LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- She stands at center ice, bathed in a spotlight and showered in the applause of a standing crowd of several hundred. It's only an exhibition in July, but Kimmie Meissner has skated a clean and graceful performance after nearly a week layoff, and the audience is grateful.
Suddenly, Meissner drops her hands and skates to the announcer's table at the side of the rink.
"Uh oh," says her father, Paul, as if he's seen the next page of a horror story. "Uh oh."
The announcer tells the crowd that Meissner wants to try a triple axel, the jump that vaulted her to national prominence and a bronze medal at the 2005 U.S. Championships, but has vexed her since.
Without music, Meissner skates to one end of the ice and, as she has done in countless practices, glides to an invisible spot and leaps high in the air. She lands on her backside, but the crowd applauds her moxie.
Hours later, after an autograph and picture-taking session, Meissner is asked why she tried the jump after a climactic standing ovation.
"It's what they came to see," she says, dipping into a cup of Ben and Jerry's ice cream with sprinkles. "I felt good. I'm a performer. Why not?"
The reigning world champion begins her second season on the senior international circuit this week. Meissner's summer was filled with opportunities not usually available to teenagers. She began a campaign to help children with cancer, raced around a NASCAR track, made an attention-grabbing walk down Tinseltown's red carpet and taped a TV commercial to promote a sandwich shop chain.
The 17-year-old has learned to sign her name on just about every imaginable surface and listened to many odd requests.
"This is her year to try things," says her mother, Judy. She's talking about skating, but it could just as easily be about growing up.
Meissner is no longer an unknown. A sixth-place finish at the Olympics in only her third senior event and winning the world title in March makes her the U.S. figure skater to beat.
Meissner's schedule includes Grand Prix events in Hartford, Conn., this week and Paris next month and the U.S. Championships in January.
Her goal, says coach Pam Gregory, is the national title.
Last season ended just as Meissner's tank was running dry. She had a bad cold at nationals, where she won the silver medal, and flu-like symptoms near the end of the Olympic competition. On the flight back home, she ruptured an eardrum, which threw her balance out of whack.
