Two years ago, A.J. Mleczko faced a choice: skip two years of school to train for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics or enter her senior year at Harvard.

Mleczko--whose initials stand for Allison Jaime--took door number one, and now she is back with a gold medal in tow.

Mleczko, 23, is a co-captain of the women's hockey team, and she is already Harvard's career leader in goals and points. Still, she was taking a risk, because a spot on the team was not guaranteed.

"It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life," she says. "That summer, I had no intention of taking time off. I thought, `Yeah, I have just one year to finish up.' I was in such turmoil for a week, and literally the day we registered at Harvard, I went up and I withdrew."

She was one of 54 invitees to a week of games at Lake Placid, and she made the 25-player touring team. The final cut to 20 came December 20, and her plane ticket to Nagano was confirmed.

"In retrospect, it seems like such a silly stress that I had because it was so well worth it," Mleczko says. "I walked with my class at graduation, and I was around the Boston area, so I was around for a lot of senior activities. Now, I get to come back and prolong the college experience."

Everything worked out for Mleczko, who had two assists and two goals in the Olympics. The U.S. team went 6-0, including a 3-1 win over Canada in the finals to win the first-ever women's hockey gold medal.

Mleczko was even a media favorite at the Olympics, or at least Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon's favorite. He described her as "the first left winger I've ever had a crush on."

"I do remember him, and he was always very nice," Mleczko says. "Some people did say we looked more feminine than they expected."

Well, there was one detail--she and four other team members with college eligibility were not allowed to pose for the Wheaties box.

Although she said not being on the box was disappointing, Mleczko said three things about the Games really stood out.

"The opening ceremonies was the point where we thought, `Wow, we've really made it," she says. "That's when I thought I had made my dream--I didn't even think of winning a gold medal."

She also said that the Olympic Village, where all the athletes lived, was incredible. Just being in the dining hall and seeing all the great athletes was memorable, she says--especially when Wayne Gretzky came by to say hi.

"And, of course, there was winning the gold medal," she says. "There were so many of us, we did it right after the game without a podium. We all stood in a line, and they gave us our medals. I've never felt so patriotic in my life. Everybody on our team cried."

Mleczko traveled a long path from her birthplace in Nantucket to center ice at Nagano. She began skating at the rink near her home in New Canaan, Conn., at age two.