In 1995 she was the skinny little skater who the Salt Lake bid committee called their "secret weapon," the kid who would win the International Olympic Committee's heart.
Chosen from hundreds of local athletes, 10-year-old Cynthia Ruiz was flown to Budapest to make a heartfelt pitch for the 2002 Winter Games. She had a plan, she said: If the Olympics came to Salt Lake in 2002, she would skate for the gold.
But in the seven years since that heady day in Budapest when Salt Lake won the Games ? and she and Picabo Street danced on a table till it broke ? Ruiz has learned that sometimes you have to have a back-up plan.
Back pain has sidelined the enthusiastic skater off and on since she was 13. Forced off the ice for 18 months at a stretch, she has made comeback after comeback. Finally, last fall, she had to admit that she really wasn't going to compete in the Olympics in her hometown after all.
But there are other ways to be in the Olympics. Friday night, Ruiz performed in the opening ceremonies, one of several skaters who dazzled the world with skates that seemed to shoot off their own fireworks.
Ruiz's back hurt during the ceremonies ? it just about always does when she skates these days, especially in the cold ? but she has learned to skate through the pain.
It was never one spectacular fall that changed her life. Instead the combination of a weak back and years of twisting and jumping resulted in stress fractures that will never heal. In the beginning, Ruiz says, she just "worked through it," but one day when she was 13, arriving at Bountiful ice rink, she discovered she couldn't even get out of the car.
After 18 months of physical therapy and trips to a chiropractor, Ruiz was back on the ice, pushing herself as hard as ever. Then, when she was 15, at a major competition in California, she finished a routine, curtseyed, stepped off the ice and collapsed. It felt, she says, as if her entire body had lost all sensation.
She has skated off and on since then, always with her eye on 2002. But last fall, she says, she had to face facts. The Olympics would definitely have to go on without her.
That's when she got a second chance: A call from the Mexican Olympic Committee asking her to compete on their team.
"It was a dream come true," Ruiz says. "I told myself, I can do this. I can get past this injury. It took me a week to give up on that one." She would just watch the Olympics on TV after all.
And then she got a call from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee inviting her to audition for the opening ceremonies. It wasn't exactly how she had planned to skate in the Olympics, says Ruiz, but it has been "incredible," anyway.
She is learning, she says, how to push herself less. Just barely 17 and already graduated from Taylorsville High, she has decided to wait a year before entering college. Eventually she plans to go to law school. In her spare time she'll skate.
She'll train more slowly this time, she says, taking "little steps" until she's strong enough. "I don't think any athlete gives up on the dream," she explains. "I'm definitely hoping for 2006."
E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com