Former U.S. figure skating champion Nicole Bobek was ordered to spend five years on probation for her role in a New Jersey methamphetamine ring, a sentence that she said would give her a chance to get her life back on track.

“Nothing but positive things can come out of this,” Bobek said outside the Jersey City courtroom where she was sentenced Monday. “It’s been a long 1 1/2 years. I’m looking to get back onto that ice.”

The 32-year-old pleaded guilty in June to a charge of conspiring to distribute crystal meth. She was among 28 people accused last year of running a network that allegedly distributed $10,000 worth of methamphetamine per week.  Bobek had been out on bail and living with her mother prior to her sentencing.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — When Tanith  
Belbin arrived at the Athletes Village on Friday
morning, after a harrowing journey that included
12 cancelled flights because of the snowstorm in
Philadelphia, fellow Olympian Johnny Weir doted
on her as if she were a princess.

Weir, a three-time U.S. men’s figure skating
champion, had aroma candles in her room and
Audrey Hepburn posters on the wall.

“He put away all my clothes in the closet,” Belbin
said with a laugh.

Belbin, the defending Olympic silver medalist in
ice dance with Ben Agosto, has one of the most
unusual rooming arrangements at the Winter
Games. She requested a single room — which
she received — but learned before departing for
Vancouver that a male figure skater would be her
suitemate: the eccentric and, as he would say,
highly fashionable, Johnny Weir.

As it turns out, Belbin said, the arrangement is
perfect because the two have been friends since
they were 15.

“We’ve kind of had the same time-line
progression,” Belbin said of their figure skating
careers. “We’ve always stayed really close. He
used to come visit me in Detroit.

“He’s been a close part of our family.”

Belbin and Agosto trained in Michigan for 10
years before leaving for Aston, Pa., for new
coaches in the spring of 2008.

Belbin, born in Canada, holds dual citizenship.
She became a U.S. citizen in December 2005,
shortly before competing at the 2006 Torino
Winter Games.

The three U.S. Olympic ice dance teams met with
the media Friday. Two-time American champions
Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and U.S. bronze
medalists Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates of the
Ann Arbor FSC practiced on the Olympic ice in
the morning at the Pacific Coliseum.

“We had our first practice — skated on official
ice — but we haven’t got in our official rooms,”
Bates said.

1    Rachel Flatt
2    Mirai Nagasu
3    Ashley Wagner
4    Sasha Cohen
5    Christina Gao
6    Beatrisa Liang
7    Amanda Dobbs
8    Alexe Gilles
9    Emily Hughes
10  Alissa Czisny
11  Caroline Zhang

Sasha Cohen

Sasha Cohen on the Ice

 See also: http://www.historyguy.com/sportshistory/cohen_sasha.htm

Tanith Belbin

Tanith Belbin, of the skating team of Belbin and Agosto.

American male figure skater Adam Rippon won the bronze medal Saturday at the Trophee Eric Bompard arena in Paris, France. Rippon placed third in the short program and the free skate to win his first Grand Prix medal. Nobunari Oda of Japan took the gold, while Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic won the silver medal.

Gold Medalist Kim Yu-Na

Nicole Bobek Spins On The Ice

Nicole Bobek, the 1995 U.S. Figure Skating Champion, is now living in Jupiter, Florida with her mother, working in a store selling fancy soaps and trinkets to tourists.  Jana, her mother, who was herself a figure skater in her native Czechoslovakia, owns the store, called Belle Maison. The store is in a strip mall in this south Florida town not far from Palm Beach.

Bobek is free on $100,000 bail, (posted by her mother), and is waiting to find out what the prosecution’s next move is going to be.  She spends her time working in her mom’s store, which was opened with Nicole’s skating money back in her glory days.  According to the story written by an ESPN reporter, Nicole is once more blonde, and appears cheerful and friendly, as her fans would remember her.  But her face still contains the pockmarks that shocked the world in her mug shot photo after her arrest for alleged involvement in a meth distribution ring.  Bobek cannot speak about the legal case on the advice of her attorney.

In August, 2009, authorities announced the arrest of four more people associated with the meth ring Bobek is alleged to be involved in.  These arrests bring to 20 the number of people arrested to this point in the Bobek meth ring case.

Links:

New arrests linked to meth ring–NJ.com, August 20, 2009

Nicole Bobek: Falling through ice: The trials, tribulations and allegedly felonious behavior of a former figure skating star–ESPN.com. August 11, 2009

What’s next for Nicole Bobek?–by Jackie Wong, Figure Skating Examiner, August 17, 2009