen sport. Sometimes, however, this approach can lead to burnout, and to injuries, although the training that is needed to excel in this difficult sport is immense.

Balance (not a pun) is important and Rachel Flatts, the 17 year old figure skater from Colorado Springs, who will be competing for the US tonight in Vancouver, is the picture of efficiency, on ice and off it, according to a great article in The New York Times. What is especially impressive is her dedication to her schoolwork at Cheyenne Mountain High School, which she attends and takes 4 AP courses at, while maintaining an A average. We have relatives in Colorado Springs and have seen the school and my daughter has even skated at the Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs, where Rachel trains.

Rachel's parents are accomplished. Her mother is a retired scientist and her father is a president of a biofuels company.

Rachel's mother, Jody Flatts, is quoted in the Times article as saying, Other families have their girls home-schooled or taking classes on the Internet, but we never put Rachael’s education on the back burner for skating. School isn’t a backup plan. It’s a life plan. What a wonderful quote!

Best of luck to Rachel Flatts and the other female skaters tonight and on Thursday night in the long program!

Busses from Massachusetts Off to the Vancouver Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, begin in less than 3 weeks. The above mittens my daughter received recently from our friends in Vancouver, the Wassermans, whom we met in Stockholm, Sweden, when we lived at the Wenner Gren Centre, a housing complex for 150 families from across the globe, who are engaged in research. Dr. Wasserman was conducting research at the Karolinska Institute, the renowned medical research facility, whereas my husband and I were based at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The Wassermans also visited us when we lived in Innsbruck, Austria, when I was on my first Fulbright.

Although we won't (regrettably) be traveling to the Olympics (either as spectators or athletes) there is a local story to this international athletic competition.

Amazingly, there are busses that will be used for transporting the athletes at the Olympic games that are from our area in Massachusetts. The Greenfield Recorder is reporting that the Kuzmeskus Bus company of Gill, Massachusetts, will be providing 6 bus drivers and 3 busses to shuttle the Olympians! The company is owned by the Kuzmeskus family. Their grandson, Trevor, was a classmate of my daughter's at the Bement School and I recall how the first school birthday party that she attended was at the bus garage for Trevor's 6th birthday.

Appropriately, Trevor is a hockey player and my daughter is a figure skater (when she is not engaged in other sports and pursuits).

There is, however, not only a transportation connection between our area and the Olympics. Jon Quick, a former star hockey goalie at UMass Amherst, has been selected to the US Olympic hockey team.

With the US figure skating national competition now completed in Spokane, Washington, the various US Olympic skating teams (men's, women's, pairs, and dance) have also now been identified.

We wish all the athletes, as well as their coaches, family members, friends, and the organizers of these Olympics exquisite competition and experiences!