Meissner Makes Her Move

To ease the transition when she first moved, her mother joined her for a while, but Meissner is now on her own.

"I go through withdrawal symptoms all the time," she said. "But it's worth it."

She has found company in her occasional misery: One of the young women she trains with is also living alone, having tagged along with Callaghan from his old training home near Detroit. Meissner has taken an annual lease on a two-bedroom apartment, put off her schooling for at least the next semester, worked on her tan and, for now, accepted the fact she is on a two-year training plan.

From her vantage point, she has grown up significantly. Who would question that given the music -- the piano music -- she selected for this season's short program: "Un Ange Passe" by Alain Lefevre?

"It was really intimidating when I first came down here," Meissner said. "[But now] I feel like I'm a different person. I've gone through some stuff that wasn't too good. I feel like I've changed a lot . . . A lot of times from really bad experiences you can learn a lot."

Callaghan -- still "Mr. Callaghan" to Meissner -- has learned, too.

During his 36-year coaching career, he has tutored some of the world's top skaters. Besides Eldredge, he guided Tara Lipinski to the 1998 Olympic gold medal. He also trained Nicole Bobek, Shizuka Arakawa and Jennifer Kirk.

When Eldredge told him that Meissner was looking for a new coach, he found himself intrigued and daunted. He had just decided to escape Michigan's cold winters for Florida. As moving trucks carted away his furniture just weeks before the world championships, Meissner's mother called. A deal was quickly in place.

"It was scary," Callaghan said. "[I was] going to worlds with a world champion who is having problems, and I don't know her."

Noted for his demanding ways, Callaghan said he approached Meissner with uncustomary patience and delicacy, determined to ensure that she rediscover her love for the sport. Both were buoyed when she managed a respectable seventh place at the worlds in Gothenburg, Sweden. Still, sensing the depth of Meissner's wounds from the previous season, Callaghan waited months to levy even mild criticisms, a precaution he hadn't considered necessary with his other stars.

"They all bring talent to the table, but their heads are all so different," Callaghan said. "I've never experienced someone that good with that lack of confidence. That's why I've been careful."

Even so, there has been plenty of technical massaging. Callaghan has worked with Meissner on the entrance to her triple flip to ensure she isn't penalized by the sport's judges for going off the wrong edge of her skate (a problem last season). Eldredge, meantime, has made it his mission to speed up her skating, convinced that faster footwork offers two benefits: It is more appealing to judges while also bringing more power to the jumps that follow, ensuring a greater success rate.