One of the big surprises of the Special Olympics World Winter Games for April Horncastle came Thursday morning at breakfast.

The 36-year-old athlete from Rochester, N.Y., and other athletes on Team USA met Olympic gold-medal winning figure skater Michelle Kwan in the dining room of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Downtown Boise.

"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 in the Games.

Thursday morning, the U.S. athletes were chatting and chowing down fresh fruit, cereal, muffins, and biscuits and gravy when Kwan and Olympic gold-medal winning speed skater Derek Parra walked into the breakfast room.

No introduction was needed, as the Special Olympics athletes crowded around Kwan and Parra to talk and take pictures.

Horncastle grew up watching figure skaters such as Kwan, but she didn't get on the ice until about four years ago, she said. A friend who was an ice hockey player invited her to check it out.

She was an avid rollerskater, so she thought she could handle ice skating just fine.

"I said, 'Let me on the ice,' " she recalled Thursday.

Horncastle is an athlete who has participated in many other sports, including gymnastics, floor hockey and bowling. She loves to compete, but what really drew her in was the hugs, she said.

"Everybody would cheer you on, and they would be proud of you, no matter how you do. And they give you lots of hugs," she said.

Her family didn't travel out to Idaho from New York, but she's been giving them updates by phone each night, she said.

Horncastle wasn't wearing her medal around her neck, like so many other athletes. She said she was worried it might get confiscated at the Qwest Arena, where security was tightened in advance of Vice President Joe Biden's visit Thursday.

"Nobody is touching my medals. I didn't want to lose it," she said, adding that it was tucked away in a safe place upstairs.

Special Olympics ice skater Loretta Claiborne, who is from York, Penn., was looking forward to competing in ice dancing Thursday afternoon, though she admitted to being a little nervous.

"I just tell those butterflies in my stomach to go one way," she said.

The 55-year-old athlete, who earned a third-place medal in free-style figure skating, said she will perform the canasta tango during Thursday's ice dancing competition.

She's looking forward to learning new ice dances after the Special Olympics World Winter Games end Friday.

"I'm going to learn rhythm and blues next," she said.

Claiborne said what she'll remember about Boise is the beautiful mountains you can see from the Treasure Valley and the wonderfully supportive people she's seen and met at the Games.

"Everywhere you look, you see people with blue and white scarves," she said. "When we were coming here on the bus, people were honking at us. The people here are fantastic."

Katy Moeller: 377-6413