From Figure Skating Champ to Alleged Meth Dealer

Nicole Bobek was never as fresh faced as she appeared to be.

By KURT HELIN

Updated 6:00 PM PST, Mon, Jul 6, 2009

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Nicole Bobek — the former US Figure Skating Champion, Olympian and bronze medalist at the World Figure Skating Championships — has fallen farther than she ever did on the ice.

Arrested in connection with a huge methamphetamines ring, she spent Monday in a New Jersey prison, watching courtroom proceedings on closed circuit television.

"She played a significant role in this operation," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said of the probe that took down a methamphetamine ring and resulted in more than a dozen arrests, including Bobek's. "She was actively involved in the upper echelon of this ring."

Bobek, 31, who has homes in Manhattan and in Jupiter, Fla., appeared in Central Judicial Processing Court via video link from the Hudson County jail in Kearny. She was arrested in Florida as a fugitive from justice based on the charged filed in Hudson County. Bobek did not fight extradition and was brought to New Jersey on Thursday by officers of the Hudson County Sheriffs office.

Bobek was the 1995 United States Figure Skating champion and placed third in the World Championships that year. Fans remember Bobek as the skater with the flowing blond hair who rose to national prominence in the sequined world of skating right after the Tonia Harding/Nancy Kerrigan nightmare.

Watching the court proceedings, Bobek looked nothing like that fresh-faced girl. She was wearing the dark-green jumper issued at the county jail, her hair was dark and cut in a bob.

She was never the glamorous “Barbie” she appeared to be on the ice. She smoked, drove all 11 of her coaches — she changed coaches like most of us changes pants — crazy with her erratic training schedule and efforts, plus she loved to wear a lot of jewelry while skating.

And her legal troubles go back farther than her Olympic experience (where she finished a disappointing 17th in 1998). In 1994 she was arrested for using a friends access code to sneak into the home and try to steal money and a purse. She served community service for that, but she was a minor at the time so details are not public.

This time, her fall is very public.