NEWARK, Del. - Ukrainian Ice Dancer Irina Romanova has been to the Olympics as both an athlete and a coach. She competed for Ukraine with ice dance partner Igor Yaroshenko at the Olympic Games in 1994 in Norway and 1998 in Japan.
"I was really excited to see all of the technologies and the artistic qualities that go into preparations for the Olympics," Romanova says.
Romanova says learning how to manage the pressure is one of biggest lessons an Olympian can learn.
"Everyone is watching," Romanova says. "The audience you reach when you are on Olympic ice puts an enormous pressure on an athlete."
The hours she once spent on the ice training to be an Olympian translates today into the time she spends preparing to choreograph her students programs.
She returned to the Olympic stage in 2014, this time as a coach, when one of her students made it to Sochi to represent Austria in mens figure skating.
Romanova works with skaters of a variety of levels. She actually choreographed some of my routines too, but despite all of that time on frozen water, Romanova says she hates being cold.
"I don't know how, but I ended up being cold all the time," she says.
Romanova says the sport teaches skaters amazing responsibilities.
"There's so much that goes into training and preparing and just overall behavior and responsibilities to combine school and all other activities into one thing," Romanova says. "Even trying to qualify is such a huge achievement."
Romanova and Yaroshenko are married and have a son, who used to skate but traded blades for golf clubs to take up a sport that's now at the Summer Olympics instead.