A highly successful return to professional ice skating after a 16-year hiatus is not something Deanna Stellato ever envisioned. “It’s definitely not something I thought I would do,” says Stellato, 35, who with her skating partner Nathan Bartholomay earned a U.S. bronze medal last year.

Stellato, a native of Illinois, competed as a junior until the 2000-2001 season. She had suffered multiple injuries and was having a hard time recovering from her last one, so she decided that if she couldn’t make the 2002 Olympics, she might as well retire and “be a normal person,” she explains.