| | CLEVELAND -- The last time Peggy Fleming came to Cleveland for a U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the trip changed her life.
Not bad for someone hoping only to finish in the top six.
|  | | Peggy Fleming won five consecutive national titles. |
Fleming, then 15, won the first of her five U.S. titles in 1964, the only other time nationals were held in Cleveland. Four years later, she secured her fame with a gold medal at the Grenoble Olympics.
"It's nice to be back, to get to the roots of where my career started," Fleming, now a television analyst, said Tuesday. "I had no idea it was going to go on this long and change my life so much."
Fleming qualified for the 1964 nationals after winning a bronze medal at juniors the previous year. She and her mother flew from California while her father drove to the competition.
"We couldn't afford all of the airplane tickets. And we stayed in a motel, we didn't stay in a hotel," she said. "It was a real simple beginning."
Without any experience at the senior level, Fleming went to nationals seeking a place in the top six. But she finished third in the school figures, then worth 60 percent of the final, and then won the free skate to win the national title.
Tina Noyes finished second and Christine Haigler was third.
"It was shock. It was such a surprise," Fleming said, smiling at the memory. "It didn't even cross my mind that (winning) could possibly happen. Not a clue.
"It was fun," she added. "I just took it in stride and had fun with it."
But not all of Fleming's memories of Cleveland are happy. Her father, who had once worked for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, died while visiting friends in the city after Fleming won her first world title in 1966.
"I was 17," she said with a sad smile. "So there's a lot of mixed memories for me."
The building where she won her first national crown, Cleveland Arena, no longer exists. It was torn down years ago, so there's no great flood of memories and emotions each time she walks into Gund Arena.
"I wish it was still here," she said. "That would be nice. That would bring back more memories."
$100,000 MAN: Shepherd Clark has a gem of a costume. Literally. He has nearly 800 carats of Herkimer diamonds worth roughly $100,000 sewn into the costume he plans to wear for his free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Clark, who also designs jewelry, has always wanted to skate in a costume with real stones, especially because no one's ever done it before.
He also wanted to promote the Herkimer, a rare diamond that can only be found in central New York state.
"It's like a dream come true to have the opportunity to do something kind of unique and unusual in the skating world with a gem that is from America and is a magnificent product of this country," Clark said.
While 800 carats might sound like a lot, he said the costume really isn't heavy. The stones, which are clear, are actually lighter than the Swarovski crystals most skaters have on their costumes, he said.
And no, Clark said there's no danger of thousands of dollars of rare, precious gems spilling across the ice at the Gund Arena.
"When you have precious metal bindings for real stones, they're not going to come out," he said, laughing. "Believe me, we've made sure."
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Tim Goebel hasn't gone so far as to ask someone for directions yet, but he's making like an out-of-towner this week.
That sounds strange, because he lives and trains in Cleveland. But Goebel, a favorite to win the men's title, is treating this year's U.S. Figure Skating Championships like any other competition.
He's doing all he can to avoid the distractions of being the event's most wanted skater. He's staying at the same downtown hotel as the other competitors, curbing his press availability and limiting his practice time at his home rink as he tries to stick to his normal routine for competitions.
"It's wonderful to be here because the support is fabulous, the press and the people," said his coach, Carol Heiss Jenkins. "And that makes you feel so good. But on the other hand, you want to do well and there are very, very high expectations, so it's tough."
Heiss Jenkins, who won four world titles and an Olympic gold medal, knows the importance of Goebel remaining focused as the week progresses.
"We're treating it as a competition," said Heiss Jenkins, who also left the comfort of home to stay downtown. "You hardly feel like you're at a competition when you're at your own rink."
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