The exhiliration of the Olympic Games really hit Paul Wylie in February 1988 when he skated out onto the ice during the United States Figure Skating team's first practice in the Calgary Saddledome.

Wylie had skated competitively for over a decade, but no amount of preparation could have gotten him ready for such a moment. The 20,000-seat Saddledome was by far the largest arena that the then-Harvard junior had ever skated in. As Wylie bent down his head at center ice to form the starting position of his routine, he saw the familiar pattern of colored Olympic rings embedded in the ice.

"It was both exhilarating and petrifying at the same time," Wiley said.

Just a few days later, Wylie-- one of only three male figure skaters to represent the United States in individual competition in Calgary--skated in front of a television audience of 500 million to a tenth-place finish at the Olympic Games.

Even at Harvard, where such excellence on an international level can seem normal at times, Wylie skated an extremely unlikely path. While Harvard does enable hockey players and swimmers to cultivate Olympic-level talent through the channels of varsity competition, it affords no such opportunity to figure skaters.

Figure skating is a sport which demands a rigorous, regimented practice schedule--not something that can easily be balanced with the demands of Harvard academics. In addition, the healthy mental attitude necessary to match the intensity of this sport would seem easily thwarted by the stress which most Harvard students know all too well.

But Wylie seems to have struck a perfect balance--a symbiosis of sorts--between a Harvard education and prominence in figure skating to the mutual benefit of both strenuous disciplines. After a two-year hiatus between high school and college, Wylie made the decision to matriculate in Cambridge in 1986.

"I really found out I wanted to get back to school," Wylie says. "I felt that I'd be better off if I had this other part of my life. My results have proven that."

Wylie's long list of impressive accomplishments begins in 1981, when he was named Junior World Champion, denoting him as the best under-16 figure skater in the world. During his Harvard tenure, Wylie has twice been a silver medalist at nationals (1988, 1990), twice a bronze medalist (1989, 1991), and a three-time member of the United States World team (1988, 1990, 1991).

But of his many achievements, the Olympic experience was by far the sweetest. Wylie's somewhat unexpected naming to the U.S. squad satisfied a lifelong desire to participate in the prestigious competition.

"That has been my dream since I was a kid," Wylie says. "It was one of those things that I didn't think I could live with myself if I didn't get it. That was a very scary feeling."

The Harvard Obstacle

In the world of American competitive figure skating, the decision to attend college was a decision that really only Wylie and women's Olympic medalist Debi Thomas--who is an under-graduate at Stanford--have made.

"I didn't come to Harvard to become a professional figure skater," he continues. "I came to Harvard to extend my opportunities beyond skating."

It has not been easy to maintain the discipline of figure skating in the atmosphere of Cambridge. The constant interruptions of training and travelling to competitions has forced Wiley to take nine regular semesters and three summer school sessions to achieve his diploma. At twenty-six, he is old relative to a typical undergraduate.