Skating for Glory

continued

Such good feeling is not the norm--in fact, Bates and White shocked the person organizing housing at Vancouver's Olympic Village by asking to room together. "He said never in all his years had he ever put people to room together in the same discipline," says Evan's mom, Nancy Bates.

After their winning performance in Spokane, White and Davis have a good shot at a medal in Vancouver. Expectations for Samuelson and Bates are more modest: Bates says they hope to make it into the top ten--then practice to perfection for four more years and go for gold in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.

Meanwhile, they're enjoying the Olympic-year attention. After years when no one noticed them practicing at the Cube, visitors are starting to show up to watch them. That's fine with the modest but ambitious couple. "Practicing every day can be a bit mundane," says Bates. "To have fans watching you makes it more interesting."   

[Originally published in February, 2010.]