Enlarge By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY J. Paul Binnebose holds his son Ethan, 1. He fell during a training session and sustained a fractured skull that required emergency brain surgery.

Binnebose and pairs skating partner Laura Handy won the bronze medal in the U. S. Figure skating Championships that year and were on track to compete in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

During a training session at the University of Delaware, while lifting Handy, Binnebose suffered a back spasm. They fell, and Binnebose's head slammed on the ice.

"I suffered some serious deceleration trauma which resulted in a subdural hematoma of my right frontal lobe," Binnebose said last week. The back of his skull was fractured and his brain had slammed into the front of his skull, causing bleeding.

Binnebose had emergency brain surgery and doctors put him into a drug-induced coma to allow his brain to heal. Twice during his hospitalization, his heart stopped. Twice he was brought back from the brink of death.

When he emerged from the coma and subsequent stay in intensive care, his athletic body had shriveled. He had lost 50 pounds.

"After about two months worth of rehab and gaining weight, learning how to walk again, I finally stepped back on the ice," Binnebose said. "I was more steady on the ice than I was in my sneakers on the floor."

His competitive career was over. He continued to suffer facial paralysis and other effects of the injury. But he got back into skating, this time as teacher and coach.

He moved to Los Angeles but returned to Delaware to care for his mother who was dying of cancer. There he married his wife Lisa, a fellow skater who had been on the ice when he fell. They have a one-year-old son, Ethan.

The Binneboses now live in Denver where both are teaching skating and Lisa works in a hospital. Paul works with children teaching classes and giving individual lessons.

"Kids are very impressionable, and for me to be involved with them at this point, I'm just totally excited because I feel like I've got so many positives to bring and offer these kids," Binnebose said.