My parents came from Russia and suddenly they wound up in Boston Massachusetts Brookline Massachusetts and they felt the sun rose and set on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's backside because he meant so much to them. This was freedom. This was something totally different from the Russia they had left.
Although in skating you compete with other people anyone who achieves a certain level of success is first and foremost competing against themselves. And for me the idea that I could always do better learn more learn faster is something that came from skating. But I carried that with me for the rest of my life.