Ashley Wagner

Olympic figure skater Ashley Elisabeth Wagner was born May 16, 1991, on an American military base in Heidelberg, Germany, to U.S. Army Lt. Col. Eric Wagner and former schoolteacher Melissa James. The military brat's family moved nine times during her childhood, eventually settling in northern Virginia when she was 10. She was briefly home-schooled by her mother before returning to Whitman Middle School in Alexandria, Va., because she missed attending public school. She later attended West Potomac High School, also in Alexandria, before enrolling in online classes at Northern Virginia Community College and then attending Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., where she studied sports journalism. She began skating as a 5-year-old while living in Eagle River, Alaska, choosing the pastime over ballet because she "wasn't going to do anything in pink shoes." Wagner won a gold medal at her first competition and decided she wanted to compete in the Olympics one day, after watching Tara Lipinski's gold medal-winning performance at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Wagner trained in Kansas City and Tacoma, Wash., until her family moved to Portland, Ore., where she was taught by Dody Teachman. By 2002, she was being trained by Shirley Hughes back in Alexandria. She qualified for the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships in the 2002-03 season, finishing in 17th place at the intermediate level. She qualified for her first U.S. Figure Skating Championships in the 2004-05 season, placing seventh on the novice level. Wagner moved up to the junior level the following season, finishing fourth at the 2006 U.S. Nationals. After competing there, she was named to the U.S. team for the Triglav Trophy in Slovenia, which was her first major international competition. She made her Junior Grand Prix debut in the 2006-07 season, earning a silver medal. She later won a bronze at the 2007 U.S. Nationals, her first top-three finish at the national championships. She continued entering competitions in the subsequent years before reaching a personal milestone at the 2012 U.S. Nationals - winning her first national title with a first-place finish in the free program. She finished in fourth overall at the World Championships later that year. Wagner achieved her childhood dream when she was named to the U.S. women's figure skating team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, where she was part of the team that took home the bronze medal. She continued to find success in competitions after the 2014 Games, including earning a silver at the 2016 World Championships in Boston, becoming the first American woman to medal at the event in a decade. In 2017 she secured a spot in her second Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February 2018.