Figure skater Ashley Wagner has all the moves--and more

Reporting from Chicago

As a figure skater, Ashley Wagner has to be skilled at what's called moves in the field, manuvers like turns and fine points like edge control.

But Wagner, daughter of a retired Army lieutenant colonel, is good at other moves, too--the ones involving packing up and changing addresses.

Wagner, who finished fourth at this year's U.S. championships and is a contender for one of the two Vancouver Olympic berths, was born at a U.S. military base in Germany and moved nine times in 10 years while her father was in active service.

"I was all over the place," she said today at the U.S. Olympic Committee media summit. "Every time I had to go to a new school so I was always the new kid. But I got used to it.

"I was skating throughout. That was the one thing that was always familiar for me. You're in a new palce and you have to make new friends, so for a while there you really don't have much to go on. Skating was very consistent. It kept me grounded. It was nice to have."

She learned to skate while living in Alaska and lived the longest in Virginia, but she said her favorite place was Washington. "Just because it's so beautiful out there," she said. "I love it out there."

latimesblogs.latimes.com by Helene Elliott