U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : Success Is Family Tradition : Festival Housing Snafu Doesn’t Put Out the Fire of Competition for Skater

Jessica Mills competed in the Festival figure skating competition last weekend at the Forum, finished seventh, then returned to the dormitory at Loyola Marymount University where the figure skaters were being housed.

She had a week to wait before she would begin competition in speedskating, the other event she is entered in. So she assumed that she would stay at Loyola until the other speedskaters arrived in Los Angeles.

But you know what they say about assuming.

Monday morning, Mills was told she had to check out of her room by 11 a.m. and that she couldn’t check into the USC dorm until Wednesday, when the other speedskaters were scheduled to arrive.

Mills’ coach, former figure skating Olympian Gordie McKellen, was still with Mills when she was told she had to move. He also had to move. But he had a flight to catch.

McKellen soon realized that Mills--the only athlete at the Festival to participate in two sports--was a victim of bureaucracy. The figure skating officials were leaving and the speedskating officials hadn’t arrived yet.

Mills, 17, and about to be alone in Los Angeles, had fallen through the cracks.

“Someone dropped the ball,” said Susan Mills, Jessica’s mother, from her home in Northfield, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.

“Gordie had to leave and there was no one to turn her over to. I couldn’t fly out there because of my commitments. So I was upset, but not as upset as I would have been had Jessie been in a city where I didn’t know anyone.

Susan Mills arranged for Jessica to stay with some friends of the family. But Jessica was no happy camper.

“She called me Monday night several times, and I could just tell by the tone in her voice that she was real upset,” said Chris LeBeau, who coaches Mills along with McKellen.

“It had nothing to do with the people she was staying with. They were fine. It’s just I could just tell that she felt bad about the way it all happened.”

LeBeau flew to Los Angeles Tuesday, picked up Mills and checked into a hotel in Torrance. However, when the speedskaters arrived on Wednesday, LeBeau told the coaches that Mills would remain with her until Friday.

“We rented a convertible, drove all over L.A., went down to the beach and got manicures and massages, did girl stuff. We had a ball,” LeBeau said.

None of the officials--Olympic Festival, U.S. Olympic Committee, Figure Skating and Speedskating--knew that Mills had even had a problem with housing. Had they known, they all said, she would have been taken care of.

“This is the first I have heard of it,” said Jan Palchikoff, vice president of operations for the Festival. “There’s no way we would not have responded to that problem. I was an athlete myself. I know how that would feel.”

Kristin Matta, public relations manager for the U.S. Figure Skating Federation, echoed Palchikoff’s statements. Matta had been in Los Angeles and hadn’t heard there was a problem. It is not clear whom McKellen talked to about the situation. He could not be reached for comment.

But McKellen and LeBeau are very protective of Mills. And McKellen did not have a speedskating coach to turn Mills over to, a factor that figured into McKellen leaving Mills with friends of the family.

Actually, Mills doesn’t have a speedskating coach at all. She doesn’t train in speedskating, so she says she doesn’t really need a coach.

All she needed was a place to stay.

Mills’ parents, Susan and Chris, brought their children up to believe that no matter what she set out to do, “you need to take it on all the way, let yourself go and follow through with it,” Mills said Friday at the Iceland Skating Center in Paramount, where speedskating competition begins tonight.

Mills’ sister, Phoebe, won a bronze medal in gymnastics at the 1988 Olympics. Phoebe has since retired from gymnastics, and is now a diver. She will compete for the University of Miami beginning in the fall.

Nathaniel Mills, 21, is the current speedskating national champion and won a silver medal in the 500-meter race at the World Championships. He attends Northwestern University.

Hilary Mills, 20, is on the senior national speedskating team and attends Marquette University.

Lucas Mills, 12, is the 1991 national speedskating champion in the midget (ages 11-12) division. And Whitaker Mills, 10, is beginning his ascent in the sport.

So what do they do with all the trophies?

“They are in boxes in the garage,” said Susan Mills, who says she and husband Chris are athletic, but not athletes. “We don’t do trophies. We believe in the experience, the learning process of what they are doing. It’s in the getting, not what you get.”

For Mills, figure skating is her first love, followed by speedskating. In 1990, when she failed to make the senior national figure skating team, she competed in the junior speedskating championships and won the short track title.

“I stopped training in speedskating about three years ago, but still compete at it,” Mills said. “It’s not a matter of choosing one sport over the other. Since the time I was 7, I wanted to be an Olympic figure skater, so that is still my main goal.”

At 9, Mills left her family in Chicago and moved to Boston to begin figure skating training with Evy Scotvold. She said she adjusted quickly to being away from home. She and her parents would talk on the phone daily, and she would write her sisters often.

“We have strong roots in our family and lots of love, so the children have a strong base to branch out of,” Susan Mills said.

Mills wasn’t the only one away from home. Phoebe lived in Houston and trained with Bela Karolyi when she was a gymnast. Now she is in Florida to train in diving. And it seems as though there is always a Mills competing somewhere.

“We talk on the phone all the time and write each other letters. Send postcards from Europe,” Mills said.

Mills’ initial move to Boston was only the beginning of seven years away from home. Mills trained with Scotvold for about three years before moving to Harbor City to be coached by Barbara Roles. Under Roles, Mills had her most success, winning the 1989 world junior figure skating championship. Shortly after, though, Mills changed coaches again and moved to Muncie, N.Y., to train with Peter Burrows.

Then at the beginning of this year, after Mills finished 13th at the national figure skating championships, she decided to make a move that would bring her home.

“She was ready to come home,” said LeBeau, who, along with McKellan, coaches Mills in Chicago. “It’s been a good move for her. She improved a lot, but the biggest change has been in her attitude and self confidence. She is really doing well.”

Mills agrees. She says moving home is making a difference for her on the ice. “I’m comfortable at home and I have the support and love of my brothers. It’s has kept me happy,” she said.

Mills, ranked 13th nationally in figure skating, has a mountain to climb to make it to the Olympics, though some believe that she could easily get there in speedskating.

LeBeau says that they are not looking to the 1992 Olympics for Mills. Instead, the 1994 Winter Olympics is their goal.

“She is a natural in speedskating--she does it for fun--but figure skating is where her heart is,” LeBeau said.