A day after she was given five years' probation for her role in a meth distribution ring, former figure skating champion Nicole Bobek said she's ready to move on and get her life back together.
Appearing on the "Today Show" Tuesday from an ice rink in Lake Worth, Bobek said her arrest and court ordeal over the past year will give her a second chance to turn her life around.
"I've been given this opportunity to make a change and also prove to myself that I can come out of this hole I've dug myself into," she said.
The 32-year-old was sentenced Monday in New Jersey to probation and a $2,500 fine after pleading guilty in June to charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
Bobek was one of 28 people charged in the organized ring that allegedly distributed as much as $10,000 worth of drugs per week. She had been facing as much as 10 years in prison.
She said the loss of her aunt and a coach helped her spiral into drug addiction.
"There was a time in my life where I went through a lot of loss...I am human and I think I made some bad choices, absolutely," Bobek said, adding that the pressures of performing in the Olympics didn't help either. "You are at the Olympics, you want to do the best that you can do. I worked very hard my whole entire life to get there."
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Bobek was the 1995 United States Figure Skating champion and placed third in the World Championships that same year. But in 1998, she finished 17th at the Olympic games at Nagano.
By 2009, she was caught up in the meth ring, her fall from grace made complete when the once blonde beauty was seen pale and with dark hair in her mug shot from last summer.
"It's very surreal. When I look at it now, I was in a complete haze, and you can see that," she said of the mug shot. "I was not under the influence when that picture was taken, but I was absolutely a different person."
Now Bobek, a native of Chicago who now lives in Jupiter, said she's thinking about returning to the ice, if it'll help others.
"Luckily I'm given this chance to make a difference and hopefully help others who suffer from addiction problems, do benefits, get back on the ice and continue with my treatment and do everything I need to do to change my life around," she said.
