Michelle Kwan

If you represent your country and millions of people are watching, it comes through a lot of grit and hard work.

I would just love to be able to give back to figure skating.

I want to see how far I can train. I have to see how far my body will go.

As an athlete, I've always been very proud to represent the United States.

Girls, in particular, benefit from sports.

Looking back, I feel very fortunate to have had such a long career. Many skaters end their careers in their early 20s. I had the opportunity to go to two Olympic Games - almost three after being the alternate in 1994 and then in 2006 being injured.

If you ask another competitor, they may tell you they felt very competitive towards me. But I can tell you that my biggest competition was myself. There's only so much you can do, right? There is only so much energy that one has. My focus was on how do I get the best out of myself.

The Women's Sports Foundation has empowered so many young girls and women across the U.S. I benefitted from WSF with a travel and training grant when I was 12 years old. It really helped my family financially.

I have stood on the shoulders of giants like Billie Jean King, Hillary Clinton, my mother - people who have really empowered and influenced my life in an incredible way.

Sports provides that tool kit to be successful in life. Because it's not always going to be smooth sailing.

Maybe I didn't get new skates, but I got used skates. I made it to the national championships in used skates that were custom-made for another girl. I still have those skates. Underneath the arch, there was a name crossed out and my dad had 'Michelle Kwan' written in. Granted, they were a little big, but it worked.

As a kid, falling was embarrassing. As I got older, I got used to falling and picking myself back up. There's not a sense of failure. It's of disappointment. You train so hard to not make mistakes. When you do, you're learning from that. How do I improve? How do I get better for the next time? Through every failure, there's something to be learned.

When I was younger, I always dreamed of being a legend, to be remembered in figure skating.

To be the best, you need to be the most well-trained and well-prepared athlete you can be. The pressure is going to be all around you. You just have to make sure that your body and mind is fine-tuned. Then you go out there and do it.

When I look at my own career, growing up, I was doing really well at age 11, but it was kind of isolating because back then, people weren't hanging out with me. My mom was always there. She had my back and was like, 'You keep focused. You gotta keep focused.' And I think those kinds of lessons were hard.

There were days I forgot my school clothes, and I would actually go to school with skating tights and a little skirt. It's very embarrassing... I definitely had to be comfortable in my own skin, and my mom taught me that.

I would encourage people to participate in sports. You don't have to dream of being an Olympic or a professional athlete.

As an athlete, that's something I always take with me. You fall every day, whether it's in a job, or you miss something else, but you learn how to do it better next time. You learn it in sports. That's a life lesson.

Even at a young age, when you start to do well, it's tough because it's lonely on top, and I wasn't the most popular.

I was improving in the sport at age 10, 11, when I was getting my triple jumps - and it was suddenly very isolating. I was doing really well in competitions, and it felt strange because people that were my friends became almost jealous.

I look back at 1993 or 1994 when I made it to the National Championships, and I was on used skates and handmade or borrowed costumes. But my mom was there every step of the way for me: she was the one traveling with me all over the world at age 13.

The Olympic Games is one of those moments that you remember forever, from the moment that you step foot in the country that you're competing in to the Closing Ceremony.

I'm very goal-oriented. I do see myself doing something in public service.

I don't really remember a time younger than 5 years old that I didn't have skates on because all I can remember is every day, tying up my skates and a big smile on my face, excited to go on the ice.

A few years after I finished skating, someone asked where my medals were. I'm like, 'In a suitcase somewhere.' Now they're nicely displayed in an ice rink, but medals don't really mean that much. It's the experience, the story of the skating, the love.