NEWARK, Del. - Olympians spend their entire lives training and a lot of them don't quit once they make it to the top. Some, like Scott Gregory, keep working to take the Olympic stage four years later.
"You come to the rink and you're training for hours on hours and then you're doing off ice training, whether it be the conditioning, whether it be weights, whether it be working in front of the mirror," Gregory says.
Gregory competed at the Winter Olympics in Ice Dance with Elisa Spitz in 1984 and Suzanne Semanick in 1988. He says it was eye opening to come face to face with competitors from all over the world, but there were also a lot of athletes from home.
"The 1984 team we had from Delaware, you had two pairs teams and two dance teams, so that's a lot of skaters coming from one place," Gregory says.
He remembers the skating hub from Delaware marching in the opening ceremonies.
"The United States is usually at the far end of the parade so you're anticipating what's going to happen," Gregory says. "You hear all of these countries being named and you're walking in, you're slowly walking towards the tunnel and as soon as the United States comes out of the tunnel, you hear this huge roar."
You can still find Gregory coaching at the University of Delaware Ice Arenas today. He's helped coach other Olympians too, like Tara Lipinski and Kimmie Meissner of the United States and Patrick Chan of Canada.Â
"I'm capable of tapering off and not spending every single hour from 6 in the morning until 6 at night," Gregory says. "When I first turned pro, being an Olympian, everyone sort of wants to work with you."
The 2022 Olympic figure skating events run through Saturday with the women's free skate and pairs events still to take the ice.