Jim Craig: I was one of eight kids, and all winter long we were on the pond behind our house, playing hockey. I was about 12 when one of my Little League coaches suggested I join a team. That's ancient these days, but at that time 12 wasn't so old to be starting in a league.

M: Once you made the Olympic team, did you guys think you had a chance to win?

JC: We went into the games as definite underdogs. In fact, there were some guys who would have made the team but didn't even try out because they figured it was a lost cause, and they didn't want to be associated with a losing team. We didn't realize how good we were.

M: So what was the lure for you to join the team?

JC: The time was right, the place was right and the Olympic Games had always been a dream of mine. It offered a chance to get the best coaching, and would give me an opportunity to compete with the best athletes in the world.

M: In the aftermath of September 11, do you look to the Salt Lake City games as a place where the national psyche can again be lifted?

JC: For as long as the Olympic Games have been played, the world has stopped for the games. Fighting stops, truces are called and for two weeks it doesn't matter what your race, color or creed is -- you stop and watch the best athletes in the world compete.

M: A week after the Olympic Games, you were playing for the Atlanta Flames in the NHL. How tough was the transition?

JC: It would be like being a pub singer one day, and the New Kids on the Block the next. No one could be prepared for something like that. My first night in the pros, I did a live Coke commercial at the arena. Every day in every city, I did four or five hours of interviews with the local media. And the sport was different then; there were really no Americans in the league. I had all this attention before I even proved myself in the arena. It was culture shock. In retrospect, I'd do things much differently.

M: How?

JC: I had an agent who was as inexperienced as I was. I hired him when I thought I'd need him to just OK contracts. I got a more experienced agent who was able to sort through all the offers from Hollywood, TV producers, book agents, even the Indy 500 wanted me to be the grand marshal. I slowed things down.

M: After three seasons in the NHL, you suffered a career-ending hamstring tear. How did you make the transition to the work world?

JC: The hardest part was not having summers off. And suddenly the focus isn't on the physical, but on the mental. But sports for me were always just a way to get to college and make friends. I always looked past athletics to the day I'd have a job and a family to go home to. I just loved to compete, and in that sense I still compete everyday. I compete for orders; I compete for sales awards. I never felt the need to play for the crowd.