EULESS – Ashley Cain is just a tad superstitious.

So at 11:11 each morning, she stops skating and races to the side of the ice rink, where she touches something red, closes her eyes and makes a wish.

"Hopefully, one day, I'll make it to the Olympics," the 14-year-old tells herself.

Tonight, as the world's top figure skaters take to the ice in Vancouver, Canada, up-and-coming skaters like Ashley have their eyes on Sochi, Russia, home of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

But it's a long, treacherous trek to that medal podium, requiring loads of time, patience, dedication – and money.

The journey starts when little boys and girls take their first shaky steps on skating rinks.

With enough skill, and a bit of luck, they'll perform well during years of competitions – and perhaps earn a spot on the Olympic squad.

Dallas-Fort Worth, already an Olympic gymnastics epicenter, is home to a growing number of ice skaters with Olympic ambitions, including Ashley, who lives in Coppell.

She performed well at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships last month, finishing second in the novice ladies division and first in the novice pairs competition with 20-year-old Joshua Reagan of DeSoto.

Ashley has wanted to be an Olympian since she was a child.

"Being able to be there and represent your country, it would be amazing," she said.

She shivers on the chilly ice rink six days a week, practicing several hours a day.

The intense schedule meant she had to withdraw from school. Now, she's home-schooled. She studied algebra during breaks at last month's championships.

Ashley sacrifices her time – and the life of a typical teenager – in order to skate competitively, but she says it's worth it. She gets to travel and meet people.

Reagan gave up playing football to avoid getting hurt.

"You give up a lot, but you gain a lot," Ashley said.

"It's starting to pay off," Reagan said.

The ice is in the Cain family's blood. Both her parents grew up skating – and, today, they coach her. Her dad, Peter, represented Australia in figure skating pairs in the 1980 Winter Olympics. Her mom, Darlene, was an ice dancer in Canada.

The Cains started coaching in North Texas in 1990, when the skating scene was small. The 1993 arrival of the NHL's Dallas Stars changed things, resulting in ice rinks opening across the area. Skaters soon came rushing in.

Ashley started skating as a 2-year-old, wearing dull blades tied to her boots as she moved across an icy pond.

"Skating means my whole life," Ashley said. "I could not see myself not skating. After my competitive career is done, I'm going to think: 'Oh, my gosh. What am I going to do?' "

Earlier this week, Ashley and Reagan took to the ice for a morning practice. He held her hand as she spun in a so-called death spiral, hovering inches above the ice.

Then they danced across the rink, their blades running crisply through the ice, and, with one hand, he quickly lifted her above his head. She turned and lifted one of her arms into the air. Ashley started getting thrown into the air five years ago.

"You get to see the world up there," she said, as her father brushed ice dust from her ponytail.

Ashley and Reagan are hard on themselves when they don't do something right. She will display a deep wrinkle above her nose, while he lets out caveman-like grunts. During practice, the duo practiced a double axel, both spinning 2 ½ times in the air. But they didn't land at the same time.

"I landed flat-footed – wonky," Ashley said.

They tried again. She held her feet and arms closer to her body, resulting in a tighter spin – and a better landing.

"That one felt better," she said.

Sometimes, there are spills. During a recent practice, a maneuver sent them flying into the wall. Reagan suffered from a headache the rest of the day.

Reagan says the pain on the skating rink is "10 times worse" than playing football.

To do well on the ice, you need to be willing to accept mistakes, he said. You also need to be tough.

That toughness was put to the test in the weeks before the national championships, when Reagan pulled his groin.

"We didn't want this whole year to be for nothing," he said.

He couldn't jump or spin for a while, so instead he focused on skating and choreography. The strategy paid off. The pair earned first place.

She cried. He was jubilant.

"We acted like idiots," he said.

Years of ice skating eats up a lot of time and money. Competitive skating – with the coaching, renting ice time, travel and equipment – can cost tens of thousands of dollars a year, "like sending your kid to private school," Peter Cain said.

But when your eyes are focused on the Olympic podium, none of the sacrifices seems to matter. And now, with the Winter Games in the spotlight, Ashley says she's inspired to work harder.

She's seen many of these athletes in person, even training alongside some of them.

And she's heard about the Olympics from her dad.

"I was awestruck," Peter Cain said of competing in the Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. "I looked at the audience and said, 'Wow. This really is it.' "

Someday soon, Ashley hopes to share her own Olympic stories. And Reagan wants to wear the Team USA jacket.

But what if, for some reason, they don't make the team in 2014?

Ashley smiles. Without hesitating, she declares:

"We'll go for 2018."

Figure skating is a fun sport for kids, with many rewards, including valuable lessons in hard work, persistence and sportsmanship.

However, those life lessons don't come cheap. Once a child is beyond basic learn-to-skate classes, which might cost $100 for eight or 10 sessions, the expense curve takes a sharp upward turn. Some of the bigger expenses:

Coaching: Private lessons, ranging from $65 to more than $100 per hour, are needed as soon as a child gets on the competitive track.

Ice time: Time on the ice runs about $12 per hour in the Dallas area.

Off-ice instruction: Most skaters get off-ice instruction in jumps and conditioning that can cost $15 or $20 per session.

Equipment: You won't find figure skates at your local sporting goods store. A pair of new competition boots and skate blades can easily approach $1,000. Competition dresses are often custom-made and cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Competition fees: During each season, young skaters will participate in a handful of competitions. Entry fees usually are $100 to $200 each.

Travel: Skaters just two or three years into the sport will begin traveling to competitions across the region to polish their skills. The circuit for local skaters includes competitions in Houston, Austin and Colorado Springs, among other locations.

SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research