Rachael Flatt selects Stanford University

http://figureskatersonline.com/news/2010/04/28/rachael-flatt-selects-stanford-university/

Rachael Flatt is the real deal when it comes to student athletes. The 2010 U.S. Champion will enter Stanford University in fall 2011, a year after graduating Summa Cum Laude from Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“I am looking forward to taking advantage of the many opportunities Stanford has to offer,” Flatt said. “I am very fortunate to have had some excellent choices of universities to attend but I feel that Stanford offers the best programs for me in an environment that will allow me to continue my development as a figure skater.”

Flatt, who placed seventh at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, was also considering Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., where World Junior Championship competitor Katrina Hacker studies, but finally selected Stanford. No elite skaters currently attend Stanford but elite training facilities are located in near by areas including San Jose, host of the 2012 U.S. Championships.

Olympic bronze medalist Debi Thomas is among the notable Stanford alumni. Other world class athletes who have attended the school include golfer Tiger Woods, swimmers Jenny Thompson, Summer Sanders and Pablo Morales, tennis players John McEnroe, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan and water polo players Tony Azevedo and Brenda Villa. Olympic gold and silver medalist softball player Jessica Mendoza, also the president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, was also a Cardinal.

A straight-A student who maintained a heavy course load of Advanced Placement classes, Flatt applied to nine schools: Dartmouth, University of Denver, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA and Yale. She was accepted to all but Harvard, which put her on the wait list, and Duke.

Flatt is a member of U.S. Figure Skating Scholastic Honors Team, based on her success at Cheyenne Mountain, which honored her with the 2008 Athletic Excellence Award. Following her skating career, she is interested in pursuing the sciences — possibly biomechanical engineering, medical school and orthopedics.