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ASSAGO, Italy (AP) — After a 16-year break, Deanna Stellato is eager to make up for lost time.
The American figure skater is back in the rink and was competing at the world championships on Wednesday, more than a decade-and-a-half after retiring following a series of injuries.
At 34 and now competing in pairs, Stellato is much older than most of her rivals but she feels her age can give her an advantage.
"It puts things in perspective a little bit when you're older," she said. "I do say when you're older you get a little bit more nervous, because my coach can't fool me, he can't be like 'oh just have a great time out there.'
"I want to have a good time but I want to do my stuff too, I want to do my job, so I think I take things a little bit more seriously being an adult but I also think that's why I've learnt this so quickly."
As a single skater, Stellato won a gold medal at the 1999 Junior Grand Prix Final and silver at the 2000 world junior championships before retiring two years later after a hip flexor injury — her fourth injury in as many years.
Stellato, who was born in Park Ridge, Ill., went back to school and established a career in Chicago as the director of aesthetics for a cosmetic surgery center, doing "botox and lip filler and all that fun stuff" before realizing what she was missing during a work retreat in January 2016.
"They went round the table and they asked everyone what they would do if they knew they couldn't fail," Stellato said. "I was like I would like to win an Olympic gold medal and I couldn't believe that that just shot out my mouth because I wasn't thinking and it just came right out."
When Stellato got back from the retreat, she went to her mother's house to get her old skates which were in the basement.
"She thought I was nuts but she got them anyway," said Stellato with a laugh.
Stellato went to a few public sessions, skating for the first time since leaving the sport, and realized she could still do doubles.
She practiced before work and, having landed a triple toe loop on her first attempt, flew down to Florida where her old coach Cindy Watson-Caprel had relocated.
Current coach Jim Peterson was there, along with U.S. Figure Skating director Mitch Moyer and 2014 Olympian Nathan Bartholomay, who was looking for a new partner after splitting with Gretchen Donlan.
"We had a tryout and the rest was history," Stellato added. "So it was all very kind of serendipitous how it all happened."
Bartholomay, of Newtown, Pa., is now 28 and used to having younger partners, but he also believes that Stellato's age is beneficial.
"She's a woman," he said when asked about the main difference between Stellato and his previous partners. "I've had a lot of partners and they've all been great, I've learnt a lot through the years, I've been skating pairs for almost 17 years now.
"The biggest difference is that Deanna is an adult, we communicate, we talk, there's not really crying, not really complaining, not at each other. If there's a problem we talk about it. We know what we have to do, we don't have to be pushed."
Stellato and Bartholomay failed to make it past the short program segment of the pairs, finishing 17th — so just outside the qualifying places — with a score of 61.48.
But they have their sights set on bigger goals.
Stellato doesn't know how long her second act in skating will last but she wants to continue until at least the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China — when she will be 38.
"I've had a 16-year vacation, I can go another four," she said with a smile.
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