The career — and life — of Olympic pairs figure skater Alexa Scimeca Knierim (center, waving) seemed doomed when she was stricken with a crippling sickness that triggered 12-hour vomiting fits every few days and had her slipping toward death’s door!
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Alexa's pain was so severe, that she couldn’t sleep, eat or even hold down sips of water, and her weight plunged to an anorexic-like 80 pounds. During the 2016 crisis, she saw 10 doctors and was repeatedly rushed to the emergency room before learning she had a rare stomach condition.
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“Had we not found the cause, it would have been fatal,” she revealed to a source for
The National ENQUIRER. She underwent three grueling abdominal surgeries within three months. All through the terrifying ordeal, her skating partner
Christopher Knierim, was by her side. They wed in June 2016. “Now we don’t take our lives for granted,” she says.
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Madison Hubbell plunged into a steamy romance with her Olympic Ice-Dancing partner Zach Donohue after they paired up in 2011 — but the two-year affair threatened to melt their careers!
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“We realized that to date and be with each other 24/7 with our particular personalities was just explosive,” the hottie confessed. “We weren’t able to keep our focus where it needed to be — on our on-ice partnership.” Now, they’ve rebounded, finding love with their training partners.
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Lansing, Mich., native Madison is shacking up with Spanish skater Adrian Diaz and Zach is with Diaz’s skating partner, Olivia Smart!
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Madison Chock spent six years in a drippy relationship with Lithuanian ice dancer Deividas Stagniunas before finding true love with her ice dancing partner, Evan Bates. Ironically, their first date — when she was 16 — bombed. They later teamed up in 2011 and went to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
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When Chock's relationship with Stagniunas ended, the pair became off-ice partners, too. “We’ve always had great chemistry,” says Madison. “Now it feels even more powerful.”
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Bradie Tennell, the surprise 2018 U.S. champion, was never expected to make the Olympic team after cracks in her spine nearly torpedoed her budding career!
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The U.S. Junior Champion at 15, with the Olympics then within her sights, the figure skater plunged into her training only to have hope fade when dangerous stress fractures suddenly began snaking through her back in 2015 and 2016.
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She missed six months of training as she was strapped tightly into brutal back braces and battled through grueling physical therapy before returning to the ice with a seemingly impossible timeline to make the U.S. team. “I couldn’t put into words how exciting it was,” said Bradie.
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Karen Chen is hiding torturous pain behind the dazzling smile she flashes on the ice, because the gritty Fremont, Calif., teen suffers from spondylolisthesis, which causes a lower vertebra in her spine to slip forward over the bone below!
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Karen revealed in the book she penned last year, "Finding the Edge: My Life on the Ice," that she loves battling her rivals for glory: “When I’m out on the ice, I am fearless, a quiet assassin.”
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Mirai Nagasu made history as the first U.S. women's figure skater to land a triple axel in Olympic history, but her Japanese immigrant parents wanted her to be a professional golfer!
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They had her playing daily as a tyke. But one rainy day, they took five-year-old Mirai to the skating rink and she fell in love with the sport. “My parents always tell me they would never have let me start if they had known how expensive and difficult figure skating is,” said the Arcadia, Calif., cutie.
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Maia Shibutani’s parents’ dream home turned into a horrible nightmare — because of skating!
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Maia's mom and dad were thrilled when they bought a Greenwich, Conn., home. But their happiness turned to heartbreak when they realized that Maia and her brother and ice-dancing partner Alex, needed to train in Colorado Springs if they were ever to have a shot at Olympic glory.
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The couple sadly sold their dream house and her father, Chris, then working at JP Morgan in Manhattan, commuted weekly for two years to see his family in Colorado. The sacrifice paid off as the Shib Sibs made it to the Games at PyeongChang.
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