The first time most of Kimmie Meissner's classmates saw her in a dress, it was during her televised performance at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
Meissner, 17, keeps a low profile at her Fallston, Md., high school. She wears jeans to class nearly every day because they fit over her ice skating pants. She quietly does her schoolwork and grabs lunch from Subway before her mom picks her up for skating practice. Five days a week, they cross the state line to Delaware and Meissner's other life as reigning U.S. and world figure skating champion. It's like how Peter Parker turns into Spider-Man.
This weekend, Meissner joins Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen as a guest star in Smucker's Stars on Ice. After the performance, she'll resume her life as the high school senior who eats a 6-inch turkey sub on wheat every day - and recently filmed a commercial with Subway spokesman Jared Fogle. Next year, she will study sports science next year at the University of Delaware, where she already trains with a coach. And though she describes herself as shy, her fame hit the fan when she returned from the Olympics and tried to attend the junior prom like a normal teenager.
She recently chatted with tbt*.
Take me through a typical day in your life.
I normally get up around 6, sometimes 6:30, and go to school. I have to get there early, before a lot of the kids, and do school in the morning. And then we drive up to Delaware, which is about an hour away. ... I do about three sessions - three or four sessions - on the ice, so probably three hours on the ice. And then I have two hours of workout, and then I do homework in the car and then when I get home. And then I start it all over. (laughs)
How often do you eat Subway?
I go there pretty much every day for lunch. It's actually funny, 'cause I ended up getting the local Subway commercial by the guy that I go to his Subway every day. His name is Jeff Kappus, and one day after he got to know me a little bit more from going in, he was like, "If you ever make the Olympics, Kimmie, we're gonna have to do a commercial with you."
Are the guys at school intimidated by you?
I don't know if they're intimidated. (My date for the junior prom) was actually a senior. ... So I asked him before I went to the Olympics, and then afterwards everyone kept asking me, "Who is he? What is he?" and stuff. And I wouldn't say anything. I think he got a little intimidated or something. ... They had some high security (at the prom). The police were in there and everything, and I think he felt uncomfortable. I was surprised. I walked in and I was like, "Oh man."
What happens when you walk into school after winning some medals over the weekend? Do people make a big deal about it, or not really?
A lot of them know now what happened over the past weekend. They'll congratulate me. But before the Olympics, they really didn't know. Up until last year they didn't know, really, that I skated at this level. So then when I made the Olympics I think it surprised them all. They were like, " Oh, she really does go skating after school." (laughs)