For figure skater Rachael Flatt, multitasking's a way of life
OLYMPIC SPORTS
The 16-year-old star-in-the-making is juggling training, competition and high school, and excelling in every area.
Reported from Colorado Springs, Colo. — Rachael Flatt is a young woman in a hurry.
Flatt finishes her second on-ice training session of the day at the Ice Hall of the Colorado Springs World Arena -- half her usual number of sessions because she had to take a standardized statewide achievement test at school.
In less than five minutes, she takes off her skates, pulls on a sweater and drags a suitcase, briefcase, oversize quilted bag and a purse outside the building, where she waits for her mother to drive her to a two-hour physical training session at the Olympic Training Center.
Flatt often uses that 15-minute drive and even shorter trips to do homework or stretch in the back seat of the family car. There is not a minute to waste for a 16-year-old as determined to excel in school and skating as she is.
"Rachael loves a challenge," said her mother, Jody.
She has met it impressively in both areas.
In her junior year at Cheyenne Mountain High School, where she is a straight-A student, Flatt is taking AP-level courses in English, chemistry and biology and has her heart set on going to Stanford someday.
Flatt begins her first full year as a senior-level skater Saturday at Skate America in Everett, Wash., opening event in the annual Grand Prix series. It will be her international senior debut after a 2008 season in which she was not only junior world champion but the surprise runner-up in the senior event at the U.S. Championships.
No wonder Flatt has found it necessary to shelve her piano studies, even if she says time management is among her strengths.
"I played piano a lot this summer, but I don't have too much time anymore," she said, with a wry laugh.
Her day begins at 5 a.m., followed at 6:30 by the first of four 45-minute skating sessions. Flatt then goes to school for five hours, returning to the rink for ballet or stretch class at 12:50 and the next three on-ice sessions with coach Tom Zakrajsek at 1:15, 3:05 and 4. Two days a week, she goes on to the Olympic Training Center.
Somehow, she manages to get her homework done and be in bed by 9:30 p.m.
"I'm really good at AP chemistry and biology," she said. "It's in the genes."
Her father, Jim, is a biochemical engineer working on bio fuels and her mother is a molecular biologist.
Flatt, an only child, lived in Del Mar until she was eight, when the family moved to Colorado for her father's job with a biotech company. He now commutes weekly from Colorado Springs to his current job on the East Coast.
