Peggy Fleming - The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories

I was proud to be on the [1964 Winter Olympic] team, but I hated the Olympic uniforms. Even then, fashion was becoming an important part ofthe total package. How you looked said a lot about your style, and yourstyle was what made your skating different and special. Those tight skipants and geeky wool jackets with red and blue stripes on the collar werenot my style. Still, when all the American team walked into the arena with allthe thousands of other athletes, all of us in our uniforms and all of usmarching behind our flags—it was breathtaking: a hundred thousand peo-ple roaring and applauding, under the snow-capped Alps and the bluestblue sky in the world. Everybody should have a first Olympics—it movesyou, takes over your emotions and overwhelms you until you can hardlythink. And everyone should be fortunate enough to go on to have a secondOlympics, so that you have time to take it all in.

Source: Peggy Fleming, with Peter Kaminsky, The Long Program: Skating Toward Life's Victories, New York: Pocket Books, 1999, p. 40.