Stars serve breakfast to champions

It was billed as a breakfast with the stars.

Two Olympians, figure skater Michelle Kwan and speedskater Derek Parra, donned red aprons Thursday morning in the breakfast room at the Hampton Inn in Downtown Boise.

Between posing for pictures and signing autograph books, Kwan and Parra made sure Special Olympians - most with medals, ribbons and scores of trading pins around their necks - got their fill of muffins and sports drinks.

John Kauffman, a coach of men's figure skating from Pennsylvania, clustered his athletes around Kwan for a photograph.

"This one's going on my office wall," he said, before hurrying the team off to Qwest Arena for another day of competition.

April Horncastle, 36, from New York, was thrilled to meet one of her childhood heroes.

"When I was younger, I used to see Michelle Kwan and Nancy Kerrigan. They were my idols. I wanted to be just like them," said Horncastle, who earned a sixth-place ribbon Wednesday in figure skating.

Horncastle wasn't wearing her ribbon, which included a white medal. She said she was worried it might get confiscated at the Qwest Arena, where security was tightened Thursday for Vice President Joe Biden's visit.

"Nobody is touching my medals," she said. She had it stashed upstairs in her room.

While spending the morning with Kwan and Parra was clearly a big deal to the athletes, it also was clear that most of the athletes felt like they'd captured a bit of stardom for themselves.

And they wanted to share it.

Before reaching over and giving hugs to the two women beside her - total strangers - figure skater Sonia Bellile, 42, from Iowa, said that the gold medal around her neck was heavy but not in a way she minded.

Michael Padgett, 60, aka the "Iceman" of Minnesota, profiled earlier this week in the Idaho Statesman, was showing off the gold he won in figure skating.

"I'm not as famous as Michelle Kwan. But when I get back to Brainerd, there's going to be a big celebration for me," the Iceman said.

Peter Dailey, 23, a figure skater from New York, earned a bronze medal. He had already had a busy morning - doing a live call-in to his hometown radio station.

"I'm a huge fan of country music. Everybody at that radio station knows me," Dailey said.

True to his word, Dailey skated to Charlie Daniels' "Devil Went Down to Georgia."

He triumphed through the high-energy program, even though one of his skates came untied during his routine.

Not unlike the Iceman, he kept his cool.

"I knew I had one chance to pull it off, and I did," Dailey said.

Teams from Iceland, Korea, Austria and Romania also stayed at the Hampton Inn, which got the reputation as one of the livelier breakfast spots in town.

Kwan and Parra were at the hotel as part of the Special Olympics "May I Serve You" program, which brings celebrities to serve breakfast to Special Olympics athletes.

Skaters Kristy Yamaguchi and Scott Hamilton also served breakfast shifts at the hotel earlier in the week.

Anna Webb 377-6431;Katy Moeller: 377-6418