Q&a With Daria Gordeeva-grinkova:

A: My little sister loves it though. She really has heart for it. She's like the hardest worker ever. She's really stubborn with coaches and stuff, but she's a really hard worker. She's 7 right now and she's doing better than what I did at 10. I'm really proud of her. I hope if she loves it, I hope she does it. But if she doesn't then I hope she makes a decision about it before it's too late.

Q: Do you feel like a rebel in your family now that you're not skating?

A: No. I feel typical. Everyone in my house is like super extraordinary. I'm like, "I go to high school. I do my homework. I don't figure skate anymore." I feel normal, I guess, which is nice.

Q: Do you have any memories of your father?

A: I do. Photographs. I have those. And what everyone tells me. They tell me that I'm identical to him and I do everything that he did and talk like he did and smile like him and just look like him. Photographs of him make me remember.

Q: When did people tell you that your father died?

A: I don't remember that much. I was 3. I was taken to a psychologist and the psychologist explained to me what happened. I was in Russia when he died and I just stayed there. They came back and the funeral was in Russia. This is all what I was told, but I really don't remember because I was 3.

Q: Growing up were there periods of sadness?

A: I neve been the type of person to be sad about it because that's not just my personality. I handle things pretty well. But obviously it's sad and obviously I didn't get the childhood that other people did. Obviously I'm disappointed in that but it's nothing I can change so I don't like to dwell on sadness, especially if it's something I can't change.

Q: What else are you into aside from lacrosse?

A: I like creating things. I'm a horrible artist, but I have good ideas that I want to put on paper. I want to take a ceramics class. I'm taking visual art right now. I'm just trying different things right now. Since I moved here it's been all about trying new things and discovering what I like to do. Before it was school, figure skating, home, sleep. Every single day it was the same thing over and over again. I got the chance to start over and start something new and try new things, which is really cool. That's the reason I stuck with quitting because I could've easily picked it up again. But I was happy that I got to start new things.

Q: So no regrets?