Quote:

 

Emily told us that she was off the ice for a month and a half with the injury that forced her to withdraw from the 2009 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

"I sprained my ankle really badly less than a week before I was supposed to leave for nationals. I was getting cortisone shots, and it just didn't really help at all. I got back on the ice a little bit in March. I'm feeling a lot better; my ankle is pretty much healed. I do a lot of physical therapy.

"I've been skating at the Skating Club of Boston. I'm on the ice four or five days a week -- just getting back into it, doing show programs, getting ready for summer training when I get back from school. I'm excited to go home and start training with Bonnie."

The big question, of course, is whether Emily plans to continue competing, at the same time that she is a full-time student at Harvard.

"I definitely still want to compete, and that's what's driving me. There's nothing quite like the adrenaline of competing, and the emotion and excitement, and especially the crowd. Spokane is an amazing city. I loved the nationals I had there last time. I know I have to go through two qualifying competitions first, but you start from the bottom and go to the top!"

Emily is majoring (they call it 'concentrating' at Harvard) in Sociology and Government.

"And I'm actually taking a science class," she said excitedly. "It's called The Energetic Universe; it's kind of astronomy and physics. I opened the textbook, and I see a picture, and I'm like, 'Oh, it's a skater! That dress looks kind of familiar!' And yes, I'm in the textbook."

The professor asked Emily to help him with a spinning demonstration in the lecture hall in front of 200 students. He put her on a spinner and gave her weights and then picked up a helmet.

"I was like, 'I don't really need a helmet!'" she said, laughing. "It had a flashlight duct-taped on top, and he turned the lights down and had me spin so the light went around. It was pretty funny."