Melissa Wagner, who joined Ashley in a mother-daughter skating class, said it quickly became clear that Ashley had a talent for the sport. By their second lesson, Ashley, who wore a helmet to protect her head from falls, was skating fearlessly and easily outperforming her mother.
One day a coach approached the family, and Ashley's lessons became a bit more intense. Melissa Wagner still remembers the three-hour drive through a mountain pass to their first competition. "I think she got hooked by winning a gold medal," Wagner said.
Ashley Wagner, 13, is among the nation's most promising young skaters.
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But Ashley said it was the 1998 Winter Olympics that made her dream of becoming a skating star. She sat transfixed as a 15-year-old American, Tara Lipinski, took the gold.
Over the years, Ashley moved up the competitive ranks and is now a novice ladies skater, two steps below the senior ladies level, which includes the most elite skaters such as Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen. Ashley still skates for the Anchorage Figure Skating Club, competing against skaters from the West.
Because of Eric Wagner's military career, the family has lived in Alaska, Washington state, Oregon and Kansas. When they arrived in Northern Virginia in December 2001, Ashley's skating was taking off and Melissa Wagner decided to try home schooling.
"Everyone told us [that] to be a champion skater, you have to home-school and be at the rink all day," Melissa Wagner said. "But Ashley didn't like it, and I didn't like it. We felt like we were all living for Ashley's skating, and we were. So we all went back to our busy schedules."
They finished out the year home schooling, but the following September Ashley was off to Whitman Middle School. Counselor Candace Anderson said Melissa Wagner visited teachers at the start of the year to let them know Ashley would miss some school because of skating and promised that her daughter would keep up with her assignments.
But Anderson said people at the school didn't know the extent of Ashley's talent until a letter arrived at the school in November from U.S. Figure Skating President Charles U. Foster informing the school that Ashley had recently been awarded a gold medal at the Northwest Pacific Regional Figure Skating Championships in Seattle.
"These annual championships are the first steps toward the ultimate goal -- the OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES," Foster wrote.
Since then, some teachers have visited the RECenter to see Ashley skate. "She was so great. I still get goose bumps," said Beverly Wong, Ashley's English teacher.
Anderson said Ashley's teachers are impressed that she keeps up such a grueling training schedule and still gets her homework done. Ashley said it's not optional, and besides, she enjoys her studies.
"There's a little voice in your head that says you have to do it," she said. "My parents told me skating is a privilege, not a right, and school always comes first."
Although Ashley will be too young to compete at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy, her coach, Shirley Hughes, said her student is on a track that could put her in the running for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
"A lot has to do with growth, but she's one of the most determined kids I've ever seen," said Hughes, who also coaches Fort Washington skater Derrick Delmore, who finished seventh in the senior men's division at Portland. "Ashley has a lot of talent."
Last week, Ashley was in Portland with other young skaters participating in Team 2010, an event at which future Olympic hopefuls attend seminars on nutrition and learn tips on conquering their nerves and working with the media.
Eric Wagner said the family hopes Ashley makes it to the 2010 Olympics, if she still wants to when the time comes. But he says the real value in skating isn't about gold medals and flowers.
"Competitions and skating, that will pass some day," Eric Wagner said. "It's the long-term benefits, the confidence, the happiness. You can't put a price on that."
