The figure-skating star who fell to earth
Promising ice skater Keri Blakinger became addicted to heroin as a teenager. After two years in prison, she retrained and is now a successful criminal justice reporter.
Keri Blakinger spent her childhood and teenage years training as an elite-level figure skater in the US while also studying hard and doing well at school. But at 17 her skating dreams ended abruptly and she found herself unable to cope. Without the rigid structure of her athletic life, she found herself homeless, addicted to heroin and doing sex work and spent two years in prison for drug possession. But she later went back to university, retrained and is now an investigative reporter focusing on justice for prisoners.
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com
Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producers: Rebecca Vincent and Emily Dicks
(Photo: Keri Blakinger. Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman)
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- Mon 25 Jul 2022 11:06GMT大象传媒 World Service
- Mon 25 Jul 2022 17:06GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
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- Tue 26 Jul 2022 02:06GMT大象传媒 World Service
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